Sometimes, when I see my children do something odd, I try to go back into my own childhood to find the answer.  Like Sillybands (those rubber band bracelets that are all the rage right now.)  To an adult, they make no sense.  But I remember back to my childhood, when friendship pins were the coolest things ever.  Sillybands then make sense.

But other times, I just don’t get why my children are doing things.  I’ll even ask them “Why?  Why are you doing that?  Why?”  Sometimes I get an answer.  Sometimes it’s “Uh…I dunno.”  Sometimes the answer is “Because they’re a child.”

There are questions I know the answer to.  The answer is “Because we’re lazy.”  The questions are “Why do you leave your dirty clothes on the bathroom floor two feet from the hamper?” and “Why, when I ask you to load the dishwasher, do you NEVER EVER get the dishes out of the sink?”  and “Why do you keep stuffing the garbage can until it overflows instead of taking out the trash?”  Because they’re normal lazy kids.  They’ll outgrow this, I know it. Because eventually, they’ll either mature, or get tired of me ranting about the same issue over and over.  Or I get smart and say “Load the dishwasher, STARTING with the dishes in the sink.”

But then there are things that just make no sense.  I’m not sure an answer would make sense.  Case in point – the sleep mask rage.

My kids have a tendency to fall asleep with some form of light on, usually because they fall asleep reading.  The girls are still in night-light phase.  I now have a routine that at night, I check bedrooms, turn off lights if need be.

The other day, I wasn’t feeling well and my eyes were itchy and blurry.  I was laying on the couch and asked the kids if they could find me something to put over my eyes.  Sean ran upstairs and brought down a sleep mask.  He said “Here, this is what Collin uses at night.”

Say what?

Yes, my son falls asleep with a sleep mask over his eyes, you know, to block out the lights in the room.  I blame it on Sean, who has the overhead light on so he can read at night.  Even better, Miriam – who refuses to fall asleep without some light on – has taken to wearing a sleep mask as well.  It’s so funny, going into her room, turning off lights, and her laying in bed with a mask over her eyes.  Makes me giggle every time I see it.

Now, if I could get them to explain to me why they will take their clothes upstairs and put the pile of folded items on top of their dresser instead of in it…or why Mim has decided she likes the boys plain red sheets better than the blue floral ones she insisted she needed…or why Maura has decided it’s fun to eat paper and stick things up her nose…or why the boys insist on parking their bikes next to the car in the driveway or in front of the side door…

Pardon me, but I have to do some shameful bragging on my children this weekend.

First of all, the boys -

This weekend was Ann Arbor GiveCamp.  In a nutshell, a bunch of Geeks with Skillz get together, pick some charities in need of geeks and their skills and build them websites or desktop applications.  Josh has helped out with GiveCamp the past three years.  This year, he asked the boys if they wanted to tag along and play the part of errand boys for the people at work.  The boys agreed to this.

Collin and Sean, from everything I’ve heard from both Josh and other people there, were amazing all weekend.  They were willing and able little slave boys, running errands, hauling items about, taking orders, doing whatever was asked of them without complaint.  They actually received special recognition at the closing ceremony.  Josh is very proud of his boys.  So much so that he’s going to go out and replace the Xbox that gave us the Red Ring of Death last evening.

While the boys were doing good, Miriam went and auditioned for a part in a local company’s production of The Nutcracker.  A former theater/dance geek myself, I was probably more nervous for her than she was about the audition.  She left not wondering if she’d get a part, but which one.  Gotta love that self-confidence!  We found out tonight that she got a part – she’ll be one of the mice!

Yes, it’s been a good weekend to be our kids’ parents

Lately, I’ve found myself viewing things differently.  No, this isn’t some deep, insightful view on life.  I’m talking about movies.

In my younger days, I loved the movie “The Goonies”.  The idea of a treasure hunt was appealing.  So when it came on the other day, I thought “Oh!  I should let the boys watch it.”

Now, it was on some self-proclaimed “family channel” (though really, ABC’s family is really dysfunctional – but that’s another post…), so the movie was slightly edited for content.  Maybe it was the editing that really made me start viewing the movie not from a sentimental “loved this as a kid” view, but through Mom-eyes.  I’d forgotten that the boys in the movie steal a dirty magazine.  Or all the swearing. 

Tonight, “Back to the Future” came on.  It was starting just as the kids were going to bed.  Miriam asked if I could DVR it for her to watch later.  Every slightly risqué theme in the movie rushed through my head – how Marty’s supposed to go camping with his girlfriend, Lorraine smoking and underage drinking, Biff trying to take advantage of Lorraine in the car…things that just skated over my head all these years when I watched the movie suddenly were in big flashing signs. 

I told Mim I’d think about it.  I’m still thinking about it.  My kids have reached an age where I flutter between sheltering them or exposed them to it so we can discuss anything they’re curious about.  Of course, I could be blowing this all out of proportion and all the things I’m worried about are the things that will skate over my kids heads and they won’t even notice until they have kids of their own.

There is something about this time of year.  In June, we’re all in a rush to start summer vacation.  We’re excited to be out, enjoying the sun and warmth, everything is new and ready to be tried.  July comes along and finds us all nicely settled in.  Then we blink, its August, blink again, and it’s now the end of August.  Drop-in soccer has ended.  The fair has long gone.  No new summer movies are being released. 

This time of year is when the kids get bored and I have to come up with something for them to do (besides mowing the lawn – they’re sick of that!)  The clock is ticking down on summer, we feel like we SHOULD do something, but there just seems to be no time to fit something major in because Mom’s too busy trying to get all the back-to-school stuff together.  Soccer practice has begun, so there’s no good time to take off for a week.  We’re just here, all being slightly cranky.  Collin is tired of not being able to do things because of his broken wrist.  Sean’s tired of having sole responsibility of lawn mowing and garbage duties.  Miriam’s desperate for other girly company.  And Maura’s gotten very quiet.  I’m sort of toe-tapping impatiently, ready for school to start and routines to happen.

It seems like such a waste of time.  I don’t like the idea of wasted time.  Life is short.  I’m reminded of that constantly.  I hate the thought of wasting parts of my life.  So then, I get all sorts of feeling guilty coupled with ansty-ness. 

So, what’s a mom to do with these last couple of weeks?  Why, decide to switch kids bedrooms of course!  And switching bedrooms means repainting two rooms, of course!  And this means the kids are forced to clean out their rooms. Why yes, that is my maniacal cackling you hear.  Hehehehe.  They kids are actually up for it, which means they don’t realize the amount of cleaning and organizing they’re going to have to do.  Yep, still cackling over here.

Now, it is a crazy idea, and  I know it’s going to be a lot of work.  But I figure the kids are old enough that they can help out with the painting and moving and definitely the clean-up.  I shall supervise and organize.  Who knows?  I may post “After” shots.  There will be no “Before” pictures.  Unless you want to see a girls room knee-deep in stuffed animals or a boys room strewn with Legos. 

They may end up hating me half-way through the process, but at least no one will be bored!