Glimpse in to Parenthood

For the past week, we've had the step son.  This is the longest amount of time that he's stayed with us and it revealed a lot to me.  The biggest thing was that kids take a lot of time and consideration.  I was driving to work this morning and was toying with the idea of seeing if a friend wanted to grab a late lunch since I'll get out of work around 1, but then I had to think of the step son and what the plans were for him.  If the hubster wanted me to see him or if he wanted us to have lunch together.  I think then got to thinking about how much face time I've had with the step son this week, and I was surprised at how little it was.  Definitely not good if I was a "real" parent.  Of course, the hubster spent all his time with him, but as a "step parent",  I think I failed or at least I felt I had failed.  Here's a breakdown of my week with the step son:

• Friday - Cleveland for state finals, left before the hubster picked him up
• Saturday - Cleveland for state finals, got home at 10
• Sunday - movies, errands, spent day with family
• Monday - work and run, first contact at 7:30 pm
• Tuesday - work, can't remember
• Wednesday - work, dentist, gym - first contact at 7:30 pm
• Thursday - work and golfing with coworkers - no contact
• Friday - work, will see before he goes home

Out of the 8 days, there are only 2 days where I spend more than 2 hours with him.  My current lifestyle is not suited for kids.  It may be because he's not my kid that I'm not that invested in him yet.

I've also noticed that having him around makes my laundry and dish load quadruple.  Ever since last August, I've exclusively hand washed my dishes.  I think on the odd occasion where I am out of town, the hubster will do a load.  In the week that he's been here, I've used the dishwasher 3 times!  WTF!  How does one little person cause so much change?  I think the hubster wears more clothes when the step son is around too.  I think I've already explained how the step son where's three outfits a day and also apparently, doesn't re-use bath towels.  The last thing might not be so uncommon, but when I was growing up, we used the same towel for a week, then it got washed.  I know some who use a new towel for each shower.  So maybe that's how he does it at home.

My house has gotten way messier in the week that he's been here.  It's like I have no time to clean.  I've already told the hubster that once he leaves, we're both going to spend the weekend getting our house back into order.

So this has been my foray into parenthood.  A little shocked, but hopefully, next month it will be easier, but I think the next time we have him for a week, I'll be spending the majority of time in Vail.  So maybe I'll never get used to it.

Anti-kid for now...

Here I thought with my sister in law and cousin having babies, I would want a baby.  And I kinda did for half a second.  And I kinda do when I read this mom's blog about her adventures with her cute kid.

But then, she posted a video/sound clip of a conversation she had with her kid, and now I'm definitely on the "no kids" side of the fence.  It was a conversation she had with her daughter before going to bed.  Here's the thing:  she transcribed the whole conversation so we could follow along.  I read the transcript before listening to the video.  It was much better reading it.  And here's why:  I think there is something about kids voices that rub me the wrong way.  I just zone out.  Their tone, cadence in speech, how they form their sentences and questions, and the subject matter.  I can't stand any of it.  I think subject matter has a lot to do with it.  The same thing happens when the stepson talks.  I just completely zone out when he starts blabbering on about Zelda or Uno or whatever the topic of the day is.  It's like random fact or obvious observations spewing out of these kid's mouthes.

And you know what, that's what kids do.  All kids.  And they are kids.  They don't have the mental capacity of an adult which I would like them to have.  I'm just not wired for kids or maybe the switch hasn't kicked on yet.

Perhaps if/when I do get pregnant, something about the amount of hormones will cause a chain reaction for me to become immune to these asinine kid conversations and then I'll be a great mom!  But then you'd think something would have to happen to prompt me to actually try to knowingly conceive a child.

Wow, this post is all over the place.  This is the inner struggle I have with the idea of me having a baby and becoming a mom.  The current battle right now is "I hate kids" vs "But what if I'm missing out on the greatest adventure of my life".

Kids these days

The hubster and I had his son for the weekend.  We had fun playing with the Xbox Kinect and watching old Disney movies.  They are old in that they were made over 10 years ago, but I wouldn't refer to them as old.  The animated movies with all the songs will never be old.  After watching Mulan and Hercules, I wished that they still made movies like this.  Tangled was ok, but it was lacking in the song area.

Anyway, as we were finishing up lunch on Sunday, the hubster asked his son what he wanted for his birthday.  Do you want to know what he asked for?

• a million dollars
• through constant denial, he lowered it to a much more reasonable $250 (*note the sarcasm in this line)
• a nintendo 3DS

WTF?!?!  This kid has a habit of asking for super expensive gifts when it comes to Christmas and birthdays.  I mean we just got him a Nintendo DS for Christmas which was to replace the one he broke from the previous Christmas.  I think he broke it a couple months after he had it.  I was originally was against getting him a replacement.  What does that teach him?  That if he's not careful with this toys that it doesn't matter because someone will replace it for him.  I don't think I started asking for pricey gifts until high school, but I think that's about the time where kids become brand conscious and stuff.  He's going to be 10!

I wonder where he picked up this habit.  I wonder if he knows the value of a dollar (God, I feel old just typing that out).  We've kinda touched on the subject with him before.  The usual doing chores for money/allowance.  He's never actually followed through on any of the "chores".  They were simple tasks: walking the dogs, cleaning his room, cleaning up after himself after a shower.  He can do the math.  If walking the dog gets him $0.50 per walk (and by walk, I mean taking them out to do their business), he knows how long it will take him to save up $50 for a game or whatever, but he still asks for big ticket items.

He's not entirely bad with money.  He does save his birthday cash which he loans out to his mom.  Seriously, what kid has to loan money to their parents at the age of 10.  I think it's more the entitlement that bothers me.  Enough rambling for now...