Second Week of Summer Break. Parenting Struggles

For week 2 of summer break, Luke went to a coding camp. He seemed to enjoy it. Kara spent a lot of time babysitting for the Cantells, Anna worked on her virtual courses and Jack lounged around. Okay, that isn't completely fair, but I am mad at Jack and he rarely reads the blog, so I am going to portray him how I choose and see if he ever finds out...

So, why am I mad at Jack you ask? The short response is because I want him to do things that I know will benefit him in the long run and he wants to spend the summer doing what he wants to do. With his permission, I signed him up for two online classes. One is driver's ed and the other is a PE/fitness type class. Our school district requires one virtual class and the health class is widely taken by upcoming Freshmen to free up more room in their schedules. The driver's ed will save us some money and make getting his learners permit in October(!) easier. And, it has been a struggle. I think I need to learn to hand off more responsibility to Jack and Anna. I don't think I am a helicopter parent, or even close, but I do probably need to let them have more freedom and personal accountability. Of course, Jack also needs to communicate with me. That is what the frustration is about--he has a habit of telling me what I want to hear and then doing what he wants to do.

Enough about that. He is a good kid and I know that. So, how about two off-topic stories? Jack went for a run one morning and asked me to make him a protein shake. Which I did. When I handed it to him, he asked if I put nuts in it (likely thinking of peanut butter powder). Obviously, I have no desire to send him into anaphylactic shock, so no, there were no nuts. I thought it was funny he asked, and it is a good habit for him to verify. Second story regarding my kids questioning my integrity/ability to parent. We are having our pool deck redone (more on that later). And, we needed cash to tip the workers (they changed something we didn't like, which required a couple of hours of extra labor on their part). As mentioned, Kara has been babysitting, so she is flush with $$$. I asked her to borrow some and she responded with, "are you going to pay me back???" I could only sigh and promise to go to the ATM the next day. Seriously, what is with these kids? They think I am going to poison them and steal all their money???

So, back to the pool. We have done a lot with our pool this year. First, we got the heated spa up and running. Then, we had it refinished with a really nice pebble-tec. Next, we had the patio redone with Sundek. We still need to install rocks around the pool cage to hopefully keep more of the dirt out. And, we also need to have the pool rescreened. If we move again, I am buying new construction! 

Old pool.

New pool

Close up of what the Sundek looks like.

Today, Saturday, Kara, Luke and I went to Winter Haven. We visited with my dad, Maggie, Kim and Dave. My dad's house is under contract, and he is preparing to move to a retirement community, so he has been throwing a lot of stuff away. We went through lots of old pictures and I brought home another box of stuff. Kara took some "blackmail" photos, aka "mom with a perm". Hey, it was the 80s! Although, looking at the class photos, it appeared as though I was going out on a fashion limb and can't entirely blame it on the times. We also stopped at Marta's house and met her new puppy and chatted for a bit. Traffic was good in both directions, which is rare, and we enjoyed the visits. Back at home, Anna had ice skating and Jack had a basketball game, so they stayed behind. Hopefully, we will all make it down there soon. 

In random news, they are very short on workers in our old Maryland office. Basically, they have told us if we want to move back--we can. Thomas would do it in a heartbeat. I would seriously consider it if they would pay our moving costs, which is unlikely. Anna is interested. Jack is vehemently opposed, and Kara and Luke are somewhere in the middle, although definitely lean more toward staying than going. If anyone with a long memory recalls, Jack was the only kid who did not want to move to Florida. There are several things I really miss about Maryland, but I also like the opportunities we have here, mainly college choices for the kids and of course, I enjoy seeing my family regularly. I also like my job here, and going from a fully staffed office to one that is struggling with attrition is not very appealing. So, I don't see it happening, but it was an interesting development.