Paradigm Shift

You know how when your kids are little, all they really want is for you to play with them? And a lot of the time you really just want to sit down and read a book, or watch TV or have a glass of wine, or whatever else floats your boat.  And there are times when you talk about this with other people - the fact that sometimes you just don't want to play another round of Chutes and Ladders, or color any more pages in that coloring book, or brush another Barbie's hair that isn't even real hair anyway.

Then, people with kids older than yours get a faraway look in their eyes and give you the ever popular speech to 'Enjoy yours kids now, because it all goes by so fast and before you know it, they no longer think playing with you is the coolest thing on the planet.'  And you're all 'Whatever, I just want two minutes to go to the bathroom by myself without someone barging in and asking me to put their Barbie's shoes back on or build them a house out of the four legos in their hand, one of which is that weird flat rectangle thing that's useful for exactly nothing."  I'm telling you though, those people with the kids older than yours - they know what they're talking about.

To this day, I stand by my pronouncement that one of my greatest days as a parent was the day when the kids could get up and fix themselves a bowl of cereal without waking me up.  Violet was an early riser who woke up by 6 AM.  Every. Single. Day. So, sleeping in until the sun made an appearance seemed like quite the luxury at the time.  The thing is though, that after they get old enough to fix that bowl of cereal and are a little independent and self sufficient, they just keep on growing and changing, and becoming people who really prefer to do things that don't involve spending time with you.

We passed that point of no return with 14 year old Violet quite some time ago.  Ever since she was about 13, she would much rather video chat and text with her friends than spend any significant quality time as a family.  Any suggestions of family time are met with sighs and eye rolls and pronouncements of 'I don't feel like it' or 'I don't really want to do that.'  And, if you get on your parental high horse and declare that WE are GOING to spend time as a family and YOU are GOING to like it, that results in whatever activity you were planning to do for fun being met with a sullen attitude and looks of 'OMG, I would rather be ANYWHERE but here, these people are lame.' Which means that exactly no one has any actual fun on your fun family outing.  Good times, that.  I thought that I had a little longer before 11 year old Lily joined the 'family time is officially lame' bandwagon.  Alas, it appears I was mistaken.  

Last night, Lily was cleaning her room and I told her that when she was done I would play a game with her.  There was a time that family game night ranked high on Lily's list of Fun Things To Do and any invitations to play a game were met with much enthusiasm.  Apparently, it isn't as high on her fun list these days because my suggestion was met this time with a 'Thanks, but I'd rather watch this show that will be on TV soon.'  We won't even get in to the fact that it was a repeat of a show that she's seen more times than I can count.

Ouch, man.  This parenting gig can be brutal.

Tweet

Sick Day, Dad Style

Not long ago, the school clinic assistant called my cell phone while I sat in my office, shuffling papers or completing some other equally important task. I wasn't surprised, as I'd been nursing Lily through an ear infection for a few days, which had culminated in a fun-filled holiday weekend visit to the urgent care center.

Evidently the antibiotics and eardrops we had procured hadn't quite kicked in yet, and she was in the clinic complaining that her ear hurt. The nurse requested that someone appear with pain reliever, posthaste. You can't just sign a note giving the school permission to give your kid drugs when it seems like it might be necessary, you have to bring the stuff to school and personally hand it to your child. I am in complete agreement with this rule, by the way, as I would rather not have some random clinic assistant dosing up my child without my knowledge. It is, however, rather inconvenient when there are important papers to shuffle at one's job.

Since I was buried under all the paper shuffling, my lovely husband was going to have to make the trip to school. I knew that this was going to create a hardship for him, as I had spoken to him less than 30 minutes before the school called, and he had been on his way to play golf. I dialed his cell and explained the dilemma. While somewhat put out, since he'd been this close to teeing off, he agreed to make the trip and dispense the stuff as requested.

By the time I called him back to check in, about an hour later, he had gone to the school and was already back on the golf course. When I inquired on how things went at the clinic, he hesitated. Suddenly, I heard what sounded like Lily's voice in the background.

"Is that Lily?" I asked.

"Yeah, the school made me take her with me because her temperature was 99.2 when I got to the clinic," he answered.

"You have our sick child out playing golf?"

"No, she's just riding on the golf cart."

"So, you have our child, who was sent home sick from school, riding along on the cart while you play golf?"

"What? I gave her some Motrin."

I'm sure this would have seemed like a completely rational line of thinking if I also had a Y chromosome, right?

Tweet