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NEVERENDING ♾️ The NEVERENDING Raising Children Thread

There is a ton of construction going on in our neighborhood so every morning there are a bunch of semi trucks driving around hauling dirt or debris or other materials. This morning at the bus stop after about the 3rd truck drove past in a span of just a couple minutes I told my daughter to start making the gesture to get the drive to blow his horn. She had never done that before and when the driver blew the air horn and it was much louder than she expected she was really loving it and grinning from ear to ear. All the other kids at the bus stop (everybody is in probably 3rd grade or younger) came running over to see why the truck blew its horn and then decided they needed to do that too. So then there was a line of 8 kids standing there pumping their arms in the air every time a truck drove past.

I could see the drivers faces and they seemed to be enjoying it too and were all too happy to blow their horns... in a residential neighborhood... at 8:00 a.m. I'm sure the owners of the house they line up in front of were really thrilled. I wonder if these kids will all remember this when they are back at the bus stop Monday?
 
Good job dad. And yes, one of them will remember. It just takes one to get all the little monkeys started.
 
Different Cub Scout Packs do things a bit differently. :r:

The pack that we were in last year before the move, met twice a month (one pack meeting and one den meeting) where as the pack that he is in meets every week, which causes some night meeting conflicts for me. Additionally, last night I noticed that the den leaders are not in uniform, most the kids are not in uniform, and they don't even come close to following the suggested meeting layout that is listed in the den leader guide.

Good group of kids and his den leader really has a good heart to teach the kids the information in the book, but I wonder if they are missing out on the other stuff.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
There is a ton of construction going on in our neighborhood so every morning there are a bunch of semi trucks driving around hauling dirt or debris or other materials. This morning at the bus stop after about the 3rd truck drove past in a span of just a couple minutes I told my daughter to start making the gesture to get the drive to blow his horn. She had never done that before and when the driver blew the air horn and it was much louder than she expected she was really loving it and grinning from ear to ear. All the other kids at the bus stop (everybody is in probably 3rd grade or younger) came running over to see why the truck blew its horn and then decided they needed to do that too. So then there was a line of 8 kids standing there pumping their arms in the air every time a truck drove past.

I could see the drivers faces and they seemed to be enjoying it too and were all too happy to blow their horns... in a residential neighborhood... at 8:00 a.m. I'm sure the owners of the house they line up in front of were really thrilled. I wonder if these kids will all remember this when they are back at the bus stop Monday?
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#parentingwin
 
Went to The Girl's band concert last night. She did great and looked like she was having fun.

The jazz band section was really good!
 
The Banned Books Your Child Should Read
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/...ld-should-read.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur


As linked to in the article -
In fact, many of the books which are on the most-challenged lists are also frequently assigned as classics (and being assigned may be what gets you challenged).
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Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century
http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics/reasons

Would you allow your kid(s) read any of these ?

Some of these was required reading way back when I was in HS.
 
My kids haven't seen much on the list. They loved the Junie B. Jones books which I hated for bad grammar, but they've moved past that. I did get the oldest to read some Poe. She likes creepy stuff and ghost stories. Let me know if you have any good ones for her to read, but it needs to have fast rising action or she gets bored.

I'm good with my kids reading anything they want. It's all about learning and if they have questions they know who to ask. Mom.
 
I'm crushed our son doesn't like to read. To him it seems to be an unpleasant chore. Both his parents are avid readers, we read to him virtually every night before bedtime up to age 7 or so, We got him all sorts of different books at various reading levels..... we led him to water but the horse won't drink. :( Maybe I'm the equivalent of the jock dad who was a football player in school and expects his kid to love the game too.
 
Our daughter really likes the Junie B. Jones books. I was indifferent to them but my wife didn't like them, mainly because Junie seemed like a brat. However, I reminded her that her behavior really didn't seem that much worse than Ramona Quimby's (my daughter also really likes those Ramona books).

She used to also like the Captain Underpants books but she doesn't seem to care about them anymore. I think we also have that And Tango Makes Three book as I remember reading that to her when she was little, but maybe we had just gotten it from the library. The rest of the books on the list are probably a bit too old for her but if she wanted to read one when she was of that age, I don't think we would object at all.

