Billy likes to rest his head on my boob.
I realize that I have been lacking in postation. (I fear we may have lost Ted.) Getting up at 6:30 am for 4 days straight is not blog-friendly. Spent the first two days shilling children's wear at the Javits Center. It's fun convincing Barney's that mustard colored genie tops and turquoise harem pants are what all kindergarteners will be wearing next season. (Plus free breakfast, lunch, and snack!)
The past two days were all about the kid. "Billy", my (newly) 9-year-old charge, has run me ragged. I'm slowly starting to understand that my job is not to keep him safe or teach him new things or even entertain him. My job is to wear him out. Which would be okay if it wasn't so damn exhausting. I could never be a stay-at-home mom, by 3:00 I'm DONE. I know, I know, television bad, but I only have so much entertainment in me. I can only pretend to enjoy Pokemon characters for so long before "Okay, you're bugging me" starts getting tossed around. I just don't have it in me to last all day. Pity our future child.
Billy still thinks that fairies live in certain trees. He found some wings while he was climbing a tree yesterday and got all excited, telling me about the fairy houses they build - "I see one right there!"- and how they make the knots in the bark look like faces and on and on. I didn't have the heart to tell him that they ciccada wings, he'll lose the magic vision soon enough.
posted by Ali @ 12:49 PM
5 Comments:
You will discover that one of the primary goals as a parent is in fact to wear your children out sufficiently during the day (or have someone else wear them out) so that when you lay them down, they will stay down and allow you the much needed sit-and-stare-at-the-TV time at the end of the day.
Of course, if all else fails, I find a rubber mallet works rather well...
MAYBE cicadas are really fairies... Kids can teach us things we can't see. My granddaughter explained to me that the funny-looking cylinders outside of Sonic Drive-Ins are supposed to be straws. I'd never have seen that if she hadn't told me.
No one has it in them to entertain a child all day, and in truth it is just as important to let a child have time to entertain themeselves as it is for you to spend time with them. Being able to spend time alone engaging in activities that won't get them in to trouble is a pretty important skill if you ask me. So don't let it overwhelm you. Your future children will be in good hands. Luckily you will have Matt to help you out and I have personally witnessed his patience to engage for a long period of time playing pretend games that drive me batty after 5 minutes. I will not forget how the first time he met Miss B he played her crazy dog pound pretened thing for over an hour. AN HOUR. That is a long time in pretend dog pound land. A LONG TIME. I last 15 minutes top. That is on a really good day.
I've never had a child of my own (unless you count dogs and cats) but I've been involved in the upbringing of my spouse's child and now HER child (whom I have the right and privilege of referring to as my grandchild). I've also been around lots of nieces and nephews. From all of this exposure, I've learned that the most commonly used phrase among young children is "do it again". I "did it again" so many times that I was literally in extreme physical discomfort afterwards... but it was worth it to hear the giggles and see the smiles, not to mention getting all the hugs and kisses. A lot of one's ability to be good with kids is remembering the things your parents and grandparents did with you.
Too Bad Matt wasn't there. He would've crushed his fairyland dreams in a matter of seconds - like he did before to some other hopeful youth.
I dearly miss my fairy friends.
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