It's a beautiful day today, 75 degrees and sunny, but not too sunny -- just enough so that you contemplate wearing sunglasses when you go out. Hmm... do I need them or not? Maybe I'll just wear a hat instead. Yeah, a hat... It's a great day to work from home -- or at least it would be if I wasn't so effing annoyed. I was planning on going for a run during my lunch break, but the pest-control people ruined it (fucking Orkin!), so instead I'm spending my break waiting for them and writing this post. They did that thing where they give you a time-window, and then don't show up during it, thus negating the entire purpose of the time-window. (They already have leeway as to when to come; that's precisely why it's a window and not a set time.) It's especially annoying for me because S set up the appointment, and so I can't even vent my frustration properly, because if I do then she will tell me that I should set up the appointment myself next year, which I probably should do, but that is not the point. The point is: fucking Orkin is fucking up my entire day! And all for a checkup in which they never find anything anyway. So I'm basically paying $50 to have my day ruined.
But other than that things are going pretty well. I'm constantly tired all the time, and so is S, but help is on the way. Next week S's parents are coming to town and her mom is going to stay with us until June. She will get the baby when he fusses in the middle of the night and wake up with Lil' S1, which will make things so much easier on us. The sleep deprivation is what gets me. If I'm reasonably well-rested then I can deal with all the other parenting bullshit. If I'm tired, then it turns the smallest things up to eleven.
Lil' S1's teacher had to have an unfortunate "talk" with us because he hit another kid with a block and then he started calling people booty-faces and poop-butts. He's at that age. We were mainly concerned with the hitting -- mostly because it's wrong to hit people, but also because if he keeps doing that, he's going to hit the wrong kid, a kid who's bigger and tougher than him, and that kid is going to hit back, and it's not going to go well for my beanpole son. We took away the iPad for the night, which, for Lil' S1, borderlines on cruel and unusual punishment, and it seemed to work. The next day after school, he came home and said, "Can I watch something? I didn't hit anybody today!"
I'm significantly less concerned with the potty-mouth. That's completely a function of being a child, I think. It seems like pretty much every little kid reaches a point in which they realize poo-poo talk gets a reaction, and they think it's funny, so they have a phase where they use it a lot. (Thankfully, it usually only lasts a few decades.) I don't really care, other than I wish he wouldn't use it in public. When he uses it at home, we usually tell him not to, but we don't really discipline him over it. And sometimes we laugh at it, because it’s genuinely amusing, which, of course, only encourages it.
It's funny too how kids will pull a "you got me there" on you. The other day, Lil' S1 was in the bathroom after going number two, trying to wipe himself, and not doing a very good job of it, so I was telling him to stop because he was getting poo-poo everywhere, and he said to me, "Daddy, you said no poo-poo talk." I told him it was okay if you are actually in the bathroom going poop. So the next time he's doing his business, he shouts to me, "Daddy, can I do poo-poo talk?!" I said he could, so he starts singing a little song: "poo-poo... poo-poo-poo... poo-p-poo-poo... oh yeah... oh yeah... poo-poo... poo-poo… bootie-wootie… oh yeah…" And I was thinking, “Well, you got me there.” At least he asked permission.
Overall, however, I think he's doing pretty well. His teacher says he's one of the more advanced students in his class, which is good being that he is literally the youngest kid in the entire school. Like me he’s got a late summer birthday, so we have to decide whether or not to keep him with his current class, which is where he's supposed to be according to DC public school rules, or try to hold him back a grade. I also have a late summer birthday, my parents held me back (or more accurately, enrolled me in kindergarten a year later than I could have been), which worked out for me, because of how I developed physically (I was a little bit of a late bloomer), but I certainly could have kept up academically had I been a year ahead. Plus, it wasn’t such a big deal back then. Now, because parents have started gaming the system, districts have had to crack down on keeping children in their appropriate classes, which I completely understand. I mean, somebody has to be the youngest in their grade. If everybody with a child born in August or September holds their kid back a year, then July just becomes the cutoff, which is no better (or worse) than having the cutoff in September. And then parents with children born in July would want to hold back their children and so on. The only way to stop the creep is to stop the creep.
