May 12, 2020: Fort Awesome

I walked into the living room to find Pete making a sprawling fort out of every chair and blanket he could find in the house. My first instinct was to say something, but then I just kind of shrugged and moved on.

14 thoughts on “May 12, 2020: Fort Awesome”

  1. Our neighbor in back of us just had three 80' foot trees cut down that were blocking the eastern view from the backyard. Umm, thanks?

    1. Also, the guys that do that are up there with window washers in terms of having to be crazy to do your job. It's been quite a show from the kitchen table this morning.

      1. We had 7-8 dead/dying trees taken out a couple of years back. I was amazed at how quickly they could do it.

  2. I thought we were really getting pretty good at this whole distance learning/working from home setup with my parents coming to help, but today went from being great to totally falling apart. Anyone got any great tips on getting a 9yo to write a sincere apology letter to his grandmother after insulting her to the point that she broke down crying? 🙄😭

    After crying and screaming from multiple people here and some parties talking walks to calm down, I suggested that my parents leave for the rest of the day. On the plus side, he did all of his school work for the day prior to this incident, so he can spend ALL AFTERNOON on this letter...

    1. Oof. Sorry Pepper.
      You know your child best, but as the not-terribly-successful parent of what has often been an emotional wreck of a boy...only tip I can offer is let the situation cool and there's a good chance he'll be able to better reckon with what happened before pushing the issue on the letter. And maybe a letter isn't the thing that will work best in this case, so long as he knows that damage was done and he needs to make repairs.

      1. Thanks, Zee. Yes, I'm a big believer in waiting for the kid to come out of it before expecting any rational thought. He says he doesn't remember what happened, and I can't figure out if he doesn't want to think about it or truly does not remember.

        1. That's a sticky one. We don't retain well when flooded, but it can't be that pronounced, can it? Also, it doesn't mean it didn't happen or that harm wasn't done.
          Mine has a history of what I call "wishful ignorance." Those situations apply, but also other inconvenient facts, such as: whether or not he did all his homework. As far as he can "recall," yes. Is he going to check? Nah.

          1. Ha, I often stand over this kid and make him actually show me what his assignments were and that he actually turned them in. But that approach only works because he's mostly compliant about that sort of parental meddling.

            1. My son has been losing it almost once per day, sometimes just with himself, sometimes saying hurtful things to others. He then gets angry at himself for not being able to control his anger, and it becomes a cycle that can take a while to get out of. It's certainly worse during isolation. At least he has empathy and once he's within himself again will usually talk about it. Then the guilt comes and dealing with that.

              1. I'm sorry to hear this--that cycle of anger about not being able to control anger is a big thing for the jalapeno. When he was in first grade, he would get stuck in that for long stretches of time. He at least comes out of it faster now that he used to.

                1. That's refreshing. The only thing that seems to work for us is distracting him with a game or telling him stories about our life or our day

  3. Day two of RULA: got some more work done (SO much nice when allergy season is over) but when temps barely reach 60s and no sun, with rain the rest of the week, I'm going to miss out on some of the chores I'd prefer to br getting done.

  4. In case anyone is interested in a livestream of a concert from the Purple Rain tour, details are here.

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