no. 279 ramblings of a mean old lady in apartment D

heh
kind of funny...
team leader and i do chuckle at the thought of being the oldies in the stairwell-we're actually old enough to be the parents of 3 of the 5 other families IN our stairwell, and last time i counted the candles on MY birthday cake, i wasn't exactly pushing fire-extinguisher status!

but
seriously-

loving littles as much as i do (seeing as i spend 180 days a year with people under the age of 7)
is it too much to ask your children to settle down?
(i mean, i find myself jumping on the collective bigger kiddo a**es of numbers 1, 2and 3 here at our house when i think they are too much...)

so i ask:
what happened to actual parenting?

i mean, i know it's a tough job
(ask me about landing on number 1 last night for blowing off an assignment that is due in 2 weeks and is 30% of his grade FOR THE SEMESTER...not one of my finer moments however he has to "knuckle down" and walk AWAY from the xBox and clearly he isn;t going to do that without a kick in the pants from his momma)
but it's still a job worthy of DOING.

parenting is work
loving work
crying work
happy work
screaming hard work

when we had number 1, my mom sent a letter with a newsprint cutout.
apparently, as the story read, a couple had after repeated calls to their local police station, driven to the station to report their son missing...he had been gone for 2 weeks, they were frantic with worry.
when they walked in the door, the officer had to sit down.
turned out the daddy, was 94 and his bride, 90.
their missing son...70

after the dust had settled, the air cleared and sonnyboy was found, the story developed like this:
he had been at the retirement home of a good friend whom he had stopped to visit on his way back home.
he liked the look of the place so much that he decided to stay awhile and had forgotten to check in with his folks!

at the bottom of my letter, mom had written: "you're in this for the long haul...get ready!:

bringing me fuuuuuulllll circle to the ramblings of the mean old lady in apartment D who has a few more years of parenting experience under her mean old lady belt:
wake up when your kids wake up
make them breakfast
watch a silly cartoon
take the flippen dog out for a family walk TOGETHER instead of walking your bullmastif by chasing it UP and DOWN the hallway (particularly if you live on the top floor!!!)
TALK TO THEM
they are people-living breathing loving creatures
who only want a moment of your time.
(and your neighbors underneath you, want only a few more precious minutes of s.l.e.e.p.)

before you know it, you'll be the parents of the "big kids" who are hairy, and smelly, and eat everything in the house, parents of little ones...your kiddos will become the big ones.

(and big kids,for the record, aren't so bad...they stay up later, yes, BUT, sleep longer-yay!)

this has been a public service annoucement by the mean old lady in apartment D
umarmen und lieben
essie
ps the cutie patootie upstairs who woke me up, from sickie induced baad night of sleep,by running the long distance marathon in his hallway with his BIG BIG dog, calls number 1 "the BIG hairy boy!!" literally. "Hi, Big Hairy Boy!" :o)