Month: July 2008

Kids And The City

Considering the name of this website, it’s no surprise that my kids are 100% suburban.? They are very much at home in a Target or Home Depot.? They know the difference between Panera and Starbucks.

We are only about 30 miles outside of a large city, Washington DC, but it may as well be 300 miles or some make believe place on television, since we stay mostly within our suburban world.? So we try to expose them to surroundings outside the suburbs, taking trips to the National Zoo or museums.

Last week we went to the National Museum of Natural History.? The museum was interesting enough to The Things.? The dinosaur skeletons are always a big hit.? But by far the highlights of the trip were the city elements we encountered.? To them, it was like an adventure to some far away place. Continue reading Kids And The City

Parenting Mystery Solved

The parenting mystery is solved.? There were several partial correct answers, but monoceros came closest.? The garbage can wasn’t a difficult one to guess.? It’s an obivous object of interest to little kids.

The key in my situation is that Thing 3 has just learned to walk, so objects that used to be out of his reach, like the top of a garbage can, are now within his grasp.? He likes to open and close the cover.? Stick his hands in.? Take garbage out.? And, as I caught him in the act in this picture, he likes to put non-trash items into the garbage, so we search for hours for missing toys and cups. Continue reading Parenting Mystery Solved

The Daddy Rules

Kids are always complaining that there are too many rules to follow.? No running in the house.? No fighting with your brother.? No putting your fingers up your nose.

As I picked up the Things at daycare one day, I realized there are an awful lot of rules that I have to follow, too.

Rule #1: Bring snacks for the ride home.? Sure, it may not be the best idea before dinner, but it isn’t worth the price of crying and whining I’ll pay if I don’t have them.

Rule #2: Snacks must be the same, and that means the same size. God forbid Thing 1 or Thing 2 thinks they have the smaller snack.? If snacks are a sandwich bag of animal crackers, for example, the bags need to have the same number of crackers in them.

Rule #3: Go to Thing 1’s classroom before Thing 2’s.? I don’t know if it’s the break from the routine, or, more likely, that Thing 1 thinks he “wins” if he is first.? Failure to follow Rule #3 would most certainly result in another four year old meltdown.

Rule #4: There will be a fight to be first into the car. Not so much a rule as a statement of fact.? Thing 1 and 2 will push, claw, and grab each other to get into the car first.? Followed by the winner’s taunting of “I win”, to the loser’s crying.? Luckily I have something of value to hold over them to get them to quiet down (see Rule #1).

Rule #5: Daddy Eats Dinner Last. The kids eat first.? Then there are baths to be given.? Fights to be broken up.? Finally, after Thing 3 is down for the night, I can start to make my dinner.? Of course, as soon as Thing 1 and Thing 2 see it, they want some.? Which brings us to…

Rule #6: Always make more food than I can eat because I will end up giving most away.

I think I’d rather have the kids’ rules.

Kids Say The Funniest Things #8

When a three year old is in tantrum mode, the laws of reason and logic don’t apply.

SuburbanDaddy: When you calm down, you can have it back.

It doesn’t matter what “it” is. Could be a toy, pillow, or piece of dirt.

Thing 2: Stop talking. Stop taaalkiiing [whining]

SuburbanDaddy: I can talk if I want. Why don’t you go to the family room?

Thing 2: But then I can’t hear you.

SuburbanDaddy: I thought that’s what you wanted?

[Begin 10 minute meltdown]

Parenting Poll of the Week – Kids And Happiness

I read an interesting article that suggests parents are less likely to report being happy than the childless.

In Daniel Gilbert’s 2006 book “Stumbling on Happiness,” the Harvard professor of psychology looks at several studies and concludes that marital satisfaction decreases dramatically after the birth of the first child?and increases only when the last child has left home.

No group of parents?married, single, step or even empty nest?reported significantly greater emotional well-being than people who never had children. It’s such a counterintuitive finding because we have these cultural beliefs that children are the key to happiness and a healthy life, and they’re not

I’m not sure how to take these results. I suppose it’s up to the individual. Certainly, anyone who wants to have kids but can’t for whatever reason, won’t be very happy.

I can also see how people with kids are subjected to stresses – money, time, sleep – that the childless are not. If stress level is the measure of happiness, then kids aren’t going to help that measure.

To borrow from William Jefferson Clinton, it depends on what the meaning of the word happy is.

[poll=22]