My 13yo still believed in Santa and I ruined it today BECAUSE I THOUGHT HE HAD BEEN HUMORING ME FOR YEARS.
It was traumatic for me honestly but he swears it’s fine and MH swears Jackson is fine (he talked to him after I did). And because my H is always looking for the funny angle told Jackson he expected him to thank him for all the years of presents. ::eye roll::
I legit cannot believe he still believed and that I RUINED IT. omg Wtf. I feel like the worst mother ever.
My DS is 11 and we had the Santa talk two summers ago and he was DEVASTATED about it. So then comes last Christmas and he acted like this talk never happened. I made an offhand comment re: Santa and he was like "what do you mean?" So I quickly dropped it and we carried on. Fast forward to now, he is still acting like Santa is a thing. So, do I have another discussion with him? Let it go? What?
I think I'd just let it lie. I think my 11 year old knows there isn't a Santa, but he also is just happy to believe too. Maybe he's waffling. Some kids just slowly grow out of it and don't need to be told directly. I did that and it was great - I kept pretending to believe, but not going overboard and it was more fun during the holidays than to be direct. It sort of morphed from true believing to truly appreciating those who keep the magic alive for younger kids to really appreciating the thoughtfulness of giving for the season.
eclaires - so sorry about J. I wasn't sure about my kid when he was 12 and luckily he gave me clues that he didn't. Someday, he'll probably have a funny story about your ruining Santa when he visits and is like 30.
Post by downtoearth on Dec 10, 2019 15:43:17 GMT -5
Oh and if you want some @ related Holiday drama comedy... I jumped in the ML thread and realized how crazy going to my younger kids' Frozen play on Friday night (with XH and a bunch of family) is going to be. It's pretty funny and if I could send a stunt-double in my place I would totally do it.
Does anyone have experience with Dual immersion programs? I'm considering enrolling DD1 for K next year. They use a 90/10 model, where K is 90% Spanish, 10% English, with increasing amounts of English each year after that. I think it would be awesome for her to be bilingual, but I'm worried that she would be frustrated and overwhelmed, at least at first (she speaks basically no Spanish now). I speak some Spanish, but am not fluent, and DH only speaks a little. From their website, they seem to have a mix of kids with English-speaking and Spanish-speaking parents.
I also have some logistical concerns - the school is near my work but about 40 minutes from my home, which would be hard on days I was traveling or not working, and would make things like playdates challenging.
Our oldest son is in our public school’s dual language program, and our youngest will be grandfathered in because his brother is in it. (Spanish speaking student who want to be a part are automatically granted entry, but because they strive for a 50/50 match in the program, English-speaking students must apply via lottery.)
It’s an immersion program that is K-8th grade (whereupon they can do AP Spanish at the HS level.)
We love it. It is hard because it’s truly immersion, but the day is split, so half the day in English and half in Spanish. Right now he has math in Spanish and science in English, but that will flip flop in the third grade.
He doesn’t understand everything his teacher says, but they do a great job of using visual cues to help them get it. I’m happy to answer any questions you have.
Thanks! DH and I talked some more though and decided not to pursue it because of the distance - it would be really problematic for DH if he had to dropoff or pick up some days. Our neighborhood school offers an after school Spanish enrichment program; it's obviously not the same but maybe we'll do that.
DS just went down with what I think is probably the norovirus. I'm flying out for a funeral on Friday. I'm suddenly panicky that I'm not going to be able to make it.
My DD had a dance performance (its not really a recital because it was a show her dance group put on at a assisted living facility for the residents) and I was dying at the 2-4 age group because only about one kid in the group would do the dance. The other ones kind of stood there, overwhelmed by the crowd. It was absolutely adorable.
My daughter, (who had a brief career as a professional ballet dancer), teaches preschool in Japan, and she teaches dance in as addition to English and normal stuff.
The last time we talked she said that she had choreographed two dances to Christmas songs for the program the had just had the day before. She said that she was really proud of the kids, because they each got at least one part of it right. I jokingly asked of they got it right at the same time and she said, "Oh, no....no. that would require a Christmas miracle." lol
She said that they do well in class, but in front of an audience sooner of them just freeze and stare.
I volunteered to supervise the light crew for the middle school musical -- DD1 was interested in doing some kind of tech work, so we both ended up on lights.
This is our tech week; performances start tomorrow. I haven't had a tech week in a loooooong time -- since undergrad! It's fun, the kids have picked things up super quickly and I hardly have to do anything, but OMG, it's just a lot of hours even though it's still pretty light compared to a college or even a high school production. I'll be glad when everything is over, but I think DD1 is enjoying it.
I miss theater, though. Man.
The girls' Christmas presents for each other have arrived, and DH and I have both been so impressed with how much thoughtfulness they put into what they wanted to get the other. Like, way more than I did at their ages when buying gifts for my siblings. Sophie got Elsa a particular stuffy fish from Etsy, and when it arrived, I swear to God I have never seen anyone's face light up like that because they were so excited about a gift they were *giving*. I think it's etched in my memory forever. I hope so. She has even said that the one thing she wants to do this Christmas is to "make Elsa happy," and she genuinely means it. She is such a gift, this girl-child.
We got a Christmas card from my parents yesterday and it's a picture of them with my DD from our professional family photos.
They sent it from them and my DD. Like, "Merry Christmas - Steve, Linda, & Julia (5)."
I'm not mad or anything, but that's kind of weird, right?
I may be able to trump this.
My MIL texted last night to tell me she is using a professional family photo of me, H, SD, and DD - the *same exact photo* we just used for OUR holiday cards - on her holiday cards. MIL isn't in the picture at all.
And then told me "But don't worry, I'm only sending my card to a few of the same people you did."
I am actually kind of annoyed by this. Now people in H's family are going to get two holiday cards with the exact same family picture of the four of us.
And it isn't like H is an only child - his sister and her family are going to be entirely unrepresented on this card, lol (they didn't do professional family pics).
My parents did something like that one year too (not the same picture we were using, but just us). At least I'm an only child?
So did anyone else watch the Kennedy Center Honors? I was disappointed by the Sesame Street tribute ... bringing the puppeteers out on stage in full view for “Sing” was nice, but I have no idea who that first singer was or what song he performed. I was hoping they’d do a medley of the classic songs from the show - James Taylor doing “I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon” would’ve been nice.
Grown up kid but still, a kid. My son's dentist was having a raffle of some sort. He won a 55" smart TV. We have to go buy a new TV now. All my kids have bigger, smarter televisions than we do now, lol. (Shoot, their televisions are bigger and smarter than *I* am.)