OK, just kidding. I could never live holed up in the mountains.
I'm just feeling frustrated right now and am not sure what to do.
Up until this past year, we've pretty much sheltered our kids. I'll admit it. We let them play in the backyard but didn't let them play out front unsupervised or run around the neighborhood, we mostly hung out with other homeschoolers or church people with similar values, we basically just kept them close to home. But then I realized they were really craving having looser boundaries, so we started letting them run around with the neighborhood kids, talk on the phone, spend the night at friend's houses, stuff like that. And now I'm wishing we never had.
It's the neighborhood thing that's the biggest pain. First it was M., this kid down the street who was making racist and homophobic comments. He got made at Michael and threatened to "rip his nuts off." We finally told Michael he couldn't play with him anymore because it was constant drama. That was last fall.
Now we have an issue with the people a block over. Or rather, they seem to have an issue with our oldest. They have two kids-- one is a daughter who is a year or so older than my daughter. I have no issues with her. She's a little more "worldly" than my kids-- into Hannah Montanna, has an iPod, stuff like that-- but she seems like a good kid. Her little brother B, however, is a different story. If I am to believe my kid, B. lies about stuff, causes drama, just generally seems to thrive of causing trouble. Told some story about his sister shoplifting stuff from the mall, which she then denied, then said was true, who knows.
There's one other neighborhood kid, D., who is the common factor in all this. He's my son age, and he seems OK, I guess.
Anyway, tonight Michael came home and is all upset because he and D. went over to ask H. if she wanted to play. They don't like to play with B. And apparently, B and H's parents went off on Michael and D, saying they were telling lies about B, saying his family was crazy, all sorts of weird crap. And that they were going to come over and talk to us.
I just don't need this drama. I don't understand adults getting into kids' battles like this. I have no desire to step in unless someone is really getting hurt. And I have no reason to believe my kid is lying to me. He's told me some of the weird crap B. has said and done, and he's never called him names or insulted his family. Mostly he seems genuinely bewildered that someone would act this way. My biggest worry is that my daughter won't be able to play with H. anymore because of this.
And if you've read this far and kept up, good for you, because I don't quite get what's happening either. All I know is I liked it much better when my kids just played with each other and saw church kids on Sunday and homeschool kids at co-op.
I'm just feeling frustrated right now and am not sure what to do.
Up until this past year, we've pretty much sheltered our kids. I'll admit it. We let them play in the backyard but didn't let them play out front unsupervised or run around the neighborhood, we mostly hung out with other homeschoolers or church people with similar values, we basically just kept them close to home. But then I realized they were really craving having looser boundaries, so we started letting them run around with the neighborhood kids, talk on the phone, spend the night at friend's houses, stuff like that. And now I'm wishing we never had.
It's the neighborhood thing that's the biggest pain. First it was M., this kid down the street who was making racist and homophobic comments. He got made at Michael and threatened to "rip his nuts off." We finally told Michael he couldn't play with him anymore because it was constant drama. That was last fall.
Now we have an issue with the people a block over. Or rather, they seem to have an issue with our oldest. They have two kids-- one is a daughter who is a year or so older than my daughter. I have no issues with her. She's a little more "worldly" than my kids-- into Hannah Montanna, has an iPod, stuff like that-- but she seems like a good kid. Her little brother B, however, is a different story. If I am to believe my kid, B. lies about stuff, causes drama, just generally seems to thrive of causing trouble. Told some story about his sister shoplifting stuff from the mall, which she then denied, then said was true, who knows.
There's one other neighborhood kid, D., who is the common factor in all this. He's my son age, and he seems OK, I guess.
Anyway, tonight Michael came home and is all upset because he and D. went over to ask H. if she wanted to play. They don't like to play with B. And apparently, B and H's parents went off on Michael and D, saying they were telling lies about B, saying his family was crazy, all sorts of weird crap. And that they were going to come over and talk to us.
I just don't need this drama. I don't understand adults getting into kids' battles like this. I have no desire to step in unless someone is really getting hurt. And I have no reason to believe my kid is lying to me. He's told me some of the weird crap B. has said and done, and he's never called him names or insulted his family. Mostly he seems genuinely bewildered that someone would act this way. My biggest worry is that my daughter won't be able to play with H. anymore because of this.
And if you've read this far and kept up, good for you, because I don't quite get what's happening either. All I know is I liked it much better when my kids just played with each other and saw church kids on Sunday and homeschool kids at co-op.
If they come over, I'd just tell them what you said here -- basically that your son is not calling their child names but is just wondering why he does certain things. And also that you prefer to let the children work out their differences.
), throwing rocks at my kids when their play went awry. The mother/grandparents were useless and I finally said no to playing with those kids and whenever there is an issue I go directly to the kids and tell them to knock it off. They've given us a wide berth for the summer and I try to encourage other friendships - but frankly even those have their own landmines and sometimes I feel like I would really like to retreat to my little homeschooling bubble. We've had issues with exclusion or one of my kids, issues with "preteen tone" seeping in after extended play, issues around pitting one kids against the other (and this is from the parents sometimes) issues with clashing family values (ie why we don't buy things every day for sport - these kids go shopping at the toy store probably 3 times a week). I have to say we deliberately make our selves scarce a couple of days a week (go hiking, to the beach, on a field trip etc) to give us all a break and to recentre as a family. I love when school goes back.
I don't know. I'm kind of done with H. and B.'s family, and while I don't want my daughter's feelings to be hurt, I've been kind of on the fence about her hanging out with a kid a couple years older than her. The whole thing is just really silly.
). I have no patience for that kind of crap.
Luckily since fall is coming up we will be restarting some activities like Scouts and soccer, so they will see their friends more often.
