UGH Am I going to be the crabby neighbor?

[tdk2]

May 8, 2013 20:56:11 GMT -5 @damnation said:

Your 18 mo old goes to bed at 9:30 at night? That's late.

Yup, usually 9pm but she gets up at 9 in the morning. (sometimes she's in bed at 8:30, up at 8:30, but she's pretty consistently around 9pm. for bed).  She takes a nice 2.5 hour nap most days midday.  She has ALWAYS been a night owl, so it was great when we got her to 8/9pm. 

It's quite nice w/ our life, esp since we run a restaurant/bar.  Our days don't usually start til 9am, so it works pretty well. 

Also easy to do stuff with people in the evenings. 
I'm sure this will have to shift when school starts, but it's been great so far. Once in awhile I wish she'd go to bed at 7pm when I've had a long day, but overall, it's great.

New baby is totally going to throw a wrench in our awesome sleep schedule, isn't it? 

[tdk2]

I wasn't as freaked about the older kids I've seen playing in the neighborhood unsupervised. I've been concerned that they're often in the road, but they're older.

It's the 1, 2, and 3 year olds that really freak me out unsupervised.

This 1 year old at the very least had an older brother with her. However, the 2 kids 2 doors down are 1.5 and 2.5 and play out front with no adults. That's freaky to me. I really didn't know if it was because I"m paranoid or if it's normal.

I did describe the situation to a neighbor friend from a few streets over. She's now a grandma and has lived there 30 years. I told her, and she said, "OH HELL NO! Where were the parents??" lol. She made me feel a little less like freak paranoid mom. She also saw the kids/their ages when she stopped by today.

[tdk2]

May 8, 2013 21:19:49 GMT -5 lilmissladybug said:

I probably wrote that unclearly -
the 3rd grader was coming over to ask if our baby C could come over to play b/c his little sister wouldn't stop crying all day.

(which, again, may be the exaggeration by a kid).   
I don't find that totally weird, b/c he's a little kid that found a new friend and saw me pull in.  It's more that I just want some of my private space, lol.  The weird to me was that I haven't seen the parents in any of this and I just can't imagine feeling like I'd be ok w/ my kids doing that unsupervised.

he also wanted my kid to cross the street w/ him last night which I told him no, she can't go over without me or dh.

[tdk2]

lilmissladybug - I can see the kid loving that, but to be honest, I'm probably going to keep things a bit distant right now.  We have kind of crazy schedules, and construction projects going all the time. My house is a mess, and I don't want to make an open invite to my back yard.   And I don't really want to play in the front yard with her, esp if I"m worried about watching other kids then at the same time.

Moreso, kids kind of gravitate towards me, and their little hopeful eyes make it SO hard for me to say no, that I think I have to set a lot of boundaries now and then just loosen up if I want later on. 

haha, funny, that was my teaching philosophy, too.  I'd start out very tough and then we had the ability to have a lot of fun w/in that structure b/c everyone knew the rules and what line not to cross. I currently don't mind that I take her lots of places to play w/ kids.  My house doesn't have to be clean for anyone then!  She's got about 12 or so little friends her age and while we're spread across the city, some do live close by.  She's a very social kid, and i love her having friends.  I just think that if the parents are cool w/ the older kid watching their really little one, then that puts me in a very different position than hanging w/ friends her age who have moms or dads who are watching closely.   We trade off watching then, but someone always asks, "hey, I'm stepping out to do this, can you keep an eye on her for a second?"  


I'm also working VERY hard on teaching my kid not to run off or go into the street.  It's something we never had to emphasize in the past when we lived right in a downtown area.  She had to have our hand when she was outside.   So, I really dont' want her thinking it's ok to do.  She already totally thinks she's a big kid and struts around and plays w/ big kids pretty well.  I have to keep reminding her she doesn't get to do all of the same things yet.

[jackpackage]

OMG, my kid is 10 months and I can't imagine a 3rd grader as his caretaker. I grew up in Detroit (moved in 91 when I was 10 so it's been a long time) and we had "safe zones". We had certain houses we were allowed to visit (ie, the cop across the street), but my parents were very protective of us otherwise. Like, we were allowed to ride our bikes 5 houses away, and under no circumstances were we ever allowed to go further.