The Old Folks Home

[Alaskan]

As to not tossing money at your kids....


I am strongly for that....

Which is why today I am rolling my eyes, gritting my teeth, and screaming at the sky.

Eldest last week lost his top mouth guard thing. I had to make an emergency appointment at the local dentist (ortho is two hours drive away), and they had to make molds and send them off for a new thing...this one is a retainer thing? Whatever.

Costs about $450. Before I smacked kid silly, they told me the set from the orthodontist was only going to last two years tops anyway, and was already almost a year old......

Stupid expensive retainer thing, to hold his SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLAR TEETH in place, is going to have to be shipped to Juneau since he is leaving next Wednesday....and it will not be done until after he leaves.


And then what does he tell me yesterday morning???

He misplaced the bottom one.

Told him his life was over...he better find it......

he has not been looking very hard.

My instinct is to let the kid crash and burn...if he doesn't care enough to break a sweat finding the blasted thing......so be it.....


But then I look at his $7,000 teeth.... and maybe he is just stressed about the Juneau thing...and I should cut him a break........




Seven



Thousand


Dollar


Teeth

 

[chickadoodles]

Alaskan, I know kids and sometimes drive you to the brink. Here's a ((Hug))

You could tell everyone in the house to hunt till they find the thing. I've had to do this with my car keys that the youngin's misplaced!

 

[chickisoup]

One of those curl up and read or play on the computer days.

just took this out my kitchen window.

I loved, and still do, the dragons of Pern, anything Asimov and especially any sci fi that forces me to think beyond my current very small, yet infinitely large, world.
My currently favorite movie is Avatar (and I confess that on the somewhat silly side, I am a total Dr Who geek)

 

[pennyJo1960]

Wow Hurt for you Alaskan it wasn't Lori's teeth she had ear infections up the cazoo
every time we turned around back at the dr new tubes as she grew oh those darn things..
I am so sorry...
we actually have a decent day going here suppose be turning our weather around a bit
not so darn wet may dry out for a few days

 

[Alaskan]

Thanks for the sympathy.


And no worries....I haven't killed him.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

My dad was a very smart man, and a kindhearted man, so while growing up, he stressed the importance of intelligence, helping others, and giving back to the community. I made pretty good grades, was a girl scout, and in 4-H most of my life, as well as in the church choir. I tutored several students for free. Transportation was not a big deal. I could either ride my bike, or saddle a horse until I got old enough to drive. No, there were no sidewalks out in the country where we lived, but they had sidewalks closer to the city limits. My parents got me an English racer bike, so I could downshift to make it easier to get through the tall grass in certain areas. We put saddlebag type baskets on the back of the bike, so I could carry schoolbooks, collect for the charity drives at church, and/or go to the grocery store for my mother, grandmother, etc., to get the few extra things they needed, or forgot to get when they went shopping. On rainy days, or when I had a nighttime activity, my parents would usually provide transportation.

When I turned 16, they didn't buy me a car, but we had dad's car, mom's car, and the truck, so I usually had access to a vehicle, however, it was no big deal, since the horses still needed to be ridden, and I still had a good bike. TV was limited at my house. It was not on during the daytime, except Saturday morning cartoons, unless we were sick enough to be bedridden. No soap operas. After supper, when we finished our homework, and had taken our baths, we could watch 1 TV show before bedtime. We read a LOT! We were all expected to be home, and present at the supper table. We all participated in dinner conversation.

Girls were expected to wear dresses to school, no higher than 1 inch above the knee, (yes, they measured, and would call your parents to come get you, or bring you appropriate attire, if your dress was not in compliance), close toed shoes, and hair kept neat. Boys had to wear long slacks (no bluejeans), shirts tucked in, a belt, and socks with closed in shoes, and hair had to be kept short. I took other clothes, to change into after school let out, as did many others. Discipline included teachers drawing a circle on the chalkboard, then the student would have to put their nose inside the circle, and stand there until the teacher allowed them to sit back down. Serious offenses would land you in the principal's office. You didn't want to go to the principal's office.

While I was in Jr. High, they changed the school hours into double shift. I got stuck with the second shift, so I had to ride the bus to, and from school. Everyone knew that the bus driver would pull over until things settled down, and we would get home late. Parents, and students were aware that fighting would get the offenders kicked off the bus. Riding the bus was a privilege, and the parents better make sure their kids understood that. Any resulting safety issues after being kicked off the bus, were placed on the shoulders of the offender(s), and their parents. Had they wanted to arrive home safely by school bus, the parents should have stressed the importance of obeying the rules, used their own disciplinary action to enforce the rules, and offered a contingency plan. I never got kicked off the bus, but my parents had already instructed me on what to do if it ever happened. I also knew what the consequences would be, if it were my fault it happened.

