28 thoughts on “June 4, 2020: Chicken”

  1. Well, my August hiking trip is officially cancelled. I had planned on proposing we reschedule for 2022 so the cancellation is actually a relief.

    Anybody have any ideas on what I should do with my 3 weeks of vacation time?

    1. We're still weighing some sort of trip this summer. It would be by car and camping, but I don't know if we should or what will even be open...

      1. We are in a similar boat, I think. One planned trip (to meet up with my wife's family in Colorado) has already been canceled. But, we may end up meeting with them somewhere else for a week, where everyone other than us could drive there in one day. Missouri, maybe? No chance we could drive straight through that far, but could possibly make it with only one night of camping on the way there. And the plan would be to all stay in a house together for a week, so not a huge exposure risk.

        We are just now starting to decide what to do with my family's planned trip to Arkansas at the end of July, but I'm guessing it's not going to happen at all this year.

          1. We're going to StL for a weekend at the end of June. We're planning on staying in a hotel and meeting with in-laws outside.

            It's a tough thing to figure out. We don't want to expose them but we also know there are only so many opportunities to see each other.

          2. Probably mid-July, if it ends up happening. Definitely a weather downgrade from what Colorado would have been.

    2. I forgot where you were going. Me and a friend are going to hike the Border Route trail along the BWCA in July.

          1. Philmont Scouting area. I think it is the NE part of the state. It sounds like we'll be able to reschedule for 2022.

            Realistically, it is a blessing that we can reschedule. Fourteen is the minimum age and all our boys are 14 and 15. I think they'll be much better prepared physically to handle it at 16 and 17. I've made 3 of them cry on practice hikes of 3.5-4.5 miles in perfect weather at low elevation the past two weeks. They're nowhere near ready to hike up a mountain at high elevation.

  3. Didn't feel right putting this in the Parentgood post... Aquinas has started reading the Harry Potter books (he's through 2 in <48 hours), but he is concerned about them getting too dark and creepy. He is 10, and I know lots of kids that age have read them, but he's more sensitive to that kind of thing. I don't know what to advise him, having never read the books myself. I know the movies get darker, but a lot of that is choices about what gets put in, how things are filmed, etc. In written form, do the books seem to get creepier too? That's probably more relevant than "darker" - he's read books where people die before, and things like that. It's really the supernatural scariness that gets to him (and, to my mind, the 2nd movie has the most of that, with the giant snake and stuff). Thoughts?

    1. The themes for sure get darker starting with book three. The first two books are more fantasy scary. Starting with three it's other humans are scary.

      2. Follow up: he is about 2/3rd done with book 3. He would agree that this one is darker. He is pointing specifically to the dementors taking away happiness. Right now he's thinking he'll take a break after this one.

    2. Not to scare you off too much, but my son got freaked out in Book 2 when he was about that age and we can't get him to go back to them now that he's 14.

      1. This is good. I appreciate the tales of caution - I'll make sure I'm not pushing him and give him the distance he needs. I know he has some external motivation to read them already*, so I won't add to that.

        *A couple summers ago he got really into the Wings of Fire series, which he was able to spread to his classmates. Now the first of the Wings of Fire adopters has gotten into Harry Potter, so he both wants to reciprocate and surpass where she is in the books.

    3. For me, though there were some dark themes in book 3 mostly surrounding the demise of Buckbeak, I found myself genuinely surprised at the amount of darkness that started to show up in book four.

      Skim (15), who won't watch a horror movie under any circumstances, was nonetheless never scared by Harry Potter.
      Sour Cream (12), who has often tried to sneak looks when I watch American Horror Story, is too scared to move to book four and beyond.

      In short, children make zero sense and any advice you get is essentially worthless as a result. Glad I could help!

      1. In short, children make zero sense and any advice you get is essentially worthless as a result

        This is fantastic and perhaps the best encapsulation of parenting, and thus reason for compassion and empathy with all kids and parents, that I have ever read.

      2. Haha, this is very true.

        My soon-to-be-13 year old tore through the Potter books, started at age 10 I believe, and never had a problem with them.

        I think one of the challenges is that while the first book might be appropriate for a kid of a certain age, as Beau mentioned they get dark pretty quickly. For kids reading along with the series when it came out, the kids grew enough between the releases to be prepared for a darker turn. If your kids are anything like mine, asking them to wait a year before the next book just isn't going to fly.

        On the subject of books, my 6-year old is obsessed with The Bad Guys series.

        1. Actually, I think I read the first three to Runner daughter at night, but by the end of three, all the "one more chapter!" was making me lose my voice, so I made her read on her own from then on. I think the assist on the first three got her going fine.

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