For the last time, ever.
She's off to Kindergarten in 2½ weeks. Next week we're on vacation (more on that later). Week after Mrs. G. is taking off work to
*sigh*
Who the hell told them they could grow up???
No one told me when I signed up for this that they'd get so damned big so damned fast; that they'd stop being the adorable little babies that cooed on command and made cute, Gerber-like faces 'round the clock; that they would have the audacity to grow up?
Now I've got two kids in the public skool system (and no, please, no comments about home-schooling. As much as I'd like to do it,. it's not possible right now). Our community is, as my left-leaning boss says, firmly stuck in the 1950s - they still say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning and have an American flag in every classroom. We consider ourselves more south-NH than north-MA (if only we could secede to NH...). The indoctrination is fairly mild - no "please dump your pencils and crayons into the communal bin so everyone has some" crap; only moderate "zero tolerance"-type policies; and the "self-esteem uber-alles" mentality is not completely entrenched.
It's not a bad place to live and raise children, as far as Massa-fucking-chusetts goes.
All that aside, both kids are in school full-time now. While it's good for the budget (no more $800/month day care!!!), it's a stark reminder of how old I'm getting... My son's going into second grade, which, when I was his age, was BMOC - we had two schools in town, one K-2, the other 3-6 (the K-2 school was closed shortly after I went through the program, and all rumors that I was involved are spurious lies...). Now he's on the younger side of the spectrum, with his sister a PS noob...
I'm glad he's going to be there to look after her. Not that she'll need it, of course - this is the girl I firmly believe will "break legs, not hearts" - but it helps dear-old-dad feel better. He's on board with sitting next to her on the bus and showing her around the school, and I couldn't be prouder of him for that.
Man... Oh, oh, what I want to know-oh, where does the time go?
That is all.
7 comments:
Hmmmm...
An extry $800 a month in hand. That's kinda like the cost of many fine sporting firearms, isn't it?
BTW- urgent notice- see "DEFCON 5" @ my place!
"Oh, oh, what I want to know-oh, where does the time go?"
In no time she'll be dating boys and getting a driver's license. Enjoy their childhood while you can.
Enjoy it. My daughter is now in middle school. MIDDLE SCHOOL!!!!!!
No more do I have to worry about little things like boys hitting her or hearing a bad word. Now, she's being subjected to girls whose first priority is to rush home and put on shorts that are two sizes too small, boys who want to put their hands on her and a culture that is oozing with hormones and budding sexuality.
It happens to all of us, eventually, but thinking about the innocence that she's been able to enjoy and realizing that a bunch of bottom-feeding kids are going to introduce her to a world that I've been able to protect her from (and to keep her from it completely is simply holding my hands over her eyes & ears, let's face it) makes me want to vomit as I type this.
Oh, yeah, I made sure the kids at her school saw me this week. And they'll see a lot of me. Just in case some of the newer kids didn't know who Julia's rather large-ish father was.
Jay G, it gets better, I swear. In no time at all, she'll be asking you to take her to the range :)
DT,
Yes, yes it is. Sadly, Mrs. G. doesn't see it the same way...
Bob,
Believe me, I don't even want to think about that yet...
RW,
Middle school... Yikes...
On the one hand, even my son is still five years away from middle school.
On the other hand, it seems like yesterday my daughter was born, and that was over five years ago...
Lissa,
Oh, don't get me wrong - I love every second of it.
I just want 'em to stay little a little bit longer...
And Lisa's already "borrowed" her big brother's Red Ryder. I'm hoping to get her to the point where, when she finally dares to bring a boy home, the first thing he sees is not my gun, but hers...
*g*
Ah, kid update.
Just found out the results of my son's IQ test & sure enough, he's above the norm.
Not too shabby when you take into account the he's autistic. Yeah, they're generally smarter, but they usually have trouble with tests since their weaknesses are in communication & you need to be able to do that to take a test.
'scuse me while I strut for a while.....
Well, I'm still trying to figure out that time thing... as my son winds up his Iraq tour and my daughter has a condo in Chicago. Heh.
Of course now we can go out to the bars with them. ;-) My daughter wants us to buy a condo in her building so I can then fly to Chicago and go shopping with her...
kids... LOL.
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