Kids and I Home Alone, BKK edition.
This past month, since being back from India, we searched for places and moved into a new condo without Husband's help ( it was really just only a bit hard and not suffering-bad, just putting it in there for extra drama) and did the whole 're-settling in' thing again, and as I was taking a few breaks in between all of that, and ferrying my son to footy practice and getting dinner....just so I don't feel overwhelmed, I spent some time remembering the old house, making some observations at traffic lights, and I'm penning them down today for fun:).
1) My kids have 3 modes :
A) Vegetating with their gadgets in their faces
B) Jumping around on stairs or courtyard and
C) Eating. Junk if they're unsupervised.
A) Vegetating is the only word to describe what happens to these kids. I mean this also includes Homeschool work online, so it gives them a bit of a legitimate excuse 😏for the 3 or 4 hours, but even the rest of the time?
I mean I have to literally tell my 16 yr old to get off his phone and talk to me on the ride, to and from coaching. On the Bike! In a 26 min ride? Seriously? You need to know what cleats (my mommy vocab is showing huh?) someone just launched since the last time you checked Instagram, like I don't know, 1 hour ago??!!
With my 12 yr old , it's her AirPods. Lil ma'am likes to pretend she's in a music video and so she's got the whole ‘far away, lost in thought, hair flying in the wind and sweeping her face look‘, down to a science.
She listens to so many songs that when we went Christmas shopping at the mall, we must've walked around 4 floors and about 600 shops: Mich the Fish knew EVERY single song in Every single store. Yeah some were repeats, but still!!
To be honest, it was a bit exhausting listening to her, plus walking around, plus trying to decide, plus pretending to not being tired😅.
I mean it's sweet and a good hobby this music, but I'm a bit worried that the sheer volume of voices in her head are not primarily my nurturing or correcting ones, but Justin Bieber finding someone Yummy ( shivers).
To be fair to my progeny, all kids, all races, all ages, all socio group: they're all vegetating.
And while I don't want to pontificate on either sides of this gadget vs us argument, I do wanna say this: when I see a mum, or a couple working hard at their food stall, I know they can't afford a nanny at home, maybe no relatives close by to help, and they Have to work at the shop to make ends meet, I'm not judging that parent for having the iPad babysitting their kid/s so they don't run around unattended on the streets.
B) This was at our old place where we had a small yard and a gate to ourselves.
I've heard that Dave and his friend had jumped the gate a couple of times.
I've had Mich wave at me while sitting on her window ledge that opens onto a sloping roof.
They hadn't actually slidden down the banisters, but definitely stampeded down the staircase. Well, it was wooden stairs so felt like a stampede. 😄
And while it all seemed a bit OMG back then, I'm glad we let them be, because now we live in a Condo and there's just sliding down in an elevator and no gate hopping or ledge-sitting to be had if you want to live long and prosper :D.
I miss having that option for the kids, but at least they have dance class and football training so that's something.
C) My 16 yr old can eat you out of the house. For all the skinny/ muscular teen look, He Can Eat! His new motto is "Don't ask me if I'm hungry, just serve and I'll have it".
Most of the times it's healthy options because he's conscious about his training diet, but he can belt and how!
The 12 yr old however, if left to her own unsupervised shopping, will try and get in as many empty calories as possible in a day. Almost like a game: ' let's see how many sodas I can have (or candy), before mom notices'.
If she can, she will try and throw away those veges.
It's an art! Move them around your plate and pretend you're keeping them for later, and if possible slide them into the dustbin instead of your tummy😂.
And then there's negotiations: "Can I have just this one and then I'll eat more fruit later?"
Well, they're kids. And happy, energetic ones. As such they can afford some bit of junk and balance it out. Lucky buggers.
2) Couple of months ago, the community I lived at, had a beautiful lake in the middle of it.
Every evening there would be joggers and walkers, and grandparents and baby strollers, all around the lake.
There was another interesting group that came in daily: The Fish feeders.
Young parents or grandparents with toddlers, or a teen couple, these would come in with full packs of bread to feed the Catfish in the lake.
These were hundreds of Catfish and they would all gather around the edge to grab a bite.
When I say grab, I mean GRAB. It's fascinating to watch. They'd jump over each other and just open their mouths wide to the nearest person. Have you seen toddlers open their mouths at feeding time? Same. But greedy and in grey.
The Catfish ate so much that for a month there was a board up asking people to not feed them for sometime as they were becoming too huge for the lake😂.
That's all I have for today. Sorry, no Life lesson and all, just some thoughts penned down.
Also, was thinking of writing some mini series on the blog. What topics would you like for me to write about?
Ping in on my IG/FB dm.
Or on my WhatsApp if you're the lucky few to know my number, hahaha.
Hugs and God Bless💖.