Thank fucking christ.
It's something to realize that the glory of your company, the charm of your adorable children, even the gifts you bring, are not enough to offset the noise and mess and annoyance you bring to a place. Even for their grandparents.We're not unsympathetic, of course. Were it possible for me to send my children home to other parents who would feed bathe and communicate with them for a period of hours, I'd do it in a heartbeat. That's why jeebus invented day care. They're trained to entertain children; I'm trained to teach college. They don't need to grade sentence fragments and thesis statements; I don't need to make homemade play-dough. And when we're on vacation?
Well.... I love my kids.
And I see what people forced to host us do. The children of Liberal Mountain are exuberant, articulate, active and energetic. When they're "on," they're talking pretty much nonstop, and in motion most of that time, leaving a trail of goldfish crumbs, Pokemon cards, and pen on the wall in their wake. (Perhaps, Hansel & Gretel-like, they're thinking ahead.) They're exhausting. Funny, smart, opinionated, agile, confident... but exhausting. In our own house on the mountain, we have various methods by which they can be safely engaged for periods of time sometimes reaching 30 minutes. We've also grown accustomed to a certain level of mess and chaos, and make promises to each other about when we can replace the furniture or paint the walls.
But it does make up more likely to stay home, I admit that.
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I feel totally ripped off by tv. On TV, grandparents demand they take the kids off your hands as soon as you arrive so you can nap, read a book, breathe and the like.
The grandparents are reading to them, doing puzzles, and crafts
Both of my boys' grandmothers must be defective. Tait peed on my mom's lap today, and I was kind of proud!
Deciding to live 3000 miles away from my parents was swell before I had kids. Our plan once the kids arrived was that the kids & I would visit once a year, my mom & her partner would visit once a year, and my dad would visit once a year.
This did not turn out to be so. The girls & I go out there once a year--that lovely six plane ride to & from, me & 2 kids under 10 (to be fair--my parents pay for everything). My mom came out for three weeks when my youngest was born; she just turned 5. My dad came out for the younger one's unitarian dedication when she was 6 months old (did I mention she's 5 now?). Neither has been back since.
I keep telling them it's only fair that they should see their grandchildren in their natural habitat...
So THAT'S why my children act like that. No wonder ann coulter can't figure out how to talk to liberals. OR their children.
For we, BY GOD, are ... ARTICULATE.
All this time I thought it was just good 'jeans'.
vox,
On Xmas eve, I got to visit my fundie relations (something I haven't been able to get distance enough to blog about yet) and was amazed that when my SIL spoke to her son, he jumped.
Literally.
I asked how she managed it, and she informed me that he knew if he didn't, he'd get hit.
There are some things I'll trade for obedience. Not jumping when I speak, for example.
Wait, I was hoping for a nice, quiet time on LibMtn this week...
All my fundie relatives are the same way. Their kids are good because of a fearful, violent reaction if not. The little girls up from Georgia stare in amazement as my daughter frolics and speaks her mind and plays independently. She's like Daisy Miller or something.
But she is exhausting, there is that. She can go pretty much non-stop from 8 in the morning until bedtime. Once she stayed up til midnight, no nap, and she just stopped like a car out of gas. Came and sat on my lap where I was sitting in conversation on the kitchen floor, and she closed her eyes and that was it.
My mother-in-law, a recently retired first grade teacher, once looked at me and said pantingly, "Does she ever stop?"
The answer is "certainly not."
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