Our daughter is about 6 and a half and is a very avid reader. She's in 1st grade with a class that is half 1st graders and half 2nd graders and her teacher said she's probably the best reader in the entire class and she will run out of reading level appropriate "book shop" books (they have a selection of books in their class, classified by different degrees of difficulty, that they get to pick from every few weeks for their in-class reading stuff) and she'll have to bring in some books from one of the 3rd grade teachers before the end of the year. We listened to the audio versions of the first two Harry Potter books and everything was Harry Potter this and Harry Potter that. She wanted to listen to the third book but I needed a break from the Harry Potter stuff so we told her that we couldn't listen to the next book until she read the first two, thinking that would give us some time. After about a week, she's already about 200 pages into the first one so this is probably isn't going to give us enough of a break as we had hoped.

I don't think I can imagine wanting to read a 500+ page book with no pictures when I was 6 or 7 years old.
 
bizarro-01-18-17.jpg
 
I started posting here when my youngest was just out of diapers, now she's a senior in HS!

She was my problem child, getting hauled into the principals office on a yearly basis, cracking snarky jokes in elementary school making some teachers laugh and others fume. I'll never forget the showdown with the fricking superintendent when she was in 3rd grade! High School finally started settling down, became involved in band, and drama and excelled in both pushes herself hard and never backs down. She always coveted a student of the month award, year after year after year, was passed over because kids who get suspended don't get student of the month. THis year she got her award, in Art. Well that's something....what to do with college....she says I'm going to art school. Applies at http://www.saic.edu/, and gets a Merit Scholarship and generous financial aid package. Still we're freaking out about it. I told her to dream big,go for it but figured she'd end up at a perfectly fine state school.

I need to sell more houses!
 
kms said:
Congratulations, Jen! You have many reasons to be proud.
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Thanks! We do and we are, today she was at Solo and Ensemble an adjudicated music competition, she's in percussion, plays marimba and had a solo, a duet and a quintet. Got 1's the highest score in all her performances. Last year she got an ukulele for Christmas taught herself to play it and in April she wrote an original piece and played it at Band Follies, blew us all away. But she doesn't want to revisit it or see her performance of it, it's all in the past, a dark moving song about love and loss. I didn't even know she could sing!

Yi but her room, it's a class 1 landfill Im sorry to say....
 
Article - Kids Are Closer To Pets Than Their Own Siblings: Study

Any truth to this finding ?

found that they derived more satisfaction from animal companions and got along better with them than with their siblings. -
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Serious problem emerging. Junior is not taking his academic responsibilities seriously at all. I know, you hear this from lots of parents all the time but things in Junior's case appear to be headed on a trajectory that bodes poorly for the future. He constantly 'forgets' to bring his homework home and when he does deign to do it it seems to be only at his parents' urging and he grudgingly does the bare minimum necessary to get it done with and get by. If we didn't urge/remind him to do it, it would simply never get done. A lot of parental guidance literature suggest parents may need to let kids fail on their own. I could see the value in this IF the kid actually gave a crap. But I strongly get the impression he is perfectly okay with academic failure. It's not a consequence that he in any way appears to dread or in any way take initiative to avoid. In other words I have the feeling it's not going to be a lesson that would ever sink in until it's far far too late.

Any parents have advice on how to make a horse that's been led to water drink, that's about to cross into the 'middle school desert' and doesn't want to drink?
 
It's a devil of a time getting my daughter to keep up with homework, and she's a junior in high school! Turns out she doesn't like everyone watching as the kids turn in their homework assignments (she has a bit of an anxiety disorder). We worked with her school and found some ways to accommodate her.

Could your son be depressed? Could he be the victim of bullying at school or online? How is his social network?

My son really, really doesn't like to be pushed to do something. I've had to get clever and find a way to get in front of him and pull him along. Are there any carrots you can dangle in front of your son?
 