And this segues nicely into one of my least favorite parts of parenting – the scholastic competition. I hate the constant jostling and maneuvering that parents are basically expected to do to give their child a leg up and everybody else's. Can't we all just work together work together for the good of all our kids? It is particularly bad here in DC, because we have charter schools that select potential enrollees through a lottery that happens in early March every year. So right about now, it is the talk of the town among parents with young kids. What schools are you trying for? Did you hear about this new one? It has a Chinese immersion program. But this other one is Montessori. Yeah, but it only got a 4.4 rating from the School Board. Yeah, but they have 30 new openings and that other one only has 5. Plus, it’s all they way on Capitol Hill – the traffic! Yeah, but it's worth it, it got a perfect 10 rating! We are going to put in bids for both our kids, so that we double our chances. Make sure you do it for pre-K3, otherwise they won't have any openings. Well, if we don’t get in, we’re going to think about private school...
I mean, I get it, everybody wants to do what’s best for their kids. But the way we do education in this country is not right, and it’s a huge part of the reason why we have "two Americas." If I could make any system from scratch, it would be publicly funded neighborhood schools, in which every school in the state is funded from the same source and doled out in a manner so that all schools perform roughly the same. Everything is equal (more or less) regardless of where you live you; everybody pays for everybody else’s kids. Schools in poor parts of the state would get the same resources as those in rich parts (perhaps more to overcome other disadvantages). I would even go so far as to say that you cannot fund-raise on behalf of an individual school. You have to fund-raise on behalf of all schools (or maybe just on behalf of your school and another "sister" school of different demographics; I haven't worked it all out yet). You want to have a bake sale to get new basketball uniforms? Great, but part of that money is going to go somewhere else too.
Yes, this means rich people would pay for poor people’s kids. Yes, it’s socialism. So what? I believe in socialism for kids, because the alternative – that you begin life at a profound disadvantage if you happen to be born into the wrong circumstances – is something much worse than socialism. A nontrivial reason why I want my kids to go to their neighborhood public school is because I believe in the community aspect of it and because neighborhood public school cannot survive if parents like S and I aren’t willing to “invest” in it. Of course, it helps a great deal that our local public school is decent – not spectacular, but decent. If it was like something out of Lean on Me (timely reference), I might feel differently.
Okay, I gotta go, but before I do, everybody’s favorite recurring segment: Health Update! I did some physical therapy the other day and the therapist said that it is probably not a rotator cuff injury and probably won’t require surgery. Instead she thinks it’s inflammation caused by overuse and that it will come down in time with rest and physical therapy. This actually makes a lot of sense as I noticed it shortly after I got back into weightlifting. I probably overdid it – too much, too soon. Sometimes I forget that I’m now a legitimate 20 years removed from my physical peak (frowny face emoji). It also doesn’t help that I live with a three-year old who thinks I’m his personal jungle gym. Oh and by the way, he's sick right now. Somebody all four of us will be healthy at the same time... hopefully.
Until next time…
But other than that things are going pretty well. I'm constantly tired all the time, and so is S, but help is on the way. Next week S's parents are coming to town and her mom is going to stay with us until June. She will get the baby when he fusses in the middle of the night and wake up with Lil' S1, which will make things so much easier on us. The sleep deprivation is what gets me. If I'm reasonably well-rested then I can deal with all the other parenting bullshit. If I'm tired, then it turns the smallest things up to eleven.
Lil' S1's teacher had to have an unfortunate "talk" with us because he hit another kid with a block and then he started calling people booty-faces and poop-butts. He's at that age. We were mainly concerned with the hitting -- mostly because it's wrong to hit people, but also because if he keeps doing that, he's going to hit the wrong kid, a kid who's bigger and tougher than him, and that kid is going to hit back, and it's not going to go well for my beanpole son. We took away the iPad for the night, which, for Lil' S1, borderlines on cruel and unusual punishment, and it seemed to work. The next day after school, he came home and said, "Can I watch something? I didn't hit anybody today!"
I'm significantly less concerned with the potty-mouth. That's completely a function of being a child, I think. It seems like pretty much every little kid reaches a point in which they realize poo-poo talk gets a reaction, and they think it's funny, so they have a phase where they use it a lot. (Thankfully, it usually only lasts a few decades.) I don't really care, other than I wish he wouldn't use it in public. When he uses it at home, we usually tell him not to, but we don't really discipline him over it. And sometimes we laugh at it, because it’s genuinely amusing, which, of course, only encourages it.
