I used to think I was a complete unorganized miserable failure of a mother. Still do on those rare occasions when I have a quiet moment to survey the soap scum and suspicious green fuzzy stuff creeping up my shower curtain. (Of course, I rarely shower alone, so this hardly qualifies as a real problem.) I can’t get my kids to bed at night and I can’t get myself up in the morning. This is such a problem that i’ve opted to keep them home with me instead of sending them to school. This way those rare moments when we’re all awake and reasonably coherent can be spent together — you know, doing something highly academic like looking at french cookbooks or practicing tango in the backyard. This sort of behavior used to make me feel like a bit of a half-baked slacker compared to that dreaded and intimidating club, ALL THE OTHER PARENTS.
Then, I started hearing other parents complain about the things they “couldn’t” do with their kids — their intense fear of such things as being away from home for a night, or being responsible for teaching them anything without the benefit of a degree in the subject. “We couldn’t possibly travel with little Timmy, he can’t sleep without his crib.” Can’t sleep without his crib??!! My kids may not fall asleep exactly when I would like and they do have those damned internal alarms that tell them to wake up whenever i’ve got a plate of hot food or my husband has an erection. But damned if they can’t sleep anywhere they’ve got my boob and a reasonably flat surface.
There are all those other reasons my friends couldn’t possibly travel with their kids. They’d fall behind in school. They wouldn’t have any friends. They wouldn’t speak the language. They wouldn’t eat the food. etc, etc, etc.
I’m not about to get up on a soapbox here, There are certainly obstacles to traveling with kids. But let’s not sell the little buggers short. They’re flexible, open-minded, friendly, language-absorbant little sponges, the young of our species. Anybody who has ever seen kids playing a game of tag or hide and seek knows that language isn’t really an obstacle to most games anyway. And chances are, they’re going to be so worn out, distracted and excited from the running around new places and making new friends that they’ll damn well eat whatever you put in front of them. Make sure you pick up a cookbook though, because they just might ask you to make that foul little delicacy once you get home.
Brilliant, great outlook. I hope I can be as relaxed and thoughtful.
Geez, that’s hilarious!
I agree completely, by the way… our kids are homeschooled/unschooled, and while it can be a challenge at times, when I weigh it against the multitudes of problems/disgruntled comments I hear from other parents, I smile broadly at our chosen lifestyle.
Have fun in San Diego (my old stomping grounds; born and raised there, plus UCSD)!
Our kids go to a “progressive” school where they can actually be counted as present if they miss school, as long as they are willing to share their experiences with the class when they return, so missed days are not a big deal for us. We travel when we want, where we want, and have the kids do the bulk of the planning for the itinerary. They find neat places that we would never think of. How many people can say that they played mini golf in cornfield in Illinois? Judging from the non crowd there… not many! Also for lazy women like us… we don’t have to spend useless energy finding placed that we think kids will like, and then forcing them to enjoy themselves. They choose most of the places, and are so busy exploring the things they thought were neat in the first place, or know they chose the horrible place we are at and don’t have any reason to whine about it not being fun. LOL! I do have to say that I have been shocked at the number of museums, aquariums, and science centers our kids have chosen. Those places have never been a dud, and our dual zoo/ science museum membership makes most reciprocal zoos, centers ***FREE*** or extremely low cost for a family of 9.
Thanks a lot for your comment Jeana. I love that a school allows this and your idea about letting the kids direct the trips is priceless. I love it and hope you’ll share more here on the site.