Tag: Kids

  • School Has Started! AGAIN!

    School started today in New York City. I know we start later than most of the country. My nieces and nephews back in Texas started school in the middle of August, and just about everywhere else gets their kids back into class before Labor Day. Either way, today was the day that the kid went back to school.

    The kid was ready to explode this morning! When I went to wake her up, she was buried deep in her blankets. I opened the shades to let in the sunlight and got a weak groan from her. But when I announced in her general direction, that today was the first day of school, she shot up in bed, eyes wide, and told me what friends she was hoping would be in her class. Her backpack was packed, and lunch made. She picked out what she wanted to wear the night before. This kid was ready.

    It was a calming reassurance getting ready for school. We brushed our teeth and took the first day pictures. We held hands as we crossed the street, and said hello to the same crossing guard who has been on that corner for years. We saw friends and parents of friends walking to the school. It was a cool, slightly cloudy September morning, but it felt perfect for going to school.

    A few things were different about this first day. There were no masks. We didn’t have to fill out a health screening. The kids weren’t kept three feet apart as the lined up to go into school. It was what I would come close to calling normal, though I am aware that this will not be a normal year. COVID isn’t fully gone, and the ramification of the past two years are still present. Students are still playing catch up, both academically and emotionally. There’s a lot that we all need to pitch in and help with.

    But, the tumbler of life has clicked into another season of the year, and things begin anew.

  • Thinking of Autumn and Climate Change

    I put pants on today. Since the last week in June until yesterday, I have been in shorts. It is Summer after all, so that should not come as a shock to anyone. But the fact that I put on a pair of khaki pants, and it is a little humid today so it might not have been the wisest decision, to me marks the start of Fall. That’s right, I am calling it: Today starts the slow and steady decent into the Autumn Season.

    Not too long ago, I made the declaration that I am over Summer. The heat, humidity, and the constant A/C being on, wore me down. I was, and still am, ready for the seasons to change. Today, I took an active step in acclimating myself to this coming Autumn.

    Yet, I don’t think any of us have been able to escape the constant and unrelenting news reports that this Summer was the hottest, and depending on where you lived, either the driest or wettest on record. Once in a 1,000-year droughts, or once in 1,000-year floods keep happening. The heat will only get worse. Meaning that Summers will get longer, making the other seasons shorter. Even talking to my father this weekend, and he isn’t the biggest believer of climate change, he has started to express worry and concern for the future.

    There are many things that I dislike about humanity, and sadly, I think most people are like my father. They didn’t believe climate change would happen, until it happened. I remember being in grade school, so that is the mid-80’s, and every school year we had an Earth Week, where we were taught about cleaning up and throwing away garbage, being respectful of nature, because if the planet started falling apart due to how we treated it, then we are all screwed. And I grew up in Texas, so I know I got the most conservative version of that message.

    Now at least, it seems like everyone is coming around to the truth. That at least makes me hopeful for the future, and for my daughter’s generation. I know two things to be true. One is that humans are great at adapting and overcoming life threating problems. We’ve been doing it for 100,000 years. The second goes back to what I said before, people only believe in something if they experience it first-hand. To me, that’s says that humanity is primed to solve this problem.

    I’m trying to stay optimistic, and keep the faith in all of us working together. I sure hope that’s not misplaced. In the meantime, I will start to think about taking the sweaters out of winter storage.

    (And on that happy note, If you like what you read, be a champ and give a like, or a share, or hell, even leave a comment. Does a body good!)

  • ODDS and ENDS: I Want to Watch Tottenham Live, Office Drone, and It’s Hot Out

    Tottenham is playing Wolverhampton this Saturday morning. It’s a home match for Spurs, and they should win, but I won’t be able to watch it live, because the match is being shown on USA. See, we cut the cord years ago, and I got Peacock to watch the Premier League, but not every match is shown live, so I have to wait to watch the replay later that night. I have to be very selective when it comes to going on social media Saturday, because I don’t want to accidently see the score. It’s a minor inconvenience, but it still is an inconvenience. I am sure there is a contractual reason for all for, but I still don’t understand why there isn’t one place you can go to watch all the matches live. It’s taken some time, but you can now do that with the NFL. It costs you, but there is a way for an out of market fan to watch their favorite team all season long. I’m a bit surprised that Peacock/NBC Sports hasn’t figured out a way to do this. Currently, if you want to watch your PL team live, then you need to have access to NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, Univeriso, and USA: two are free channels, two are cable channels, and one is streaming. That’s a lot of hoops to jump through, and I don’t know if that is the smartest way to build a brand. What it feels like is that NBC is just replicating their Olympic coverage system, which is terrible and no one likes. Just, come up with a better system guys.

