"The Mommy/Daddy Difference" and "The Lies We Tell our Children"

School (a "Mother's Day Out" program at our old church; two days a week) started the first Tuesday in September. Jack is in the "younger two's" class and has made the adjustment quite quickly. Yesterday when I dropped him off there were no tears, and only a little freak out because another kid was screaming her head off. Yeah, Jack. It's working out great: the kids get to be with other kids (not each other), new toys, and Mommy gets to be away for Mommy time. The only problem is at night: every night that it's my turn to put Jack to bed, I have to lie to him, sort of. I guess this is because he's being separated from me during the day...I dunno. But as I lay him down he asks, "Can you sit?" Which means, will you sit in here until I fall asleep? The first week, I was very obliging; I totally got that he didn't want to be left alone after spending the majority of the day away from me. But then when it continued for me (and he's NEVER asked Michael to "sit"), the answer that just flew out of my mouth: Mommy has to go to bed, too. Now he asks me, "Mommy, you go to bed now too?" It's that "now" word that is tripping me up. I am taking it to mean "after I go to bed" not "immediately".

Honestly though, why only ask me? Why not Michael, too? We trade off nights putting each kid down, so every other night he needs someone to sit??? Whassup wit dat???

The other Mommy/Daddy difference is with Samantha. Daddy does the "Super bunny hop" into bed, and it has been requested that I do it. WHAT?? Honestly, after all the fun things I do that he never gets requested to do... Anyway, I averted that one by saying I wasn't as strong as Daddy and couldn't do it as fun as he does.

Finally, after 4.5 years, she asked him last night at the supper table if he could do a "good prayer tonight, instead of a silly one." FINALLY! Mommy measures up! :) Just kidding!

A swimming update...
Jack is now going to swim class without crying and has done the "big slide" (by himself) every time they've offered it to him. Last week he even asked if he could do it again! Go Jackie Boy!

And Samantha! All I have to say is that you have to see it to believe it! She is amazingly fast and it getting so coordinated in the water. It's a beautiful site! She probably swam 4-5 laps today: freestyle and back stroke. They're also working on the butterfly and on breast stroke. I am WAY thinking that next summer she's going to be on (and love) swim team.

School update...
We've picked a school for Samantha to go to...now all we have to do is have her tested (I feel certain that she can pass any thing they throw at her, for heaven's sake she's reading already and their goal is that she be reading by the end of Kindergarten) and win the lottery (if there are more candidates that pass the test, than spots then they determine the winner by lottery). The process starts in November so we still have plenty of time.

We've checked out the school and it looks GREAT! Test scores are amazing, it is diverse and it's close to our house. When we mentioned it to a friend who's a teacher in a neighboring district, he raved about it for 5 minutes and said they moved into the neighborhood so that his kids could go to that school specifically.

Guess that's about it. Later taters!

A little rant...

There's this woman and her child that attend swim class at the same time as me and my kids. This is the third week that I have seen the mother do the most infuriating thing: give her kid TWO lollipops out of the basket (each kid is supposed to get one) because the kid screams and cries when she "tries" to give her one. Today the thing that made me most aggravated was that the mother looks around at all the rest of us (mothers who have kids with ONE pop) and starts asking what to do. One woman says, "Just don't give her another" and I say, "In my house if one isn't good enough, you don't get any." For about 10 seconds she takes the one lollipop away from her (which makes more crying...DUH), and then proceeds to ask the lifeguard to get her another pop so that she'll quit crying. HELLO?! Anyone home??? Why should your kid ever quit crying for two, if you're only going to give her what she wants? Is that your job in life, to give her whatever she wants, 'cause Life isn't always going to give her what she wants, and your job is to train her to survive Life away from you? Are you really giving her a fair shake?

AND what if we all gave our kids two pops? Swim club would then have to buy TWICE as many as they do now; not a big deal in the big scheme of life, but seriously, get a back bone, Lady.

And (hopefully the last thing), think outside the box, Lady! Don't force swim club to provide for your inability to make the rule stick: bring her a pop from your own house. And one way to break her of this is to leave the lollipop in the car and she gets it when she gets there. Truthfully I could go on, but the key was that she doesn't get told "No" at home, so why work on the lollipop issue if you aren't going to work on the whole balleywick?



p.s. Jack went to swim class by himself today and went down the big slide!!! (but I missed it because I was trying to get their other swim class scheduled, so so sad!) He did great as far as I could tell. I did hear some crying, but it was more fussing than screaming crying. Yeah Jack!