My Life According To Me

I think that summer vacations are archaic rituals that should be discontinued. Pretty bold viewpoint given the whole argument that Americans work too hard and don't take enough holidays and are completely stressed out. The viewpoint comes from this stepmother though who has had enough of skids who think her name is "Julie, the Cruise Director". I'm a big fan of bored kids. I think the more bored a kid is the better his imagination becomes and the more inventive and creative they become. I think that liberal doses of boredom are required for kids of any age to become fully functioning. But then I'm a rogue parent... and have been accused of being a mean stepmom so many times that I think it's a part of my given name. School breaks and especially summer vacation is a time of aggravation and heightened whining at my house. Somehow a child who on a normal school night will go to bed without argument will during the first day of summer break turn into a whining crying maniac who cannot take no for an answer. School is a great reason that a child must go to bed at a reasonable hour. Getting a good nights sleep so that you're not a crabby, cranky, monster just doesn't seem to get the same response. We're not just talking about elementary school kids either, this is middle and high school kids. The funny thing is that our older teens are pretty much on their own schedule. If you stay up late, don't complain when you have a 5:30 wake-up call when you were warned. The younger tweens seem to be the issue with the cry of "well they get to stay up, why can't I?" That's just one of those comments that makes my blood run cold. Logic of course will get me nowhere. Parental authority, hello? We have none of that here! So it usually boils down to, you will go to bed, you will go directly to bed, and that is the end of it or you will not be breathing in the morning. Ha! Some kind of threat? ::sigh:: It just does not end, it's a never-ending battle of where do we push the envelope to see if the parental units will give in today.
So... I ask again... so you want to be a parent?? Just be careful what you ask for.