All three of my sons have drove me nuts today. My youngest, with the attention span of a fly, did everything but the things I told him he needed to do. I guess its my fault, because I should know better than to ask him to do anything when I am not right there to instruct, monitor and guide all along the way. He did manage to find time to talk to girls half the day on the telephone.
Second son joins everything he can possibly can, with our relationship being chauffeur and person being chauffeured. He thinks that because his activities are all at church, I should be happy and it should all be allowed. I am supposed to provide rides on Monday evenings, Wednesday afternoons and evenings, Thursday evenings, occasional Friday evenings, Saturday afternoons or evenings, and Sunday morning and afternoons. If I can't get him there, he will ride his bike, which should make me happy. However, the road to church is a major four lane thoroughfare, which crosses under a major toll road and the road where more pedestrians have been killed than any other street in Orlando. He comes home and tells me how he made the team for one more activity. Yippee............ arghhhhhhhh. I am happy for him, I just hate the thought of spending one more minute on that road going back and forth everyday. I should have been a cab driver.
The third son is the biggest PITA. He and his wife separated just before the holidays. I don't believe in divorce, but realize this was something doomed to happen from the beginning. I am not going to say anything about her, I will leave her to her mother, handling my son is enough. He is the epitome of immaturity. The father of four kids, yet he can't get off his butt and make a better life for those kids. He wants to, just doesn't have the wherewithall to get up off his rump and do something about it. He can come up with excuses just as quick as a five year old when they break something they weren't supposed to be touching. Tough love is such a hard thing to do. You don't want to see your kids or your grandkids go without. But giving them every penny you have doesn't change anything either, because they will lose, give away, or destroy anything you do give. If only he were 12 years old, I would go pick him up by the scruff of his shirt and beat his ass. There are so many guys his age (28-30) who can sit for hours and hours each day in front of the latest gimmick from Sony, any nintendo, play station, Wii, any game system in the world. Those things they can concentrate on. But leaving the house to apply for a better job, no way. They are crippled. Cleaning up their apartment? Well they can pick up all the empty drink cans and throw them into a trash bag in the corner, and wipe the food off the TV stand and get rid of all the pizza boxes, but they can't make their beds or wash their bathtubs out. While they can afford the games that cost a few hundred bucks, they will not splurge on an iron and ironing board, heaven forbid. My grandkids aren't into reading books, but they can beat all of their aunts and uncles in any mario brothers games. I don't think my son has any higher aspirations than working as a waiter at Red Lobster. After all, he doesn't need to own a house. He doesn't care if they never have real furniture-heck, all you need is a mattress on the floor in front of the TV/game system. He's not into the finer things like a real set of dishes for four people, or bath towels that don't have holes all through them. Who needs a washer and dryer? You can wait until get you get 20 loads, and then run to the laundromat and do it all together, just once a month. Kids don't really need socks, they can just wear sandals, after all, they live in Texas. You barely need even sandals out there most of the year. If they actually went outside they would need them to protect their feet from the heat of the pavement, but no, the kids don't like going outside. When they lived here, my oldest granddaughter became hysterical when I made her walk around the block with us. She was sure a big dog was going to come and get her.
Thank goodness my daughter and her wonderful husband are not the same way. Their daughter is as normal as I am (hehehehe). She already loves to be read to, and I am sure will read on her own soon (and will learn to say, "I know thats not my Nana, Mama, it's a banana"). She loves going to the park to play with other kids, climb monkey bars, and to go see the animals at the zoo. I don't think she will be owning any electronic games anytime soon, if ever. They had a really nice set of furniture before I ever did. Their house is generally cleaner than mine (although, these days, Mama may be a little busier with someone little to run around behind). There is no way their daughter would ever be running around with no clean clothes available.
I guess it all averages out, the kids who drive you crazy with the kids who put a smile on your face. God surely has a keen sense of humor and knows how to make one chuckle :)
Some of my favorite quotes about children/parenting:
It would seem that something which means poverty, disorder and violence every single day should be avoided entirely, but the desire to beget children is a natural urge. ~Phyllis Diller
You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back. ~William D. Tammeus
It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn't. ~Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams
The beauty of "spacing" children many years apart lies in the fact that parents have time to learn the mistakes that were made with the older ones - which permits them to make exactly the opposite mistakes with the younger ones. ~Sydney J. Harris
Sing out loud in the car even, or especially, if it embarrasses your children. ~Marilyn Penland
You will always be your child's favorite toy. ~Vicki Lansky, Trouble-Free Travel with Children, 1991
There may be some doubt as to who are the best people to have charge of children, but there can be no doubt that parents are the worst. ~George Bernard Shaw
Now the thing about having a baby - and I can't be the first person to have noticed this - is that thereafter you have it. ~Jean Kerr
Labor Day is a glorious holiday because your child will be going back to school the next day. It would have been called Independence Day, but that name was already taken. ~Bill Dodds
Parents are not interested in justice; they are interested in quiet. ~Bill Cosby
If your kids are giving you a headache, follow the directions on the aspirin bottle, especially the part that says "keep away from children." ~Susan Savannah
Second son joins everything he can possibly can, with our relationship being chauffeur and person being chauffeured. He thinks that because his activities are all at church, I should be happy and it should all be allowed. I am supposed to provide rides on Monday evenings, Wednesday afternoons and evenings, Thursday evenings, occasional Friday evenings, Saturday afternoons or evenings, and Sunday morning and afternoons. If I can't get him there, he will ride his bike, which should make me happy. However, the road to church is a major four lane thoroughfare, which crosses under a major toll road and the road where more pedestrians have been killed than any other street in Orlando. He comes home and tells me how he made the team for one more activity. Yippee............ arghhhhhhhh. I am happy for him, I just hate the thought of spending one more minute on that road going back and forth everyday. I should have been a cab driver.
