Stalking my Kid

I wouldn’t say that I’m one of those so called ‘helicopter’ parents that are constantly hovering over their children, protecting them from any real or imagined danger, showing up with them at their interviews, calling their kids’ bosses indignant that their baby has been reprimanded. 

Of course my kids aren’t at the job stage yet.  Oh.  True story – I actually got a call from a mother, calling on behalf of her son to see if there was a job here at the milk plant for him and what would it all entail – she wanted to vet it to see if it was even suitable for her son.  I asked somewhat incredulously, “why doesn’t your son phone to find out?”  I was met with some indignant response about him being very busy with school and other things…. 

Anyways, as our oldest is slowly becoming more and more independent and asking for more and more freedoms to move around our neighbourhood without parent supervision we are exploring exactly how comfortable we are with that idea and what our limits are.

We have just recently begun allowing her to walk to the corner store that’s two blocks away by herself.  She can go to either neighbourhood park with a friend (both are approximately one block away from our house – one north and one south) as long as she has a watch with her a very specific time where she will be home.  We have secret passwords and have reviewed stranger danger with her. 

One thing I’m still not comfortable with though is her walking home by herself or even with one friend her age.  We have allowed her to go to and from school a few times when we knew there was a large group going together with the oldest child in the group in grade 5.  Her school is about a 10 minute walk from our house. 

So I pick her up from school every day.  I go there straight after work and wait for her to come out.  Lately she’s been walking out with a little girl who lives a few houses down from us.  This little girl is the same age as Hope and walks home by herself everyday.  I have watched in alarm as she has darted across a busy street, not at an intersection.   I gave her a ride home a few times until she told me she wasn’t allowed to get a ride from me because her dad told her she “needed to get used to walking long distances by herself.”  Whhaaa???

Sometimes, Hope rides her scooter or her bike to school and if the weather is nice wants to scooter or ride her bike home.  Well, you know what that means, right?  Lol.. I gave her a very specific route to go home by – the one that utilizes the crossing guards – and then I shadow her in the car.  It must look very goofy, but yes, I stalk my daughter home.  And truly it might look (be) a little strange but I’m just not OK yet with that step and she’s OK with that set up, too.  And then I know she’s gets home safely!   But I do laugh to myself everytime it happens.  Like yesterday.  :o) 

She wants to know when she’ll be able to go to and from school by herself.  Maybe when she’s attending the new school and it’s only a 3 minute walk from our house.

I was Like...

I love my daughter.  She is everything that is goofy and funny and sensitive and smart and dramatic.  She is also in grade three.  Currently that means that we relive every funny (to her) minute in a rendition that starts with…

“and you were like…….   And then I was like………….”  Followed by hysterical laughter.  Which is basically an invitation to repeat the same sentence again but a bit more exaggerated. 

This cycle continues until the original scene is completely unrecognizable and they forget why it was funny in the first place.

We had just arrived home from Brownies last night and I said something to her which she thought was funny and prompted a “reliving”.

“hahah you were like ‘we’re home’ and I was like ‘I know’!”     ahhahahahahaha

Hope, I say.  'I was here two minutes ago when this happened.  You don’t need to remind me what I just said.'  (what a mom thing to say, huh? But that’s not the point)

Anyways, so this morning I’m yakking to my hubby on the phone….don’t you love that word?  Yakking.     Right. 

And I tell him the story of the “I’m like…” to him.  I may have imitated her a couple times.  He says to me ‘you know you’re doing the same thing right now, right?’

Hahahah..whaa???  oh.  Dadgum he was right.

And now, apparently, I’m doing it again.  ;o)

Hands Free

Working at a manufacturing facility that strives to be World Class in its manufacturing standards and to be in conformance with the British Retail Consortium means that everything must be stringently clean. 

So we try to actually touch stuff as little as possible and there’s hand washing constantly.  You go to the washroom, you wash (of course).  You sneeze, you wash.  You eat, you wash.  You go outside then come back in, you wash.  You blow your nose, you wash.  Wash wash wash.

Also, it means pretty much everything is motion sensored.  You walk in a room or area and the lights turn on.  As long as you’re moving around in there, the lights stay on. 

This can become a problem if you are in the washroom for a longer period of time….now I’m not sure how long the timer is set for, but it has happened that the lights will suddenly turn off and it becomes pitch black in the washroom.  This requires a graceful (and slightly frantic) waving of the hand while trying to stay on the toilet in order for the sensor to be activated and the lights turn back on. 

It has happened, too, where I’m at home and walk into a dark room and pause, waiting for the lights to turn on….then I clue in and remember that at home, I actually have to turn the lights on myself. 

Back to the washroom….cause that’s where the funny stuff happens….the toilet also flushes on a sensor.  So I learned the hard way that if you lean forward at all while sitting on the toilet that it thinks you have gotten up and will flush.  That is a cold and splashy experience.  Although strangely my little boy is going through a faze right now where he likes to flush while sitting on the toilet.  I think it makes him feel dangerous and gives him a thrill.  I, however, now make sure that I sit very still and upright the entire time. 

When I do stand up it will flush again.  Then I zip up my pants and buckle my belt and depending on how long I stand in the same place in front of the toilet, when I am done, it will flush again.  My record is 5 flushes in one washroom experience, in case you were curious – and I know you were. ;o)

Then I’m on to the motion sensored tap that is always cold and never really warms up.  I tested it once on a particularly boring day.  Just to see if it would ever actually warm up like the maintenance engineer assured me it would.  The answer is no, the best it gets is a coldish lukewarm.  I use that as my excuse to not wash my hands for the full singing of Happy Birthday twice through like the sign beside the sink advises me to.  Although the day I was testing it to see if it ever got warm I was washing my hands for like, 5 minutes. 

All in all, I think you can tell that I have a pretty exciting job.