Maister said:
Serious problem emerging. Junior is not taking his academic responsibilities seriously at all. I know, you hear this from lots of parents all the time but things in Junior's case appear to be headed on a trajectory that bodes poorly for the future. He constantly 'forgets' to bring his homework home and when he does deign to do it it seems to be only at his parents' urging and he grudgingly does the bare minimum necessary to get it done with and get by. If we didn't urge/remind him to do it, it would simply never get done. A lot of parental guidance literature suggest parents may need to let kids fail on their own. I could see the value in this IF the kid actually gave a crap. But I strongly get the impression he is perfectly okay with academic failure. It's not a consequence that he in any way appears to dread or in any way take initiative to avoid. In other words I have the feeling it's not going to be a lesson that would ever sink in until it's far far too late.

Any parents have advice on how to make a horse that's been led to water drink, that's about to cross into the 'middle school desert' and doesn't want to drink?
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I have a nephew like that. He's a very bright kids and really good with abstract math and numbers. However, my sister has had to have horrific battles with him to get him to turn in the homework. He's gone so far as to go beyond what as asked for the assignment then not turn it in. Worse yet, he will have it done and simply not turn it in. When asked, he'll say that they didn't ask/tell him to turn it in.
 
I'm lucky so far, my kids still do their homework and I haven't had to think about it much. Failure at school takes too long and it's just not a consequence kids care about until they're forced to repeat the grade so I like the carrot/stick approach. Right now we reward the kids with praise for good homework and grades. Later we might have to bribe them with something. Maybe some chocolate for every homework assignment completed. Then of course the stick part, ground them, extra work around the house, take away the games or a special thing. Bribes work better for my kids.
 
I was never in music when I was in high school. I learned this year that show choir is a really big thing. I had no idea.

My son and his team won the Future City competition in our state and represented in DC. That was pretty cool..
 
Maister said:
Serious problem emerging. Junior is not taking his academic responsibilities seriously at all. I know, you hear this from lots of parents all the time but things in Junior's case appear to be headed on a trajectory that bodes poorly for the future. He constantly 'forgets' to bring his homework home and when he does deign to do it it seems to be only at his parents' urging and he grudgingly does the bare minimum necessary to get it done with and get by. If we didn't urge/remind him to do it, it would simply never get done. A lot of parental guidance literature suggest parents may need to let kids fail on their own. I could see the value in this IF the kid actually gave a crap. But I strongly get the impression he is perfectly okay with academic failure. It's not a consequence that he in any way appears to dread or in any way take initiative to avoid. In other words I have the feeling it's not going to be a lesson that would ever sink in until it's far far too late.

Any parents have advice on how to make a horse that's been led to water drink, that's about to cross into the 'middle school desert' and doesn't want to drink?
Click to expand...

My son was like this in middle school. I was always getting notes and calls from teachers. One day, I noticed that his grades were higher in assignments where he had to draw diagrams and pictures. I asked his teacher to take this into account with homework (it was Catholic school and custom learning plans was something the marketed). No one took this into account. When he moved to public school, his grades soared, thanks to art and shop classes, and his confidence soared, too. Up until then, he never felt compelled to demonstrate what he learned.

He also joined a volunteer fire department, and the older firemen taught him to work, and to work hard. They taught him skills, like car maintenance, and pretty much filled the gap his dad wouldn't. He went to welding school instead of college.

I worried about him, too, like you are. I accepted that he wasn't academic in the traditional sense. He turned into a responsible, hard working young man. Your son will, too.
 
We got a few fresh inches of nice powdery snow yesterday so I took my daughter to the sledding hill after work. After we were done sledding she was playing on the playground equipment and started singing, "Ron and Hermoine sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G." So I chimed in with, "First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Harry in the baby carriage!" (because EVERYTHING must be Harry Potter themed right now :r: ). She didn't seem to know there was a second verse so she thought that was the funniest thing in the world and threw herself down face first into the snow and laid there convulsing with laughter for a good minute or two.

She's in first grade and I don't know if she genuinely found it that uncontrollably funny or if she was just doing it to get a reaction out of me. Either way, it made me smile. Kids!
 
