Some days just make me tired
Daniel stayed home from school today, because Noah and Oscar, his homeschooled friends, were coming to visit. Now, one of the reasons I want to homeschool him is that I'm not terribly impressed with the violent-TV and video-game obsessed kids on our block. It breaks my heart to see my imaginative, creative kid being told that imagination games are for "babies", and I'd like him to be around other kids who are also into that kind of thing.
So Noah and Oscar get here, and what's the first thing Daniel wants to do? Show them Age of Mythology, his computer game. Then show the Yu-Gi-Oh trading cards and teach them to play.
Uh... Daniel? You can play Age of Mythology and Yu-Gi-Oh with any of your neighbourhood friends. Why don't you play pretend while Noah and Oscar are here?
Finally, grumbling somewhat, Daniel gives in. And has a pretty good time.
So now his neighbourhood friends are back from school, and Daniel wants to play with them. Or rather, with their video games. OK, fine, I'm tired of trying to re-direct him, and besides, I don't mind if he does that stuff - I just mind when that's all he does.
So out he goes, and tries to go to Khoi's house. Comes back telling me that he can't go into Khoi's house because he's not wearing shoes, and Khoi and his friends make fun of him because he goes barefoot all the time.
Ah, fuck.
I love having my kids go barefoot. I go barefoot myself, whenever I can. We live in frigging Canada, for god's sake. Eight months of the year it's too damn cold to go barefoot, and going barefoot is better for your feet, posture, skin, etc, etc, etc... But I suppose the parents on this street, who don't mind at all that their kids' vocabularies consist of absolutely nothing more than, "Kill!! Zap!! Get him - no, go up!! Yaah!!" are at least bound and determined to make sure their children wear shoes, god damnit. Because Armageddon will commence if all the children are not properly shod, and all children who are different are not properly bullied into compliance with the neighbourhood dress code.
Blessed is the Norm.
I hate people.
So Noah and Oscar get here, and what's the first thing Daniel wants to do? Show them Age of Mythology, his computer game. Then show the Yu-Gi-Oh trading cards and teach them to play.
Uh... Daniel? You can play Age of Mythology and Yu-Gi-Oh with any of your neighbourhood friends. Why don't you play pretend while Noah and Oscar are here?
Finally, grumbling somewhat, Daniel gives in. And has a pretty good time.
So now his neighbourhood friends are back from school, and Daniel wants to play with them. Or rather, with their video games. OK, fine, I'm tired of trying to re-direct him, and besides, I don't mind if he does that stuff - I just mind when that's all he does.
So out he goes, and tries to go to Khoi's house. Comes back telling me that he can't go into Khoi's house because he's not wearing shoes, and Khoi and his friends make fun of him because he goes barefoot all the time.
Ah, fuck.
I love having my kids go barefoot. I go barefoot myself, whenever I can. We live in frigging Canada, for god's sake. Eight months of the year it's too damn cold to go barefoot, and going barefoot is better for your feet, posture, skin, etc, etc, etc... But I suppose the parents on this street, who don't mind at all that their kids' vocabularies consist of absolutely nothing more than, "Kill!! Zap!! Get him - no, go up!! Yaah!!" are at least bound and determined to make sure their children wear shoes, god damnit. Because Armageddon will commence if all the children are not properly shod, and all children who are different are not properly bullied into compliance with the neighbourhood dress code.
Blessed is the Norm.
I hate people.