    The wife got me to start watching Severance on Apple TV. I know that I am late to the party, as everyone has already talked about how great the show is, and I don’t disagree with that. (It’s like, if OK Computer were a tv show.) Last night as I was watching the third episode, and a thought went through my head; This show reminds me so much of working in the corporate/business world. And then I thought; I have never worked in the corporate/business world. I have worked for the past 15 years in the arts, about as far as you can get from the corporate world. Yet, this show seems to tap into something within me that makes me think that I have experienced what this show is presenting. I find that deeply fascinating.

    I love my daughter. Let’s just get that out there. I love her, and it’s my job to look after her. Today, it will be close to 90 degrees in NYC, and we have a playdate at the park. I explained to the kid that it will be hot today, and she should dress in shorts or a skirt, and a tee-shirt. Having given her these parameters, I sent her off into her room to pick out clothes, and she comes back in pants and a long-sleeved shirt. Now, my gut reaction is to tell her to go back into her room and change, but there is also part of me that wants to let her go to the park that way. You know, so she can learn to ware temperature appropriate clothing; experience is the best teacher, right? No, I chose the argument and the avoidance of heat stroke.

    (And again – please take a moment to like, share, or comment on this blog. Little kittens are counting on you.)

  • Putting the Kid to Work

    I’m putting the kid to work today. We are going to paint baseboards. See, I was able to paint everything in the kid’s room; purple walls with white doorways and the windows. The only thing I wasn’t able to get to were the baseboards. Hence why I’m putting the kid to work. Also, I would like her to take a little ownership of her space, as well. You know, make her feel that the room belongs to her. But I also know that it’s just fun to play with paint.

    And the Summer is winding down. There is only three weeks left to the kid’s Summer vacation, and I am sure this won’t be the last time I will say this, but the Summer has gone by really fast. This week, we’ll do our back to school shopping, and next week we have our meet and greet with the kid’s new teacher. Then Labor Day, and the school starts.

    And the cycle starts all over again.

    Which means it virtually Christmas, right?

    What I am trying to remind myself is that I have limited, one on one time with the kid. She’s getting older, becoming her own person, and won’t want to be around me forever. As she grows, our relationship will change, has already changed actually, and that’s something I need to get used to.

    I can see why some parents never want their kids to get older, or change. (Just stay small and innocent, you know.) I like the fact that she’s getting feisty and opinioned. This sword cuts both way as wanting her to be her own person means that she will have to pull away from me. This isn’t a new story in the world, but it is one that I am experiencing for the first time.

    But for today, we’ll paint baseboards together. And I have a feeling that she will make me listen to The Descendants soundtrack, again.

    (Oh Yeah! If you read this, clearly you have, and if it struck you as entertaining, then if you could be a pal and leave a like, or a comment, or share it to the furthest reaches of the UNIVERSE!)

  • After Effects of a Vacation

    I read an article yesterday that most people are happier leading up to their vacation, than actually on their vacation. I took a second to think about that, and I knew that this was true. Yes, the best part of a vacation is counting down the days. Once you get where you are going, then everything goes sideways.

    This year, we talked to kid about this. How, the one of the best parts of being on vacation is when things do go wrong, because that is when you make new discoveries. I know that isn’t 100% true, but I wanted to plant the idea in her head that when things go wrong, it becomes an opportunity to try new and different things. I think it sort of worked. There wasn’t too much complaining, but the trade-off was that she wanted to spend a large amount of time on the family iPad.

    Oh well…

    But we did experience something new with the kid this year when we came home from vacation; she was a little depressed. The kid is seven now, and not little anymore, both physically and emotionally. We all have known that feeling of coming home from a vacation; if you had a good time, then there is that feeling of letdown; a little sadness of having to come home and go back to the old routine. That’s normal.

    This year was the first time that the kid experienced that. And she didn’t know what to do with these feelings. She was sad, sullen, and even had a little bit of a breakdown, and cried in her room for a bit. The wife and I talked, and made sure that we were on the same page on how to deal with this. The most important thing was not to make her feel ashamed for feeling sad. We let her tell us in her own way what was wrong, and let her just experience feeling bad. Then when she calmed down, we started talking about the fun we had, the memories we created, and what we should do with the rest of our summer.

    I know we can’t stop her from feeling bad, or sad, or experiencing emotions that are hard to put your finger on. But we can help her understand that having strong feelings is normal, and can be a good thing. And that there are constructive ways of dealing with them.