The Cost of Peace

With summer vacation fully upon us, Ana has been driving Sparky and Drama Boy to the Boy's and Girl's Club about a half-hour from our house. Yesterday she drove them to the pool the next town over. Each night we discuss whether this is the best thing to do considering the cost of gas and the amount of time spent in the car. Last night we decided spending several hundred a week in gas might be too steep a price to pay.

Today we are rethinking. Any day that the boys stay at home and have to come up with their own entertainment usually results in various combinations of messes, wrestling, fighting, whining, cursing, and complaining.

This afternoon while our program social worker was here, they had a knock-down-drag-out brawl upstairs. When Ana separated them they turned their anger on her with Drama Boy wailing and crying and Sparky tearing up the upstairs and throwing the dirty clothes and hampers around the hallway.

Get a grip, fellas.

Of course, in his totally screwed-up sense of reality, Drama Boy has been having fits that we drop them at the Boy's and Girl's Club because we "want to get rid of them" while bemoaning the fact that they don't get to go often enough or stay long enough. Fortunately, he is able to keep himself busy quietly with legos, drawing, or books...at least when Sparky lets him.

The problem with Sparky is that if he has to come up with his own amusement the only thing he can think of is to tackle and annoy Drama Boy until he cries.

At the risk of telling our own kid stories ("...walked to school every day, uphill both ways..."), I can't believe that kids can't figure out things to do to entertain themselves.

But then again, we often despair of "kids these days" who ask for scissors to open their Otter Pops. C'mon kids, that's what your teeth are for!