Parenting

So we've cleaned up from Christmas, sort of. For some reason candy has become a part of the holidays so there are still wrappers strewn about the house because my kids can't be bothered to clean up after themselves. Oh yeah, my kids. Did I mention they're home from school for another week? I don't have much hair left to rip out.

When your child needs to be punished, how much is too much?  How much is not enough?  What actually works and reverses the undesirable behavior?  How many kids are getting a free ride because their parents want to be their friend as opposed to their parent?

Everyone loves dressing up for Halloween but we know it's really all about the candy.  As a responsible, caring parent it's my job to police my children's candy bags and confiscate some of it.  Right? At least that's what I tell myself.

I was at swimming lessons with my youngest the other day and one of the neat things the instructor does when encouraging a 3 year old to get in the water on a 'bodyboard' is to tell them it's a sandwich and they can put whatever they want on it.  Most kids, like mine, say something like grape jelly.

You think your dad embarrasses you in public? Wait'll you see this guy.

So...school has started.  There are pros and cons to that of course, especially if you have 4 kids.  I don’t think that I expect a whole lot as a parent, but I’m made to feel like I’m completely unreasonable.  I suppose that comes with the territory; Although, I was a saint as a teenager.

Some schools have already begun their fall semester.  My kids happen to be going back next week and although I’m happy about it, I’m also a bit anxious.  My brood has had a busy summer but they’ve been at each other something fierce in the past few weeks ...

What did I do this weekend?  I created a bicycle convoy of mini versions of myself that gently made its way through pieces of the Star City via a designated paved route.  Um... My kids and I went on the bike path.

So I’m not sure whether or not I’ve ruined my children or not.  The jury is still out on that one.  See, for a while the number of television channels we received at our house you could count on one hand.  My wife works from home and for economic reasons we upgraded, which included satellite television.  We went from basically nothing – to almost 200 channels.  My kids don’t know what to do with t

There is nothing I hate more than when my kids are sick.  I loathe even the thought of it.  I think it’s because you can try to comfort them all you want but they’re still sick and it’s somewhat out of the parents’ control.  This past weekend my house was ‘cough central.’  On top of that, 2 out of 4 of my kids were spiking a temperature.  Needless to say, I didn’t get much rest.