Adventures in Parenting

[Pheidippides]

nik's wife leaves the kids alone, she gets a massage.

I leave mine alone (to go buy bacon, I might add) and my kids are on the road to ruin?

You should have married me, apparently. Too bad for you it wasn't legal yet.

[Babs]

nik's wife leaves the kids alone, she gets a massage.

I leave mine alone (to go buy bacon, I might add) and my kids are on the road to ruin?

Just to be clear, I am not giving nik's wife a massage.

[NorthwestUteFan]

I'm thinking this bodes quite well for SLC Suburbia High class of 2023. If dad's already leaving the kids home for jaunts to the store, the kids are golden for party weekends by the time they're, oh, say, twelve or so.

I remember some pretty wild parties in the Pepperwood or the Hidden Valley area back in high school thrown by a set of twins, and that was 23+ years ago. The trips are going to be the center of the world in their high school, and parties at DDD's/MMM's will happen whether or not the kiddoes throw them. I hesitate to imagine how wild parties would get now...

I'm sure he can't wait to take 3 (ea) kids on every romantic vacation starting in 6 years...

[falafel]

You should have married me, apparently. Too bad for you it wasn't legal yet.

It sounds like you're still willing, so apparently all's not lost.

[Babs]

It sounds like you're still willing, so apparently all's not lost.

Although nik may have to fight wuapinmon off first.

[wuapinmon]

Although nik may have to fight wuapinmon off first.

I don't have enough warehouse training space to fight nikuman.

[falafel]

Although nik may have to fight wuapinmon off first.

You're right. We, as a society, are broadening our acceptance of these amorous relationships, but we're still not ready for a nikinmon daddy union.

[marsupial]

We just started letting my oldest (almost 10) stay at home with the younger two for short stretches, like 30 to 45 minutes. So far so good.

Rules:
No cooking.
No answering the door.
No going outside.
No friends over.
If someone calls, I'm in the shower.
Call me on my cell if you have any problems.

I've made quick trips to the grocery store, given danimal a ride to work when one car was in the shop, and gone for a run around the neighborhood. Date nights are still a couple of years away.

[wally]

when I got another call, this time from my daughter, informing me that (a) my son had gone into the forbidden sanctum that is my room, (b) raided my bedstand and (c) decided to consume one of my heavily-caffeinated energy gels. This is not as bad as it sounds because I prefer him to raid the energy gels than consume the Johnson & Johnson product his 2.5 year old sister prefers (also in the nightstand) and because I don't have to deal with the wired kid. As long as I can find my wife first.

LOL! My 4.5 YO (not a closet genius) used some hand sanitizer, water, and his own saliva to make a "potion" that he subsequently drank. Poison control told my wife that he might act drunk/sleepy for the rest of the day, which he did.

We don't use hand sanitizer anymore.

[BigFatMeanie]

We would leave our oldest two kids in charge of the younger two back when the oldest were 9 and 8. We would take the baby with us.

Never had a problem although the house was sometimes a mess when we got home

[Moliere]

Awesome story Niku!

I can't top it but I thought I'd share the time I left my kids alone. MJ was at a girls night out and wasn't expected back until at least midnight and I was just starting my running kick and it was a running night. Since I was not wanting to skip a running night for fear that I'd abandon running altogether I decided I'd stay at most a 1/2 mile from the house.

My oldest was 8 at the time and was just going to bed at 8:30pm. The other kids were already asleep in their beds so I figured no problem. I instructed hte oldest that I'd be gone for 20 minutes and if he needed anything he could call me.

Well, I was feeling good on the run so I decided to stretch it to 25 minutes, however at about 20:09 into the run I got a call from the oldest asking me where I was. Apparently he had been watching the clock and right when it passed the 20 minute mark and I wasn't home he started to freak out. By this time I was 1 minute from home so I jogged home and found him clutching the phone in his bed.

Yeah, maybe he's not yet ready to be left alone...

[jay santos]

A 9 watching a 5, depends on the 9 but should be fine. We've done a lot worse.

[Babs]

A 9 watching a 5, depends on the 9 but should be fine. We've done a lot worse.

I was a nine watching a five once. It really really stressed me out. I kinda think it's too young.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

I would trust Goose at 4 before I would trust Jr. 9 or Cap 6.

[pellegrino]

this made me think of a recent blunder made by yours truly.

The other day I went to a neighbor's house to borrow something so I went out the back door, through the yard, and into the alley to get to his back door (we always go to friends' backdoors in my neighborhood) My youngest (18 months) was in our yard (it's fenced) playing. As I came back I noticed that she was in the alley playing by our car. There was nobody in the yard. Apparently I left the gate open, she saw me walk away and started following me but was distracted by the wonders of the alley and our car. It kind of freaked me out seeing her there, alone.