The Girl's middle school soccer match yesterday was brutal. The temp was about 40 but the wind was about 20 mph. I was cold standing there with a couple layers on and she said she was cold with just her uniform on. Now today the temp is a little cooler and the wind is only about 10 mph. She went to school in shorts today too. She first said her long pants were dirty and I showed her 2 clean pair she hadn't even put back in the dresser after laundry. Then she said it was warm on the school. She's a stubborn one (& she gets it honest from both sides of the family).
 
The kids sink was clogged up. When I cleared it I found a toothbrush. She has no idea how that got there.
 
Husband is out of town. We got over 30" of snow yesterday and It is snowing again today. The neighbor has been nice enough to snowblow part of the driveway and the sidewalk/front walk. But the cars need to be cleaned off. Itty Bitty is not a fan of the cold and the snow but she isn't old enough to be left alone inside for an extended amount of time. So that means she has to find something to do while I brush off the car. Yesterday I made her go outside for 5 minutes. She screamed and sobbed the entire time. Guess it is time for her to build some character.
 
dandy_warhol said:
Husband is out of town. We got over 30" of snow yesterday and It is snowing again today. The neighbor has been nice enough to snowblow part of the driveway and the sidewalk/front walk. But the cars need to be cleaned off. Itty Bitty is not a fan of the cold and the snow but she isn't old enough to be left alone inside for an extended amount of time. So that means she has to find something to do while I brush off the car. Yesterday I made her go outside for 5 minutes. She screamed and sobbed the entire time. Guess it is time for her to build some character.
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Stick her in the care with a paper towel and tell her to wipe down the inside while your wipe off the snow on the outside of the car. Whether she "cleans" anything or not, it won't matter but you'll see each other.
 
Planit said:
Stick her in the care with a paper towel and tell her to wipe down the inside while your wipe off the snow on the outside of the car. Whether she "cleans" anything or not, it won't matter but you'll see each other.
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Good suggestion! She will be thrilled to be allowed to "drive" the car.
 
dandy_warhol said:
Itty Bitty is resisting potty training. She will go if you remind her but doesn't initiate the process. I am starting to worry she is never going to get it. :(
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Our wee one has pretty much got the hang of it now but we haven't yet quite transitioned her to undies full-time. She still wears pullups at night when she sleeps. Inevitably that's always when she poops. It's like her body knows or something...or she's just waiting. I think she's actually pooped in her potty chair only once or twice and it's been a couple months, but she has no problem going Number 1 in there at all... [/conversation that 3 years ago you never thought you'd have over an internet forum]
 
dandy_warhol said:
Itty Bitty is resisting potty training. She will go if you remind her but doesn't initiate the process. I am starting to worry she is never going to get it. :(
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She will! One day it'll "click" for her and she'll take more ownership of it, and will start to "think ahead" to initiate her potty trips. When my oldest was potty training I just kept reminding myself that kindergartners don't wear diapers, so he'd get it eventually. :p
 
dandy_warhol said:
Itty Bitty is resisting potty training. She will go if you remind her but doesn't initiate the process. I am starting to worry she is never going to get it. :(
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We had that concern with our middle son and with the Autism complications, it was a real concern. But one day he made the decision to be a big guy and started just going on his own. But it took about 5 months of us reminding him.
 
dandy_warhol said:
Itty Bitty is resisting potty training. She will go if you remind her but doesn't initiate the process. I am starting to worry she is never going to get it. :(
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Junior was a late bloomer too. He was 3 before he 'got it'. But once he did he decided that day he was done with diapers...and turns out he was.
 
Mine would never get it no matter how much we hoped until one day my wife asked, "when are you going to stop using diapers." The answer, "When you stop buying them for me." We stopped buying and she stopped using. Not a bad deal.

I'm sometimes at odds with my engineer. He wants a bond to repair roads for a wedding venue. I'm thinking the roads are decent gravel roads and the kind of crap that goes on around here a couple cars for a wedding every weekend are the least of our problems, but I understand his point. I just don't want to.
 
Maister said:
Junior was a late bloomer too. He was 3 before he 'got it'. But once he did he decided that day he was done with diapers...and turns out he was.
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That sort of sounds like how our oldest was. She was 3 and showed no real interest in using the potty (and we weren't really pushing it, just gently suggesting) and then one day it was over and she just decided no more diapers.

