The kids get out of school in ten more days.
Yay.
I am looking forward to not having to nag about homework for a few months and I am also really excited about not having to wake the dead each morning. I’m not looking forward to feeding the children now that they are home all day but I’m getting used to that. I know that after that first blissful week of summer vacation people will start getting bored. I’m not even thinking about that right now.
I’m looking forward to having someone to talk to during the day besides the dog.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Stanley and he never talks back but it seems as if I say the same thing each day.
“Move”
“Stop following me”
Stop barking”
“Shut up!”
I don’t talk to the cat during the day, she’s too busy sleeping. I talk to the cat at 2am and usually I only say one thing to her:
“Bitch”
It’s a simple statement and probably not that nice but when all she does is sleep all day and then meow by my window at 2am, I don’t have much of a vocabulary.
Now that the kids will soon be home I can expand my talking by repeating things such as:
“Put the cat down”
“No, you can’t have another cookie”
“If no one is in the living room why is the TV on?”
“Clean your room if you are bored”
“We can’t go to the mall everyday”
“Bubbles belong outside”
“Stop painting the dog”
“Stop picking on your sister”
“Stop picking on your brother”
“Can’t you two just get along?” (said in my best Rodney King impression)
“I have to work”
“Shut up!”
“I’m on the phone”
“There will be no potion making with my best plastic containers”
“Worms need air and dirt to live”
“No, we can not get a puppy”
On second thought I guess I am not really looking forward to talking to anyone besides the dog.
Christ. I was hating being off on Monday even though it meant I had to be here and pretend I was working.
Just to get away from them is a good enough excuse. Enjoy your summer BWAHAHAHAHA.
Please don't let them paint Stanley!
The cat maybe…
2am meowing?? Ughhhh!!
Are you sure? 'Cause I can see the attractiveness of the larger vocabulary.
I remember all of this. You know you're going to have a terrific post about them all going back to school too. You'll be really, really happy about that.
Have a terrific day. 🙂
My first thought was your second thought.
I think that talking to the dog is just fine…. I mean at least they listen, usually!
Even if they aren't really listening they at least look like they care, and are happy to hear what you have to say. It's doesn't work that way with kids.
Neither one of my dogs listen. Neither one of my kids did either! Go figure!
Yep.
Well, maybe if they paint the dog with bubbles they won't be picking on each other…..
They pick on each other no matter what. A ten year spread has not helped in that area. For the most part they ignore each other unless they both want the same real estate and then there is a fight.
See…that's what I love about my dog children. They never talk back, and I can lock them in a room for hours and not get in trouble with the law.
Yeah, how come we can do it with dogs but not children? Who made that rule?
My son had his last day of school last week. He went with me on my errands today. Can I say how much I enjoyed my previous solitude on errand days? He talked, non-stop the entire time we were out. I swear half the time he was making up stuff.
My daughter's last day is a 1/2 day on Friday. Then she is off for 2 weeks before the summer program starts. It's going to be a looong 2 weeks.
When they complain about being bored, give them a speech about how they should enjoy it while it lasts because one day they'll be stuck working for a living and will long for the days when they had so much free time they could have the luxury of being bored. If nothing else, the speech will bore them enough that they'll find something to do to get away from it.
I've been giving them that speech since their first summer vacation. The big one is not a problem since he has a job and a drivers license. It the little one who can't drive and isn't allowed to walk any farther than down the block on her own.
Wow, having kids around really does expand our vocabulary, doesn't it??
Damn cat.
Yeah it does. I was just reading a blog about a new mom and how she was trying to cut those words out of her vocabulary. I just wished her luck with that, I didn't tell her she will need the words more than ever.
One day, they'll be all grown up and move away from the nest and you'll look back at this time nostalgically and think “It's about freakin' time!”
Damn right I will!
