So many parenting situations can leave us scratching our head wondering if that really did just happen to us and why didn't anyone warn us it could happen. At some point, we must decide do we yet again take the high road and look at all of our wonderful blessings, or do we lay down in a pile of slobber, pooh, dirty clothes and crunched up Froot Loops and give up. Here are some of the situations I have been pondering over coffee this week.
Pooh in the Back-Pack
Last week, my dear, sweet son had an accident at school. There are several down sides to this story. It was his first solid accident at school. His teacher was at a conference, so he had a sub. I am still not exactly sure why or how it happened, but the dirty underwear came home to us with pooh in tow!!! Let me just tell you, it was a BIG accident. After doing some extensive research, I have sadly found that a very few people think it is acceptable to send everything home in accidents like these. After several meetings at the school to discuss the accident from several different angles, I am ready to look at this as the cup is half full, and here is why. Alex refused to let a stranger clean him up. (This fact alone caused most of my meetings.) Alex has never met a stranger, and is very friendly. I often worry about him walking off with the next person that offers him candy. At the end of the week, I was thankful that he does have boundaries.
I'm so Alone
For the last four years, I have spent almost every waking moment (and many sleeping ones too) with my dear son. I have tried to spend enough time with him so that I could send him off to school and not wonder where his childhood went. Now that he is in school, I am alone for five hours every week day. I have so much alone time that I have had really scary thoughts, like maybe I should get a job. I'm going to have to look at this new phase in my life as half full too. Even though I don't yet know what I am going to do with my time, I am lucky to have so many options ahead of me.
Raking Leaves
The weather last week was super nice here; our highs were in the mid 60s. It was sunny and warm, so I spent several days outside raking the leaves from our yard. Our town doesn't have a leaf drop off area, so to get rid of the leaves, we must burn them. We have actually never burnt leaves before, but we found it to be great fun! We made the back end of our driveway the designated burn pile, so all of the leaves needed to be drug, dropped or raked there. My husband is big and strong, so he chose to load the leaves in a box and carry them to the fire. When I was home alone, I was working out a method to move the entire pile like a large snowball. Since we skipped fall last year, I had forgotten a few facts about leaf raking. First, whether you have a cat or even see a cat, you will at some point find cat pooh in your leaves. You will usually find it by stepping in it. I found mine while I was in the middle of my giant pile. After some emotional exercising and hem hawing, I have decided to look at leaf raking as half full too. On the one hand, pooh stinks no matter where you find it. On the other hand, we all had so much fun jumping in the leaves and even watching them burn. I was also very thankful that I didn't have to worry about snakes in the leaves because it is so cold where we live.
So what has life handed you this week, and can you see it as half full or half empty?
4 comments:
The Leaves...ahhhh the dilemma. In Connecticut we have deer ticks that carry Lyme's Disease which is a very serious thing. And where do deer ticks love to hang out--in dead leaves, of course. So on the one hand, I remember jumping in the leaves as a child with such fond memories, and I want my kids to have the same fun experience. On the other hand, there's Lyme's Disease and now...cat poop--eeeooww! I gotta say, I didn't even know about that!!
In the end, the fun side won out. That and the fact that it is almost impossible to keep three kids away from an enormous pile of leaves. It's like a honing beacon calling to them. They cannot resist it.
We just have nightly tick checks!! Have you ever heard that song, "I wanna check you for ticks"? Funny!!
Too funny - our leaves seem to have fleas - probably from the cat. Alex had a lot of bites, but no ticks! BTW, I loved your post from Friday, but I haven't commented on it yet. You are such a great writer! You should try to publish that one!
This may be too much information, but I think for safety reasons the school has to send the clothes home as is. They are not allowed to wash clothing with solid waste unless they have installed special high heat washers that will kill all the potential germs/bacteria involved. Their options are to a)send it all home or b)throw the soiled clothes away in a special bag.
I could be wrong, but I want to say I remember a teacher training based on this (it happens even at the middle school level). Probably a hepatitis/hiv training, which all teachers were required to attend.
No - I don't think they should wash them. I just wanted them to shake the excess into the toilet. And for hepatitis prevention along with other health concerns, every child should be cleaned.
Post a Comment