Play Date-Gate – the Great Debate!

Most days when I pick up Grace from day-care, I have to scrape off a half-dozen or so extra kids who want to come home with us. They then all ask simultaneously when can they come to Gracie’s house for a play date. I have to shake the last kid off my leg and make a run for it before another one suckers on.

I find the whole concept of a play date kinda weird. Especially as a working mom. I haven’t seen my kid all week, and on the weekend, I don’t feel super-great about sending her off to a friends house for an afternoon. I know SHE would probably rather be at a friends house playing, but I would rather her at home with us. I could invite her little friends over to our house, and I have done so countless times, but again, as a working mom, I have to pack a lot into the weekend (cleaning, making meals, etc etc). Sometimes holding court over a gaggle of five year olds doesn’t fit into the schedule (or jive with a possible hangover). And, there are also the personality types of the kids, some kids can be pretty high maintenance. I have them pretty much broken down by category:

1) The Klinger – this is the child who would rather be with me than my child, much to my child’s disgust.

2) The Big-Sister Wanna-Be’s – these are the girls who would rather hang out and nurture Edie (Grace’s little sister) than play with Grace.

3) The T.V. Watcher – these are the kids who would rather sit in the basement, glued to the idiot box, much to Grace’s chagrin.

4) The Idle Threat Kid: this is the kid who marches upstairs every two minutes threatening to go home if she doesn’t get the nicest Barbie, do the puzzle she wants to do, get to wear the prettiest princess dress etc. etc. This kid bugs me.

5) The Kid Who Isn’t Fed at Home: This is the kid who just wants to eat us out of house and home the whole time she is over. (I have a feeling I was a lot like this kid when I was little!)

6) The Bossy McBossy Kid: This is the kid who irks me the most. This is the kid who bosses me around in my own house (well, tries to). I have to establish my status as leader of the pack pretty quickly with these little wolverines.

I’m sure I’m missing a few other types, or I haven’t encountered them yet.

And what is play date etiquette? If Grace is invited one weekend, what is the turn around time for us to reciprocate?

Stole this from Carmen - I'm feeling particularly un-inspired today, so I thought if prompted I'd see what I could come up with:

Tomorrow: No extracurricular activities - yippee!

Feeling: A little cranky - mix a little PMS with a little 2 year old and dash of 5 year old at bedtime and that's the recipe for Crockpot Cranky.

Happy Because: Fresh snow is covering the ugly dirty snow.

Today I: woke up late ran to work took a cab to two meetings walked at lunch caught the bus home worked out picked up grace at school picked up her friend at his house picked up Edie at daycare and took them to karate drove to the mall while they were at karate to run some errands picked them up from karate drove thefriend home drove us home made dinner did puzzles did homework did colouring lost my shit at bedtime and am now blogging.

Laundry: Stuff to put away and stuff in the dryer. Not bad!

Something I know: I'm going out Thursday, Friday and Saturday night.

Currently reading: Paper Shadows by Wayson Choy - really good, but I suspect I've read it before.

Wanting: A glass of red wine (arrrrghh! Not til the weekend!)

Favorite gadget: digital camera.

Thankful that: Grace was only on her deathbed for one day.

Wondering why: I'm tired if I'm eating well, getting my 7.5 at night and excercising.

That was sooooo much easier than coming up with my own post! Maybe I'll just steal other people's questions from now on.

New BFF's

We broke up for a while, but we are getting back together. He doesn't mind if I see other people, he doesn't mind if I see other women(!). He's the only man who can tell me to push harder, faster, without getting a slap in the face. Even though he favours yellow spandex that shows off his package, I still can't help but find him endearing. He hurts me - I know that's wrong, but I always come back for more. I find him - inspiring. Billy Banks is my friend.

I was wary of Kathi - any woman with a terminal case of perkiness leaves me suspicious, but she has won me over with her promises of 20 minutes a day to a new me. She uses hot guys to motivate me, and she lets me get a drink of water when I tire. While I don't think I could go on a bender with Kathi Smith (I suspect she drinks pink beverages with little umbrellas in them) I can spend 20 minutes a day with her, and I have been, and I've gotta admit, I'm seeing some changes.