We learned that questioning existing rules was not a bad thing, but as a result of questioning them, most of them were in place for good reason. Some were not, or the reason for them became nonexistent, obsolete, or poor solutions to something to begin with. Nowadays, little Johnny Thug is causing trouble, his parents don't want to be bothered with enforcing discipline, to teach him self-control, respect, temperance, and the consequences of his actions, etc., so everyone else is burdened with tolerating little Johnny Thug's bad behavior, and keeping him safeguarded. The rules are then changed to accommodate little Johnny Thug's parent's poor choices, so little Johnny Thug doesn't have to change his poor choices. I'm not saying all poor choices, and behavior are the fault of the parents, but nowadays the bulk of it IS.

That's a good way of putting it. I especially agree with the self control.

I remember being in line in Walmart when I was pregnant, watching a young girl (maybe 6-7) hounding her mother to let her have a pink backpack. She whined and carried on and finally the mom caved and let her have it. I remember thinking "oh lady, you've already lost." I think mistakes are by parents letting the babies and toddlers do all sorts of things thinking it's "cute" when in actuality they are letting them get away with all sorts of stuff. They think the word "no" is some distant future reference. If no isn't no from the beginning...heaven help those parents. The older cousins used to come over and they had ALL sorts of dastardly ideas and they'd tell our son that we'd never find out the things they'd do. He knew I would find out (I'm the disciplinarian) and they could never sway him. We always had good communication because we'd have a lunch with him when he came home from school and he always filled us in on everything and this continues to this day. So he'd tell me all they wanted to do to get him in trouble.

I'll be the first to say that I/we are FAR from perfect but we've been honest in owning our mistakes. In hindsight in being honest, we've helped to influence a future adult who has more ability to be honest and forthcoming than most adults I know. At least we got that right.

I think the goal some miss is preparing the kids for the future; to be independent, resourceful and carry on with a sense of self that is unshakable along with everything people should be....kind, compassionate, respectful etc. If DH and I died tomorrow, I have full faith our son would be fine, he's already been equipped with the majority of the skills we can give him. He already makes his own decisions, we're confident in his abilities. We're simply here for guidance at this point.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

As to not tossing money at your kids....


I am strongly for that....

Which is why today I am rolling my eyes, gritting my teeth, and screaming at the sky.

Eldest last week lost his top mouth guard thing. I had to make an emergency appointment at the local dentist (ortho is two hours drive away), and they had to make molds and send them off for a new thing...this one is a retainer thing? Whatever.

Costs about $450. Before I smacked kid silly, they told me the set from the orthodontist was only going to last two years tops anyway, and was already almost a year old......

Stupid expensive retainer thing, to hold his SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLAR TEETH in place, is going to have to be shipped to Juneau since he is leaving next Wednesday....and it will not be done until after he leaves.


And then what does he tell me yesterday morning???

He misplaced the bottom one.

Told him his life was over...he better find it......

he has not been looking very hard.

My instinct is to let the kid crash and burn...if he doesn't care enough to break a sweat finding the blasted thing......so be it.....


But then I look at his $7,000 teeth.... and maybe he is just stressed about the Juneau thing...and I should cut him a break........

Seven



Thousand


Dollar


Teeth

Oooooh....now that just hurts to say that amount. I can understand the idea behind protecting that...lol.

Thanks for the sympathy.


And no worries....I haven't killed him.

Yet.

(Just a little death, not the 100%)

 

[Wickedchicken6]

One of those curl up and read or play on the computer days.

just took this out my kitchen window.

I loved, and still do, the dragons of Pern, anything Asimov and especially any sci fi that forces me to think beyond my current very small, yet infinitely large, world.
My currently favorite movie is Avatar (and I confess that on the somewhat silly side, I am a total Dr Who geek)

Omigosh! Are you northern exposure on another continent? Or are you north of me? Because this is us right now. Taken a couple of days ago. It's more green although the chickens and rabbits seem to be keeping it tabletop. This pic is mostly dirt I dumped last fall to correct the holes from the trees I've been ripping out. I'm not done yet. It's a mess.

I just thought I should clarify that they aren't eating the lawn to the black ground....lol. "Cause that would be wrong...

 

[superchemicalgirl]

No Snow!
No Snow!
No Snow!
No Snow!
No Snow!
No Snow!
No Snow!
No Snow!
No Snow!
No Snow!
No Snow!
No Snow!
No Snow!
No Snow!
No Snow!
No Snow!
No Snow!
No Snow!

 

[chickisoup]

Omigosh! Are you northern exposure on another continent? Or are you north of me? Because this is us right now. Taken a couple of days ago. It's more green although the chickens and rabbits seem to be keeping it tabletop. This pic is mostly dirt I dumped last fall to correct the holes from the trees I've been ripping out. I'm not done yet. It's a mess.

I just thought I should clarify that they aren't eating the lawn to the black ground....lol. "Cause that would be wrong...

sometimes I feel like we have moved in Iceland but nope, we're just in northern Wisconsin. It's still snowing and when I went to check on the chooks I had to shovel my way in but it's getting lighter so I think it will be stopping soon, for now anyway. They have us for more snow a couple days in a row next week. My chicks are supposed to ship on 5/10. I can only pray that it will warm up enough by then that they don't freeze to death in the truck. I really thought I had a shot by waiting until the second week but now I'm not so sure.