Just yesterday I met my wife’s kids for the first time. There was a six year old who had just started first grade, and a four year old pre-schooler. Somehow, just hours later, we have two middle school kids starting eighth and sixth grade respectively. One of them is even a teenager!
Where the hell did the time go?
Wish my wonderful, brilliant, amazing step kids a happy first day of school. Only 179 school days left until summer vacation!
I’m working from home today and the kids are here with me. It’s the first time all of the schedules have worked out this way and wouldn’t you know it, it’s the last Thursday of their summer vacation.
They spent most of the day doing what most kids prefer doing during summer vacation: They sat on the couch watching Disney Channel On-Demand. They may have snuck in a Disney movie on Netflix too. Not sure about that.
Anyway, round about 3:30 (half an hour ago) they decided to go for a bike ride. Excellent. They both have two year old brand new bikes that if they have been used more than twice (hence my calling them two years old AND brand new) I’ll eat my hat. I told them to check for flat tires, knowing full well that there would be four of them, and that there is a bike pump out there with their helmets. Twenty minutes later they come in and tell me that they can’t figure out the pump.
The pump is as simple as a bike pump can be. Put the nozzle on, clamp it down, pump, take the nozzle off. They couldn’t figure it out. I think they may have been trying to put the nozzle over the air tube’s cap. I demonstrated and came back inside. 10 minutes later I get called out again. They still can’t figure it out. When they take the pump off of one of the tires it goes flat again. I did it for them, and I think there was a leak in there somewhere, but it was really just a matter of pulling the two pieces apart quickly and putting the cap on.
My first thought through all of this was, these are the two smartest kids I’ve ever met (and I grew up with a lot of really, really smart kids) and they can’t figure this out? Has Disney Channel melted their brains?
No, that can’t be it. Next I started trying to think of how I learned to use a bike pump. Someone must have demo’d it to me at some point. But who? And when? And how?
There are two morals to this story. One is to stop being an asshole and taking for granted that the kids know everything. They know a ton of stuff about a ton of stuff, but they don’t know everything, and just because you were bike riding 10 hours a day when you were eight years old doesn’t mean that two genius level kids who barely ever ride bikes will know what you knew.
The second moral is… You’re getting old and forgetting stuff. Stop doing that!
I’m tired, so tired. It’s bed time for ol’ Robbie and it ain’t ever 9:00 yet.
I wanted to get a ton of music done today. I got some, but not a ton. There’s another song ready to mix, and I added two more (bad) songs to the list. Forward progress, my friends.
Tomorrow should be music free. We get to drive through the wilderness to get the kids at camp. The last two nights have sucked without having them here. We will make up for it tomorrow night at the camp fire. I must check my camera’s battery!
For the third consecutive year we are celebrating the Really Sad Day. By celebrating I really mean we are bummed out majorly.
The kids are leaving for a week at camp today. Dad is taking them there. Mom and I are going to pick them up for a short visit before they go, and then we’ll pick them up at the end of the week.
Because of some vacation schedule shuffling, this weekend is a Dad weekend, and so is most of next weekend. We’ll get them at camp and then bring them back to his house the next morning. That means we only technically will be without them for our two days during the week, but still… it’s one thing when they are at Daddy’s, two towns away. It’s another when they are half way to Albany.
Welcome to the Third Annual Really Sad Day. I hope this week goes by fast.
I got to wish the kids a happy last day of school today.
Imagine it… having half of June, all of July, and most of August off.
If only the American workforce could get the same summer vacation as American school kids. That would be so sweet. I’m indescribably jealous.
My step daughter’s softball team just won their league championship.
Congrats, champs!
Every once in a while one of the kids will have a change to the morning routine. This requires both the other kid and me to also make changes to the morning routine. Over the last couple of weeks, that has meant that we have to get up earlier so that one of the kids can go straight to school instead of going to their Dad’s and taking the bus from there.
On Friday, we drove to school without any problem. As we were heading to Dad’s house I realized my phone and my glasses and my work badge were not to be seen. Damn. That meant I would have to stop at the house on the way to work. It would be okay, getting up early meant I had time. It was just a pain in the behind. Just before I got home I heard the beep my phone makes when I get an email. Uh… Oh yeah! I usually put my phone on the passenger seat, but on that day I put it in the console so my step daughter wouldn’t be sitting on it. Problem solved!
Today was another early day for us. This time as I was driving between the school and Dad’s house I realized I forgot my glasses and my work badge. Urgh! Idiot! This time I really did forget them. What is wrong with me? I’ve only been managing to NOT forget these things for about 10 years. That’s all.
Nitwit.
The kids are going away for a few days with their father and step mother. Every time this happens Jen and I get really sad. We worry about their safety, even though we are both sure that nothing bad will happen. That part of it makes me feel like a completely irrational doofus but you feel what you feel, right?
Mostly though we are just going to miss them like crazy while they are gone. I’ve said this before. We miss them during the normal course of a week when they are at Daddy’s house instead of ours. We always miss them. Now though, they aren’t 15 minutes away. It makes a huge difference. We’re both going to miss them like mad until they come back.
And so it begins…
My step daughter is in her room, Facetiming one of her friends. This is a first. The first of many, millions.
I would like to take a moment to wish my step kids good luck on their first day of school and to remind them that there are only 10 months to go until summer vacation.
Happy first day!
Inside the Red Head's Head 