I'm actually having little mini panic attacks thinking about having the kids home. Laila is up my butt ALL DAY LONG – she thinks I am her little toy and I have to play with her every single second or she gives me that look and says, “I wish I had a mom that cared about spending time with her child . . .wah..wah…wah” – Then there's the fighting – GRRRRRRR – I'm trying to figure out whether to send them to my sister in Scotland or my sister in NY – I'll put them on a plane with cab fare and pin a note on them and then I'll run and hide until September.
My daughter is the same way, I am her playmate and it is my responsibility to figure out what we should do. I would send them to Scotland, it's farther away and getting back won't be so easy.
Today was the first day my kids were home. I haven't killed either of them yet. But I did turn the doorknob on my 5 year old's door. She threw a fit and wouldn't stay in her room. It won't happen again. Ah…summer.
You haven't killed them yet!
I should get a couple of kennels.
Isn't that why God created sleep-away camps?
Yes, that is why but the big one is too old and the little one can only go to day camp. It's not happening this summer. I'm stuck with them.
Smile, you have a way with words. Anyone ever tell you that?
Oh my it sounds like a fun summer in your house. I think I would have to go back to talking to the dog and swearing at the cat. You certainly have your dialog all ready. Guess you have done this before.
Have a great week.
The only time my kids aren't fighting is when they are busy doing something which means I have to keep them busy and then there is no time for me to get stuff done. I set up a small pool for them the other day and they actually played nice for 3+ hours while I sat in the shade with my laptop. This is my early-on Summer plan:)
3 hours! That's amazing, really amazing. I don't think my kids have ever done anything for 3 hours straight except for maybe sleep. Do you give them drugs?
Girlfriend, you are so much kinder than me. I am perfectly happy to sacrifice the dog, cats or random worms if it will give me 5 minutes of peace. I am now trying to figure out how to instigate a painting the dog project without anyone knowing it was my idea. The kids would even have to bathe the dog once they were finished, killing 2 birds with 1 stone.
Be careful what you wish for, one day I will tell you all about my instigating a summer project that totally backfired and caused all sorts of hell.
“There will be no potion making with my best plastic containers”
HA!
I'm sorry you don't have better conversations with your cat. My cats and I can talk for hours. And yes, they DO talk back. So what if only I can hear them?
What do they say? Sometimes I think I can read their mind, the dog's anyway. He pretty much thinks:
Food, food, food, sleep, poop, food, food, sleep, poop, food.
My cats shower me with love and compliments. It's uncanny, really, how spot-on some of their comments are.
Jen– Boy how I can still remember that love-hate relationship between, school, and summer vacation. Actually it didn't really matter to me. I got it either way, as I returned home from work. “Wait till I tell you what the kids did”. It was never good stuff either, as I reached for my first Martini.
As for talking to yourself, I am all over with you on that! And I don't even have a Cat, or a Dog.
Thanks Jen, for doing what you do.
Peace, Love, and Understanding–Elvis Costello
Talking to the dog is severly underrated. No back talk? How can you top that?
You're right, you can't top that. Sometimes I wish he would answer me, just so I know he is actually listening and not just humoring me.
Thankfully I have not one, but three cats, and I talk to all three of them. OK Livvie, the eldest, can't hear me because she's deaf, but still I talk.
Do any of them respond when you talk to them? At least Stanley wags his tail when I talk to him, the cat just looks at me like I am annoying her.
They actually do! Mitzy gives me her love eyes (half blinking repeatedly) and sticks her head out to me, and Sukie runs over and rubs all over me. She even sometimes gives me a little brrrp as she comes over.
That's really cute, I've noticed if eye blink at my cat she blinks back. She
also farts a lot but I don't know what that means.
Ha ha! Luckily ours don't do that too often, but when Sukie does, it's always when I'm snuggling her – Oh boy!
Im very much looking forward to my son being home this summer too. However, this is the first year he will NOT being going to camp, and I have NO IDEA what I am going to do to entertain him!
TV and video games and make sure Abercrombie comes around a lot.