Please wait...
I know a bunch of not really socially adjusted people, most of them do well in an academic job.
If he made it to 11th grade with that behavior, he probably does not see a need to change. If he is otherwise harmless, leave him be. Society already has enough over adjusted drones. ;)
Shlomo went back to school last night. I drove him to the bus station in NYC, and he arrived there about 5am. I am now waiting for the phone to ring to hear how he's doing.
In case he doesn't call in the next couple days, I did just send a letter to him today, with his drivers permit in it. He will need his ID to get on the train home in a few weeks time. He usually calls when he gets letters from me.
I got such a talking to last night at Yaakov's PTA, they want to me to seriously actually cut out all (ALL) video watching because he's too much in his own world and not with them in the classroom. She had said he could watch Dora (which I personally can't stomach, I hate the sound of her voice) but he'd never watch that anyway. He was watching Doctor Who with us, and some other (actual) kids shows (Jonny Test, Fairly Odd Parents, Phineas & Ferb) that are way more fun and he wouldn't agree to go back to baby shows.
They also want him to have a normal bedtime hour and not just fall asleep when he passes out from exhaustion. Apparently he's been falling asleep in school lately.
So... my kid's school is asking me to actually parent him... chutzpa.
I'm kidding. But I am both tired, and busy. He gets home about 3:45pm, what am I going to do to keep him occupied till bedtime, and how will I get anything else (laundry, dinner, help big kids with their homework, etc) done if I have to entertain him all the time?
Shlomo went back to school last night. I drove him to the bus station in NYC, and he arrived there about 5am. I am now waiting for the phone to ring to hear how he's doing.
In case he doesn't call in the next couple days, I did just send a letter to him today, with his drivers permit in it. He will need his ID to get on the train home in a few weeks time. He usually calls when he gets letters from me.
I got such a talking to last night at Yaakov's PTA, they want to me to seriously actually cut out all (ALL) video watching because he's too much in his own world and not with them in the classroom. She had said he could watch Dora (which I personally can't stomach, I hate the sound of her voice) but he'd never watch that anyway. He was watching Doctor Who with us, and some other (actual) kids shows (Jonny Test, Fairly Odd Parents, Phineas & Ferb) that are way more fun and he wouldn't agree to go back to baby shows.
They also want him to have a normal bedtime hour and not just fall asleep when he passes out from exhaustion. Apparently he's been falling asleep in school lately.
So... my kid's school is asking me to actually parent him... chutzpa.
I'm kidding. But I am both tired, and busy. He gets home about 3:45pm, what am I going to do to keep him occupied till bedtime, and how will I get anything else (laundry, dinner, help big kids with their homework, etc) done if I have to entertain him all the time?
Not that I'm a parent of any kind, but I should think teaching him to entertain himself is a valuable skill for him, moving forward, and useful for yourself in the meantime.
There are a lot of ways to entertain yourself (that do not involve sex).
Obvious examples include various games of solitaire, but I was thinking of something else... like a hobby. Hobbies sometimes turn into careers.
It's a great idea. Self-entertainment is incredibly useful (of course the first thing I thought was sex, that's pretty funny that you realized I would) In the mean time he plays with lit candles and pour the wax out and plays with it, and I can sit and watch him but eventually I need to get up and go do something else. Anyway I don't like that he's playing with fire, but on the other hand I used to play with fire when I was a teenager, and I've seen Shlomo go through a phase of always wanting to play with it. So I'm thinking it's genetic somehow, and like everyone else, eventually it will bore him, and if he gets it out of his system while I'm able to supervise it every time, then I'm better off..
please don't laugh at me if you hear that my house burned down.
I like the idea of a hobby, but what could I show him? Collection? Or building complicated things from tiny legos?
He's kind of into "building muscle" even though he's such a sweet little skinny nothing of a kid, he keeps pushing up his sleeve and showing me his arm and he's like "Right I'm so strong?" It's adorable. But what? Tell him to go lift weights all day every day? Uch, if he would just learn to READ already.
Hrm... no hobby will work for him unless it engages him.
I think the fascination for fire is healthy, actually. Play with it in a controlled setting, and you'll learn how it works... some of the subtle ways it handles itself, etc. He should come away from the experience with a good understanding and respect for it, in the end.
Although, in the meantime, keeping him from destroying your home might provide a form of entertainment that doesn't entertain you as much as you'd like, heh.
But I wonder if there isn't something hobby-ish you could do with that... maybe some form of hobby that both embraces that fascination he has with fire with something constructive and useful that might keep himself entertained (safely) for a good while.
Candle-making comes to mind, but I doubt that's the only thing.
Pyromania is awesome. Burn the whole world!
It's hard not to passively stare at a screen in your down time. I don't know how to fix it because I always actively stared at screens :)
It seems to me that a LOT of people I know are expecting babies soon. I guess.. 7? It's totally baby season.
I had a guest staying over recently with a 4 month old. Oh my goodness, she was so cute.
I suppose I am looking forward to being "grandma", right? Well, I still have a few years. Maybe I can look forward to being "babysitter".
Since last time when I mentioned so many people are expecting, two people I know had babies, but neither was in my original count of how many new little people I'm thinking about. It's so exciting. And I'm so glad it's not me.
There really is almost no one in my closer circle of people that count as real life friends that is having or has had a baby. Not even co-workers. I find that very strange.
Our friends had a boy yesterday. The husband is David's friend from the ambulance corp, his wife is my Quickbooks expert. Yay babies. This is their first, so we get to make fun of how exhausted they will be for the next year or so.... And I guess they can make fun of how exhausted we are because we are old. Oh well. :-)
Children are a long term commitment to a lot of work, but for many parents the rewards outweigh the work many times over.
It's ok though. Oats is 100HE(tm) so it's best for him not to reproduce
;)
Cute! I never even heard of Oatmeal before.
So that baby had his bris yesterday, I forget his name (of course) but it was fun seeing everybody.
My friend/neighbor had a girl yesterday. Yesterday evening was my daughter's school play (she's in 11th) and this friend had tickets. When I texted her "Mazal Tov" she actually apologized that she was going to miss my daughter's play. She doesn't even have any daughters in that school at this time. She's so funny.
She had an interesting story, the baby hadn't turned and it was getting up to her due date and her doctor said it would be a C-Section.
They asked this really famous big Rabbi (spiritually big) and he was dismissive of the questions and was like "It will be a normal birth"
So two days ago she went to the doctor for a checkup and their doctor was busy so another doctor covered. I don't know what he did, but without anesthesia or pain he somehow turned it around, which apparently doesn't happen.
She called her regular doctor and told him the baby turned and he didn't believe it and said to come in and they will check it out. And when she came in they saw she was right, and they induced and it was a normal birth.
So cool, huh?
Anyway, that was her 12th child. 5 boys and now 7 girls.
Did I tell you guys that I have a first cousin in Israel who just had twins? A boy and girl like me, their 3rd and 4th, but they aren't religious so I don't know if they meant to have so many.