Every morning I hear a chorus of, "What are we going to do today?"
Sigh.
I've never been that good at being a cruise director.
I resist the urge to grumpily say, "You could go play in traffic," and tell them I will think of some chores for them to do if they don't find an activity.
This works really well for the older kids but the little ones?
Not so much.
They like chores.
Go figure.
I suppose that is because there are very few that they are actually capable of doing. I can't just say, "OK--go clean the toilets."
Yeah.
You know what would happen if I sent small children to a room where they have permission to touch water.
Gross.
So let's see.
We can ride bikes.
The more competitive kids want to arrange bike races. Jake seems to be having an issue with this idea.
Ready...Set...GO!
"Heeeyyyyyy....wait for me!"
{You can almost hear the plaintive wail, can't you?}
Left standing like a house by the side of the road.
{Insert whiny voice...} "I don't wanna do dis..."
We can read books from the library.
Not sure why the kitchen floor was the location of choice.
Back to the bike riding idea. This time Jake seems on board with the plan.
Or we can go to the hiking trail by our old house.
There is a cool waterfall there to look at.
But their favorite thing to do is go to the Y and swim. They have an outdoor pool and we have been going there a lot.
We thought it would be fun.
Well...um...it's wet.
They just have these rules.
Such as:
All moms need to be in the water with their kids who need to wear a life preserving device.
Not sitting on the side of the pool with their legs in the water.
IN.THE.WATER.
And all children in said lifesaving devices need to be within an arm's length of their mothers.
That might be fine if you had one child.
But five?
Picture it.
Five little people flailing about within an arm's length of me.
It's super fun.
Don't be jealous.
And then when they get a few arm's length's away
(because come on, people, they wouldn't be able to move if they had to stay that close to me),
the lifeguard will come over and tell me that I need to keep them closer.
Um...okay. Would you mind telling me how that is even possible?
I tell Little-Miss-Lifeguard-on-a-powertrip that I could keep a better eye on them if I would be permitted to sit on the side of the pool so that I could actually SEE them instead of being blinded by splashing water.
She smiles condescendingly and says, "We don't allow that," as she strides over to inform another mom that she HAS to get into the water with her little poppet.
That mom has the same reaction as I do.
Lot's of sighing and eye rolling.
It has a tendency to suck the fun out of the experience.
But only for the mom's, because EVERY.SINGLE.MORNING, I hear,
"What are we going to do today? Can we go swimming at da Y?"
When does school start again?
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Jake perched on the side of the pool trying to work up the courage to jump. Rumor has it that he jumped the other day when Jeff took the kids to the pool but suffered a relapse of fear when Mommy took him.
He never did jump this particular day.
Probably because Mommy wasn't in the pool and Atilla the Hun Lifeguard girl would have yelled at us.
