No More Politics, Just Good Culinary Space

All this political talk has made my head hurt, so I’m sitting here eating leftover Chinese with the following in mind: people are complex, issues are gray, and religion is best when kept personal.

To show some goodwill towards those of you tired of politics, I thought I’d share some photos of our new kitchen. October was a hard month, but its over now and the members of my household can expect great things to come from here. But…check out the before…

And, after…it’s so much better. Got to keep stimulating that economy.

 

What to Do When Your Child’s Friends Are Naughty?

I’ll preface all of this by saying that I know that the Bear is not a perfect child. I’ll get downright descriptive and say that she can be whiny and pouty, and we have had the occasional fib problem.

But, I don’t have any worries that she will go to a friend’s house and be blatantly disrespectful to any of her friends’ parents.

Here’s the scoop. She had a few friends over the other day, and they were playing downstairs in the playroom. I went down to check on them a few times and found that the entire basement looked like a Category 5 storm had gone through it. Which is fine, because they’re kids. However, I made it clear that they were all expected to clean it up before they moved on to something else. They all came up a little while later saying that they wanted to play upstairs. I reminded them they needed to straighten up and so they all went back down only to return a few minutes later saying that it was all finished. One of the girls had had toys out in the downstairs bedroom, and I asked her if she had cleaned them up.

She looked straight at me and said, “yes.” At that moment, I knew she was lying. They all went outside, and I went to check the toy situation. All the toys in the bedroom were still there. Straight up lying.

A while later, the kids came in to see me and asked if they could play on the computer. I had just put the Llama and the Bee down for their naps and I said no that they needed to play downstairs or outside because the kids were asleep.

The same girl that lied to me before looked at me and said, “OK, well, can we get all your bras out and look at them?” I had had it. I said, “EXCUSE ME?” The Bear and one of her other friends eyes got huge. A boy giggled. One of the other girls took her hand and put it over the first girl’s mouth.

“Please repeat what you just said, ” I said. She said it again, pretty deviously and obviously proud of herself for rattling me and getting the other kids’ attention.

I took a deep breath and said, “No you may not. There’s nothing wrong or dirty about a bra. Its something that grown up ladies wear. But, that’s a pretty disrespectful and inappropriate question to ask and just bad manners. GO PLAY.”

I can’t decide what I’m most mad about. Lack of manners? Lack of boundaries? The fear that my own child could go to someone else’s house and be, simply, uncouth?

What would you do?

 

What to Do When Your Child's Friends Are Naughty?

I’ll preface all of this by saying that I know that the Bear is not a perfect child. I’ll get downright descriptive and say that she can be whiny and pouty, and we have had the occasional fib problem.

But, I don’t have any worries that she will go to a friend’s house and be blatantly disrespectful to any of her friends’ parents.

Here’s the scoop. She had a few friends over the other day, and they were playing downstairs in the playroom. I went down to check on them a few times and found that the entire basement looked like a Category 5 storm had gone through it. Which is fine, because they’re kids. However, I made it clear that they were all expected to clean it up before they moved on to something else. They all came up a little while later saying that they wanted to play upstairs. I reminded them they needed to straighten up and so they all went back down only to return a few minutes later saying that it was all finished. One of the girls had had toys out in the downstairs bedroom, and I asked her if she had cleaned them up.

She looked straight at me and said, “yes.” At that moment, I knew she was lying. They all went outside, and I went to check the toy situation. All the toys in the bedroom were still there. Straight up lying.

A while later, the kids came in to see me and asked if they could play on the computer. I had just put the Llama and the Bee down for their naps and I said no that they needed to play downstairs or outside because the kids were asleep.

The same girl that lied to me before looked at me and said, “OK, well, can we get all your bras out and look at them?” I had had it. I said, “EXCUSE ME?” The Bear and one of her other friends eyes got huge. A boy giggled. One of the other girls took her hand and put it over the first girl’s mouth.

“Please repeat what you just said, ” I said. She said it again, pretty deviously and obviously proud of herself for rattling me and getting the other kids’ attention.

I took a deep breath and said, “No you may not. There’s nothing wrong or dirty about a bra. Its something that grown up ladies wear. But, that’s a pretty disrespectful and inappropriate question to ask and just bad manners. GO PLAY.”

I can’t decide what I’m most mad about. Lack of manners? Lack of boundaries? The fear that my own child could go to someone else’s house and be, simply, uncouth?

What would you do?