I wonder if they'll invite me to their birthday parties???

CATFIGHT!

I came across an article the other day about child psychology. I wasn't looking for information (I gave up on reading up about that stuff a long time ago - now we tend to just wing it!) Anyhooooo, this article mentioned that the absolute worst time to have another child is when your first is 3 years old. It goes on to say that a two year gap is ideal, because first born won't remember what life was like before baby #2 came along, and a 4+ year gap is good, because the first born is more mature to deal with new baby. Heh heh. Guess what the difference is between Grace and Edie? 3 years and 1 day. Perrrrfecccct. This could explain the balls out fighting that goes on in our household on most days. It explains when I jokingly (cough) made the remark that we had to get rid of one of our kids that Grace excitedly exclaime "Edie, right?"

It explains why almost two year Edie knows how to say "Chill out Gracie!".

Do any of you have sisters? Does it get better? Or should I just crack open the bottomless cabernet sauvignon now and sedate myself until they move out?

sigh.

Unfit parents.

A couple of nights in row now, Jo and I have been on the internet way past our bedtime. Surfing free porn? Nope. Online shopping? I wish. Catching up on blog reading? I forget what a blog is. Nope, we are desperately trying to revive our daughter's Webkin Clara, who is constantly ill, with an icepack on her head (hang over?) and a thermometer in her mouth. This upsets Grace to no end, she worries that Clara could die (they wouldn't be so mean, would they?) Meanwhile, Jo and I are pissed because we take it quite personally that we can't make a virtual pet get healthy again.....what does that say about us as parents of two little humans?

We excercise this thing; we buy it it's four food groups and then a special treat; we bought it a tutu and ballet shoes and the little shit still isn't happy! C'mon Ganz, what's the deal, what will it take to make Clara happy? Anyone else have this problem? Should we just let her cry it out?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We rang in the New Year with too much food and booze, and I even contemplated a cigarette (but didn’t in the end). I was chock full of resolutions for January 1st, but they have had to wait until today, January 2nd to kick into effect due to a hangover that involved my brain peeling away slowly from my skull. The hangover was intensified by the one billion games of Whack’a’Mole that the kids insisted I play with them and the bottle of Chanel that broke on my bathroom floor (Chanel is purty smelling, but not an entire bottle when you are hungover).

Anywhooo, resolutions, thus far:

1) Run Baby Run. I had a really good thing going up until the white stuff hit. I was running at least 3-4x a week. I don’t know how, why or when I stopped doing it, but I did. And I feel like shit. So, back to pounding the pavement I go.

2) Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Richard Steele. I have been reading complete drivel lately, By drivel, I mean Star and In Touch Magazine. I don’t think monitoring Lindsay’s sex addiction or Tara Reid’s weight loss is going to make me a better person, so I am hitting the books again. Currently reading “Helpless” by Barbara Gowdy. Please send me your suggestions to keep my brain alive and healthy.


3) No man in the world has more courage than the man who can stop after eating one peanut. ~Channing Pollock. I need the courage of “the man” . I have been eating like complete crap lately and therefore feeling like complete crap. Rather than approach this resolution as a diet, I would like to approach this as a lifestyle change.

4) As a child my family's menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it. ~Buddy Hackett. I resolve to become less of a short order cook my picky little eaters and see what they will eat if they are hungry enough.


5) The lullaby is the spell whereby the mother attempts to transform herself back from an ogre to a saint. James Fenton. Ah yes, I resolve to change the name of this blog from meanoldmommy to patient/nice/aging gracefullymommy.

6) The goal in marriage is not to think alike, but to think together. Robert C. Dodds. Yeah, more of what he said.


7) I think there is something, more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren't enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision. W. Clement Stone. Less dream-y, more work-y.

Inspired yet? Think I can do it?