The third son is the biggest PITA. He and his wife separated just before the holidays. I don't believe in divorce, but realize this was something doomed to happen from the beginning. I am not going to say anything about her, I will leave her to her mother, handling my son is enough. He is the epitome of immaturity. The father of four kids, yet he can't get off his butt and make a better life for those kids. He wants to, just doesn't have the wherewithall to get up off his rump and do something about it. He can come up with excuses just as quick as a five year old when they break something they weren't supposed to be touching. Tough love is such a hard thing to do. You don't want to see your kids or your grandkids go without. But giving them every penny you have doesn't change anything either, because they will lose, give away, or destroy anything you do give. If only he were 12 years old, I would go pick him up by the scruff of his shirt and beat his ass. There are so many guys his age (28-30) who can sit for hours and hours each day in front of the latest gimmick from Sony, any nintendo, play station, Wii, any game system in the world. Those things they can concentrate on. But leaving the house to apply for a better job, no way. They are crippled. Cleaning up their apartment? Well they can pick up all the empty drink cans and throw them into a trash bag in the corner, and wipe the food off the TV stand and get rid of all the pizza boxes, but they can't make their beds or wash their bathtubs out. While they can afford the games that cost a few hundred bucks, they will not splurge on an iron and ironing board, heaven forbid. My grandkids aren't into reading books, but they can beat all of their aunts and uncles in any mario brothers games. I don't think my son has any higher aspirations than working as a waiter at Red Lobster. After all, he doesn't need to own a house. He doesn't care if they never have real furniture-heck, all you need is a mattress on the floor in front of the TV/game system. He's not into the finer things like a real set of dishes for four people, or bath towels that don't have holes all through them. Who needs a washer and dryer? You can wait until get you get 20 loads, and then run to the laundromat and do it all together, just once a month. Kids don't really need socks, they can just wear sandals, after all, they live in Texas. You barely need even sandals out there most of the year. If they actually went outside they would need them to protect their feet from the heat of the pavement, but no, the kids don't like going outside. When they lived here, my oldest granddaughter became hysterical when I made her walk around the block with us. She was sure a big dog was going to come and get her.
Thank goodness my daughter and her wonderful husband are not the same way. Their daughter is as normal as I am (hehehehe). She already loves to be read to, and I am sure will read on her own soon (and will learn to say, "I know thats not my Nana, Mama, it's a banana"). She loves going to the park to play with other kids, climb monkey bars, and to go see the animals at the zoo. I don't think she will be owning any electronic games anytime soon, if ever. They had a really nice set of furniture before I ever did. Their house is generally cleaner than mine (although, these days, Mama may be a little busier with someone little to run around behind). There is no way their daughter would ever be running around with no clean clothes available.
I guess it all averages out, the kids who drive you crazy with the kids who put a smile on your face. God surely has a keen sense of humor and knows how to make one chuckle :)
Some of my favorite quotes about children/parenting:
It would seem that something which means poverty, disorder and violence every single day should be avoided entirely, but the desire to beget children is a natural urge. ~Phyllis Diller
You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back. ~William D. Tammeus
It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn't. ~Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams
The beauty of "spacing" children many years apart lies in the fact that parents have time to learn the mistakes that were made with the older ones - which permits them to make exactly the opposite mistakes with the younger ones. ~Sydney J. Harris
Sing out loud in the car even, or especially, if it embarrasses your children. ~Marilyn Penland
You will always be your child's favorite toy. ~Vicki Lansky, Trouble-Free Travel with Children, 1991
There may be some doubt as to who are the best people to have charge of children, but there can be no doubt that parents are the worst. ~George Bernard Shaw
Now the thing about having a baby - and I can't be the first person to have noticed this - is that thereafter you have it. ~Jean Kerr
Labor Day is a glorious holiday because your child will be going back to school the next day. It would have been called Independence Day, but that name was already taken. ~Bill Dodds
Parents are not interested in justice; they are interested in quiet. ~Bill Cosby
If your kids are giving you a headache, follow the directions on the aspirin bottle, especially the part that says "keep away from children." ~Susan Savannah
2 comments:
Had to laugh at those quotes. :) Yeah, my house is in a sad state today, but the hubby is as responsible as the child. If only they could be as OCD as me. ;)
New post please, and an update from me. We've seen that Sofie does have a streak of OCD running through her. I'll have to see if I can catch a pic or something.
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