On Saturday we all went to an Oktoberfest at the local animal shelter (where we previously got two of our four dogs). Lucky and Squeaker were to perform with their cheer group with Squeaker on stage again later with her school choir.
Outings with all of the kids are always an interesting challenge. For starters, the kids are a wide range of ages so interests and attention spans vary greatly. Also, the kids are not really bonded as a group so taking the whole herd out often means having to deal individually with all the kids rather than enjoying the camraderie of being out together as a "family" of even a bunch of friends or even friendly acquaintances for that matter.
I hate to say "I told me so" but Saturday was a typical day out for us. The first hour was fine because there were animals of all kinds and booths to look at. Everyone maintained pretty well for the cheer performance. Then we walked a few blocks to get lunch and so Squeaker could change from her cheer uniform to her choir outfit. The day inclined slightly downwards from there.
Drama Boy and The Boss begged for money and tickets. Lucky made a connection (her words) with an ugly little dog at the shelter and then fell apart when she couldn't have him, leading Drama Boy to tease her in the car on the way home.
The general crabbiness continued at home until DB and Squeaker were shouting at each other and slamming doors while Lucky continued to cry over her dog. I talked to Squeaker and I sent DB to Ana. He made the common Squeaker mistake of turning his anger and shouting on the adults instead. Total meltdown ensued when he was sent to his room to get some self-control.
Knowing the emotional overwhelm would continue unless we got back into more of our regular routine, we canceled dinner plans that we had for the evening. Disappointing since it had been a very long time since we had a kid-free night out but it seemed unfair to dump a bunch of grumpy kids with the cousins even for a few hours and part of our childcare plans had already fallen through that morning.
And they wonder why we rarely go out and do "stuff". Ana and I both agreed, as we often do, that we would have enjoyed the event a lot more if we had been there without all the kids.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I FEEL YOUR PAIN. We had melt downs at a church party this weekend. It involved a bounce house and there was kicking and blood curdling screaming involved. Not pretty.
ReplyDeleteSometimes we think we should just stop trying to do fun things :)
Seriously...it doesn't seem worth it sometimes. The director of our FFA said to me at a laser tag event they sponsored, "Sometimes just doing normal things is therapeutic."
ReplyDelete'Course she doesn't take the kids home at night and deal with the aftermath of normalcy. Our kids' response to normal just ain't normal.
Is FFA a foster sponsored thing?
ReplyDeleteI think that anyone that works in the system should have to foster for a year. And they should have to foster multiple kids over the age of 18 months or it's not effective - because our baby is the easy one so that doesn't count. THEN they should tell us their opinions or what is therapeutic :D
I'm not bitter at all. lol
FFA stands for Foster Family Agency which is what they call the private agencies here. Ours places primarily older "higher level of care" kids which usually translates into "behavior issues."
ReplyDeleteEven at that level, we've gotten the most ridiculous advice from social workers. Especially those SWs with NO children let alone emotionally disturbed or distraught ones. Hopelessly annoying.
Hang in there!