I’m bored. What’s new?

[liveintheville]

RockNVoll when’s the big move?
Lately we’ve spent a lot of time debating how much freedom C should have. He’s 10 and I see his friends roaming around town all the time. Right now he’s in camp about 2-3 blocks away. My view is he can walk home by himself. D isn’t comfortable with it. C is fine with it. We send him with his phone so he calls when he’s leaving and we stay in touch. It’s been fine and D acknowledges he is having trouble letting go.

[liveintheville]

Jul 27, 2018 10:35:50 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

Thanks for asking. We will hopefully close on Monday or Tuesday and then move in early August. We are in a bad place with the contractors due to various disagreements and the house brings me no joy at this point. Sorry to be a downer, it's just been a bad couple of months of dealing with all kinds of BS.

I never feel qualified to provide opinions on kid stuff for obvious reasons. I can see both your and D's points of view. Is C pushing to be allowed to do more on his own?

Bah! Sorry the contractors are being a pain. The process sounds tortuous. I hope in the end it turns out how you want. Our last place they forgot our under cabinet lights which pissed me off.
C isn’t pushing but is excited to walk home. D says he’ll be ok with more freedom when C is 11. Well that happens in October so he’ll need to adjust pretty quickly. He’s so small it’s deceiving. His friends are so much bigger and appear more mature. Meanwhile he’ll be in a car seat til he’s like 13.

[mswax]

There are a lot of helicopter parents in our town! My kids don't have phones yet, so they are essentially unreachable when they are outside the house. Our rule for the big kids (8 and 10) is they can go anywhere up the street (ends in several cul-de-sacs) alone, but no where else. We had some friends recently move a few streets away, and we'll likely let the oldest go there alone if he asks, and the 8-year-old go without an adult but with someone else. My oldest can also stay home for up to an hour or so alone, but not with his brothers and no adults.

All I can say is every kid is different, and I know the rules will be different at different ages, even just for my kids, because they are SO different from each other. However, independence comes in stages, and our goal as parents is raise adults, so we need to let them get there eventually!

[liveintheville]

Jul 27, 2018 12:15:58 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

Jul 27, 2018 11:09:43 GMT -5 liveintheville said:

Bah! Sorry the contractors are being a pain. The process sounds tortuous. I hope in the end it turns out how you want. Our last place they forgot our under cabinet lights which pissed me off.
C isn’t pushing but is excited to walk home. D says he’ll be ok with more freedom when C is 11. Well that happens in October so he’ll need to adjust pretty quickly. He’s so small it’s deceiving. His friends are so much bigger and appear more mature. Meanwhile he’ll be in a car seat til he’s like 13.

Yeah, with the benefit of hindsight I'm not entirely sure how I'd advise myself about whether this has been worth it.  I wish I was more excited than I am.  I also have to say thank goodness for DH, who has been a rock through all of this aggravation.

LOL at D and October   Would C's friends be doing any part of the walk home with him?

It’ll be worth it! I hope
Nah he has to do the walk solo but it’s basically a straight shot and he talks to me on the way.

[liveintheville]

Jul 27, 2018 12:17:27 GMT -5 mswax said:

There are a lot of helicopter parents in our town! My kids don't have phones yet, so they are essentially unreachable when they are outside the house. Our rule for the big kids (8 and 10) is they can go anywhere up the street (ends in several cul-de-sacs) alone, but no where else. We had some friends recently move a few streets away, and we'll likely let the oldest go there alone if he asks, and the 8-year-old go without an adult but with someone else. My oldest can also stay home for up to an hour or so alone, but not with his brothers and no adults.

All I can say is every kid is different, and I know the rules will be different at different ages, even just for my kids, because they are SO different from each other. However, independence comes in stages, and our goal as parents is raise adults, so we need to let them get there eventually!

Yeah I agree that it’s kid dependent. I wouldn’t trust our 8 year old. He’d run into traffic. I’m waiting for the day they can walk home from school together.

[liveintheville]

Jul 27, 2018 14:12:45 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

Jul 27, 2018 12:45:24 GMT -5 liveintheville said:

It’ll be worth it! I hope
Nah he has to do the walk solo but it’s basically a straight shot and he talks to me on the way.

Oh, in that case, I'd absolutely let him do the walk alone!  Maybe you can sell it to D as giving him a trial run for a couple of months to see if he can really handle it when he turns 11   It's all about how you sell it!

Yesterday was the last day of parts and crafts camp. He walked home just fine. But next week is Somerville rec camp and then the following two weeks are Spanish camp. Both of which you have to drive to. So the adventure has ended but we were met with success.

Today D made an appt at the Apple Genius Bar to get his phone fixed. He plans to bring all the other phones along to discuss their problems. Caleb’s won’t charge, Lucas’s and mine have loose plugs, etc. I told him I thought they were one appt per phone and he was like f that noise. So we’ll have a fun filled afternoon at the Apple store. At least he will. I’ve scheduled a mani/pedi at the place in the mall for that time

[drloretta]

Rock, sorry to hear your house process has lost its luster. I cannot imagine the crap you've been dealing with.

Ville, I'm on your side as far as kid independence. It sounds like C was more than ready, and the experiment went well. Hopefully that means more independence to come.

I am finally coming up for air after an 8-month project from hell. No idea what I'll be working on next. I applied for a job and did a writing test, but failed Oh well. I'm debriefing with the recruiter tomorrow. DH applied for a job in Memphis(!), but it didn't pan out--shocker. I just got back from a week in NJ for a product launch, and a meeting in Nashville. DH took S for the weekend on a variety of adventures so I could relax. He's a good egg.

We need a GTG!

[drloretta]

DH is torn. He likes where he's working now, and it's the first time he comes home every day and says he likes his job. The pace isn't too crazy, the pay is good, and he just got a nice raise. But they just had layoffs in April, and currently have enough cash to get them through 2020. So he's keeping an ear to the ground in case something comes up. Ideally we'd like to stay where we are (shocker!), but if a dream job is somewhere else...

I'm a little nervous as I'm not sure what my next project will be, so I'm hoping I can have something to do soon. This week has been a struggle to fill out my timesheet

[liveintheville]

So we just got back from Long Island visiting d’s sister and kids. Wednesday our friends from Germany are coming. And the kids had their first day of Spanish camp today. It seems to have gone well.