| | This afternoon we went to a bowling alley birthday party. Heehee. It was actually pretty fun. That bowling alley has certainly gotten nicer in the 8 or so years since I was last there. My nieces turned 5 and 12. They're just so damn cute. The 5 yr old and Andrew are totally inseparable. She made him sit by her to eat cake and everything. The 12 year old is so mature for her age, it feels strange to call her 12. She's getting so tall and adult-seeming. She's so patient with her younger sister and cousins. She had some friends her own age (mostly) at the party, and although it was sort of split into "big kids" and "little people" both girls did a good job of socializing with everyone. The older girl was very attentive when the little one opened presents, and vice versa. I want to know their mom's secret. I heard the 12 yr old telling her friends who people were as they showed up. "Oh, that's my aunt so-and-so" or "that's my ..." It was just nice to see. I hear too much about "Kids Today" being so angry and hopeless. These kids (and really, the friends of the birthday girl) were all polite and attentive and I heard a lot of "thank you" and "so glad you could come."
Wednesday night, I sent out a big mean nag letter to all the grandmas and the one aunt. (Mom of above girls.) It basically said, "Dinner is at 5, bedtime is at 7:45, if you can't contain your activities with my kids to those times, then back off." I made a big point about getting homework done, because Nate did NOT get his homework done last year. I also made a stink about spending nights away and junk food. I didn't say "never" I just said "keep it to a minimum." 85% (heck over 95%) of it was aimed at just one grandmother. But this had to be done. For my sanity, for the entire household's sanity. For the future of both boy's schooling. If they don't start seeing the point in getting homework done before fun stuff NOW when they have so little, they certainly won't suddenly learn it when it has more effect on paper. The one grandma sent me a one line email that said, basically, "so none of my activities?" I emailed her back and asked if/how they could fit into our schedule, and that we'd figure it out. I do like Nate being in Karate. I think it's good for him. I like him taking music lessons. I just don't like him leaving from my house around 4, not doing his homework, and not getting home until after bedtime. That was my problem with all these activities. He's 7 for God's sake. He needs some time to watch the dandelions grow, watch the snowflakes fall: appreciate the slow parts of life. She's already getting him on the path of the Ultra Type-A person who never stops to enjoy life. So ... would he turn into that, or would he swing the absolute opposite way and shut down? Either way, she needs to back off and stop pushing him, and he needs some time to relax. Sheesh.
One thing the letter said, though, was that the every-other-weekend grandmother time would probably stay in place. I mentioned that to the grandma and aunt at the party and they both said "well I should hope so!" One because she enjoys the time with her grandkids (she takes my younger and her daughter's younger for 6-7 hours), and the other because she enjoys the time withOUT her kids. Heehee. Heck, the little people wouldn't put up with me stopping it, even if I wanted to!!
The bookstore's kicking my butt lately. I've been coming home and putting my feet up, and then hardly getting back onto them. You probably won't see updates from me much more often than weekly until, hm, the end of September.  |
| | Posted 8/8/2003 9:57 PM - 1 view - 0 comments
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