Spoiled for gross bathroom humor/anecdotes:
There were a couple of days though that I think she was scared to poop in the toilet so she would still do that in a diaper. It's gross but it always made me laugh because she would go behind a big potted ficus in our living room and stand there grunting doing her business as if we couldn't see her and then come strolling out from behind it as if nothing were out of the ordinary and try not to mention the turd obviously stuffed in the backside of her pants. Kids are gross and kids are funny at the same time. Thankfully this behavior was pretty short lived.
 
dandy_warhol said:
Itty Bitty is resisting potty training. She will go if you remind her but doesn't initiate the process. I am starting to worry she is never going to get it. :(
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It's her decision, not yours. My daughter was well past three, and no incentives worked for her. My youngest son decided to use the toilet when he was 14 months old, and that was it.

Have you tried letting her not wear bottoms when you're at home? That way, she can go without having to shed clothes or ask for your help. This worked with my older son. You have to be prepared for a few accidents, and to clean them up without fussing about it.
 
Planit said:
Stick her in the care with a paper towel and tell her to wipe down the inside while your wipe off the snow on the outside of the car. Whether she "cleans" anything or not, it won't matter but you'll see each other.
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dandy_warhol said:
Good suggestion! She will be thrilled to be allowed to "drive" the car.
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Well I was wrong. She was not thrilled to drive the car. She sat in the passenger's seat and howled. But she was safe and somewhat warmer than out in the wind. I got the one car and the front stairs mostly cleared off. The rest will have to wait. We are recharging with hot chocolate.
 
kms said:
It's her decision, not yours. My daughter was well past three, and no incentives worked for her. My youngest son decided to use the toilet when he was 14 months old, and that was it.

Have you tried letting her not wear bottoms when you're at home? That way, she can go without having to shed clothes or ask for your help. This worked with my older son. You have to be prepared for a few accidents, and to clean them up without fussing about it.
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We aren't pushing it. Earlier I asked her when she would be done wearing diapers/pull-ups and she said "Never."

We have done the bare bottom thing a few times and she will do ok a few times and then she'll get bored with it and just wee wherever. I think we just need to be more consistent with things. Our schedules has been all over so I haven't been making her try every 30 minutesor what.
 
Mrs. Otis and the Otis's dog are shown on Google street view, walking up the hill from our house. :h:.
 
Otis said:
Mrs. Otis and the Otis's dog are shown on Google street view, walking up the hill from our house. :h:.
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FUN!

I spied my B&S inlaws on google in their garden, not showing their bloomers either, despite their dutch heritage ;) :D
 
dandy_warhol said:
We aren't pushing it. Earlier I asked her when she would be done wearing diapers/pull-ups and she said "Never."

We have done the bare bottom thing a few times and she will do ok a few times and then she'll get bored with it and just wee wherever. I think we just need to be more consistent with things. Our schedules has been all over so I haven't been making her try every 30 minutesor what.
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While I don't have my own kids, I've gone through a couple generations of potty training.

Lots of hints on the web:
-- a glass jar of M&Ms, displayed up high near the bathroom. Kidlet gets a reward for each successful go. (Could swap out for something that's not a sugar bomb)
-- a bribe in the form of a desired item (big-girl bed? special coverlet?) that gets decided upon, and discussed
-- big girl underwear, in fanciful colors & designs

One I came up with while recalling my mama's techniques: watching the adult go potty. This requires an announcement, invitation to the bathroom, etc. I've seen dads do this (and then gripe about how many times the kid wants to take the trip down the hall).

A younger relative with some challenges to her thought processes was notorious for using the living room. Parents had her in panties (no Pull-UpsR back then) and there'd be this sound... mop it up, move forward.

Surely you have the whole collection of material including Everyone Poops. OMG, there's now a movie!
 
Took my kid to the bar on Saturday. Bartender strapped a booster seat to the bar stool, he kicked back a couple juice boxes, flirted with older women... good times.
















Then our food came out and we left Applebee's however he did use the potty while we there there... just like a big guy!
 
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