Sunday, September 9, 2012

Won't You Be Mine

My formerly quiet neighborhood is suddenly awash in kids.

We had one neighbor girl at first. Little kid loved her, I...could have lived without her. She was loud and mischievous (to put it nicely). But regardless, I was sad when she moved because he was sad.

But another (better!) neighbor girl moved in, with a fun older sister. And then a brother/sister the same ages as my kids moved in down the street at the same time. Now it's kid central.

Luckily all of the parents are cool and everyone seems to have the same laid back style, expectations and rules. Everyone knows where their kid is, everyone rounds their own back up occasionally, everyone is comfortable with kicking everyone back outside. So, while it's a teensy bit annoying to have tiny people trying to peer through my French door curtains at 8:00am on a Sunday, sometimes I have less of my own kids now and that's a good thing.

It is very scary to let your kids go into the homes of strangers though.

Not because of stranger danger but because God only knows how they behave or what they talk about around others. I don't want my neighbors having concrete evidence that we're as weird as we seem. And you always think your kids are probably *pretty* good, but what if they're the sneaky little jerk at someone else's house?? I hate it.

So one of the new neighbor moms and I were talking the other day and she said, "Oh, I just have to tell you! When your kids were over the other day--they're good kids, nice boys--" My heart is seizing up at this point, despite hearing the "good kids". I'm waiting for a "But", my brain is racing to make up excuses as to why they did whatever they've done and how I can pay for damages/therapy/ruining her kids, and I'm already coming up with punishment ideas.

"Well, your little one said something..." That little shit. I will lock him in his room and never let him out!

"...that made my husband and I look at each other...." Fuck, the husband was home. Why did I let them out?

"...and say 'We should take parenting classes from these people.' Really. Your kids are SO good, SO sweet, SUCH a pleasure, you are really doing something right."

I almost fell over in a dead faint right there.

"little kid?!? Said something....good? I've got to say, I was worried there for a second, especially when you mentioned my youngest! Phew!"

And would you believe, I NEVER FOUND OUT WHAT HE SAID? I was just so relieved not to have Child Protective Services finally called.

3 comments:

StylinMom said...

It sounds like you are doing a fantastic job at this parenting gig...I second guess myself every single stinken day!!
oh and the neighbourhood...oh boy I think I could write 10 blog posts on my neighbours!!

Julie H said...

Your kids are awesome!

My son is finally playing with a neighbor kid. It's awesome! They go back and forth and it's so great for him to have someone to play with.

said...

We move around a lot (military...it's a er...perk). When we moved here to AZ, my daughter made a friend that was about her age. They played a lot until one day Aidan & I were getting ready to go to Target to spend her birthday money. $20 from her great grandmother. I asked where the money was & she said she gave it to Madison. Why? Because she asked for it & I didn't want to be selfish. So we confronted Madison next time she came over, got the same story, told her she couldn't play with Aidan agin until she gave the money back. Haven't seen her since.