It's funny too how kids will pull a "you got me there" on you. The other day, Lil' S1 was in the bathroom after going number two, trying to wipe himself, and not doing a very good job of it, so I was telling him to stop because he was getting poo-poo everywhere, and he said to me, "Daddy, you said no poo-poo talk." I told him it was okay if you are actually in the bathroom going poop. So the next time he's doing his business, he shouts to me, "Daddy, can I do poo-poo talk?!" I said he could, so he starts singing a little song: "poo-poo... poo-poo-poo... poo-p-poo-poo... oh yeah... oh yeah... poo-poo... poo-poo… bootie-wootie… oh yeah…" And I was thinking, “Well, you got me there.” At least he asked permission.
Overall, however, I think he's doing pretty well. His teacher says he's one of the more advanced students in his class, which is good being that he is literally the youngest kid in the entire school. Like me he’s got a late summer birthday, so we have to decide whether or not to keep him with his current class, which is where he's supposed to be according to DC public school rules, or try to hold him back a grade. I also have a late summer birthday, my parents held me back (or more accurately, enrolled me in kindergarten a year later than I could have been), which worked out for me, because of how I developed physically (I was a little bit of a late bloomer), but I certainly could have kept up academically had I been a year ahead. Plus, it wasn’t such a big deal back then. Now, because parents have started gaming the system, districts have had to crack down on keeping children in their appropriate classes, which I completely understand. I mean, somebody has to be the youngest in their grade. If everybody with a child born in August or September holds their kid back a year, then July just becomes the cutoff, which is no better (or worse) than having the cutoff in September. And then parents with children born in July would want to hold back their children and so on. The only way to stop the creep is to stop the creep.
And this segues nicely into one of my least favorite parts of parenting – the scholastic competition. I hate the constant jostling and maneuvering that parents are basically expected to do to give their child a leg up and everybody else's. Can't we all just work together work together for the good of all our kids? It is particularly bad here in DC, because we have charter schools that select potential enrollees through a lottery that happens in early March every year. So right about now, it is the talk of the town among parents with young kids. What schools are you trying for? Did you hear about this new one? It has a Chinese immersion program. But this other one is Montessori. Yeah, but it only got a 4.4 rating from the School Board. Yeah, but they have 30 new openings and that other one only has 5. Plus, it’s all they way on Capitol Hill – the traffic! Yeah, but it's worth it, it got a perfect 10 rating! We are going to put in bids for both our kids, so that we double our chances. Make sure you do it for pre-K3, otherwise they won't have any openings. Well, if we don’t get in, we’re going to think about private school...
I mean, I get it, everybody wants to do what’s best for their kids. But the way we do education in this country is not right, and it’s a huge part of the reason why we have "two Americas." If I could make any system from scratch, it would be publicly funded neighborhood schools, in which every school in the state is funded from the same source and doled out in a manner so that all schools perform roughly the same. Everything is equal (more or less) regardless of where you live you; everybody pays for everybody else’s kids. Schools in poor parts of the state would get the same resources as those in rich parts (perhaps more to overcome other disadvantages). I would even go so far as to say that you cannot fund-raise on behalf of an individual school. You have to fund-raise on behalf of all schools (or maybe just on behalf of your school and another "sister" school of different demographics; I haven't worked it all out yet). You want to have a bake sale to get new basketball uniforms? Great, but part of that money is going to go somewhere else too.
Yes, this means rich people would pay for poor people’s kids. Yes, it’s socialism. So what? I believe in socialism for kids, because the alternative – that you begin life at a profound disadvantage if you happen to be born into the wrong circumstances – is something much worse than socialism. A nontrivial reason why I want my kids to go to their neighborhood public school is because I believe in the community aspect of it and because neighborhood public school cannot survive if parents like S and I aren’t willing to “invest” in it. Of course, it helps a great deal that our local public school is decent – not spectacular, but decent. If it was like something out of Lean on Me (timely reference), I might feel differently.
Okay, I gotta go, but before I do, everybody’s favorite recurring segment: Health Update! I did some physical therapy the other day and the therapist said that it is probably not a rotator cuff injury and probably won’t require surgery. Instead she thinks it’s inflammation caused by overuse and that it will come down in time with rest and physical therapy. This actually makes a lot of sense as I noticed it shortly after I got back into weightlifting. I probably overdid it – too much, too soon. Sometimes I forget that I’m now a legitimate 20 years removed from my physical peak (frowny face emoji). It also doesn’t help that I live with a three-year old who thinks I’m his personal jungle gym. Oh and by the way, he's sick right now. Somebody all four of us will be healthy at the same time... hopefully.
Until next time…
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