Ack

Glad that all went well--despite despoiling of your carefully laid plans. Maybe the world doesn't require perfection from you to run smoothly?

Of course I'm a belt&suspender neurotic myself.

Congratulations!

ditto

(Yep, it's a tough one, dlowan. Explaining things using concrete examples is always best, but what concrete examples? How to avoid making her nervous about real people? Ah, so complicated.)

Is it ever.

YE !!!

I need to frame this and hang it somewhere prominent. It'll make me a saner and happier person. Perhaps I can even stand to NOT cross-stitch it myself. And, in a stretch, hang it in a place that it is not precisely equidistant from each window. <deep breath>

Hugs back Thomas.

Sozobe--

Right now Martha is too busy to be your role model. You'll do just fine without her. Hold your dominion.

LOL, Noddy!

You're a good momma, soz. I would have turned into Mama Tiger if someone had grabbed my 3 yr. old. You kept a cool head & it paid off. Good for you.

My poor little girl has had to do a lot of growing up this week...

Today we played at her friend Jack's house, was going really well, they were upstairs playing forever. Then sozlet came downstairs and was talking to us for a while before we noticed something on her hand. It was a quite nasty cut. She shrugged and said it was a paper cut. Hmmm. Then Jack appeared, he had TWO nasty cuts, each hand, one really bad. Wha...? Sozlet kept saying paper cut, but she wasn't being very coherent about it. She was starting to play with a book, and... <trails off> The paper was... <trails off>

We got the cuts tended to, bandaids on, I kept trying to figure out what on earth happened. Jack wandered off, sozlet blurted out, "Jack broke the window." Jack's dad said, "That'd do it," and dashed upstairs.

Jack had broken his bedroom window and had gotten sozlet to help him hide the broken glass, trying to pretend nothing had happened. I know I may laugh at this at some point, I ain't laughing now. There was glass and blood all over his bed.

Various delays as Jack's dad cleaned and I watched the kids, then got sozlet home and sat her down to try to figure out WHAT the heck happened and why she kept saying paper cut. It eventually came out that Jack had told her he wouldn't be her friend anymore if she told us what happened. When she finally got to this part, she just utterly dissolved in distraught tears. "...or I won't be your friend anymore" is such a staple of childhood, but it's the first time she's run into it, and Jack is her very best friend. She was disconsolate for about 20 minutes.

At this age, soz, parents have all the power in the world. Call Jack's parents and tell them what happened. Then all of you sit down with both children, all together, and talk to them about how friends are supposed to treat each other. Then make them hug each other and say, "I'm sorry." They will make up with each other because they have to. Then kiss them, tell them you're proud of them for being such big kids about this, and send them off to play.

We've had to do this several times through the years. It's amazing how well it works. I'm not advocating that you solve all her social problems for her...it's just that sometimes they need a little help growing up. Poor sozlet, I would have been disconsolate, too.

Why Mother's Get Grey Hair--textbook example. One for the window, three for the reflected mental anguish. Children!

How is Jack doing? I hope his cuts are aching, and that he's feeling really miserable about his insensitive, blackmailing, little self!

I worry about Jack too. He needs to turn around from being sneaky....

All children are sneaky when it comes to hiding really big no-nos. It takes maturity to face up to your parents and admit your mistakes. I know 50- yr.-olds that can't do it. One can hardly blame a tiny 3-yr.-old for trying to hide something as awful as a broken window. His parents need to reassure him that it's okay to tell them when bad things happen.

You're such a killjoy, Eva! I was having so much fun exploring the dark side of my soul here!

Yes to all of the above. Jack's dad already had a talk with him about the hiding/ sneaking etc., but the "...or I won't be your friend" came out after we got home. Then we've been plunged into no-furnace-when-it's-10-below fun -- currently 40 IN the house. (COLD FINGERS!!) Getting a new furnace soon.

Anyway, yes, Jack's dad will be told about this latest development, and there will be some aplogies happening. Jack is good about apologizing, anyway.

Mostly, I just feel bad for sozlet that she's had to deal with so much in a week. Her face as she was telling me this stuff was just heartbreaking.

You have my sympathy about the furnace. Ours up&quit four times in the last week--probably due to hasty repairmen. Although we have a service contract, the oil company wants to charge us for the first repair (and perhaps some of the others) using the logic that the problem was not in the furnace but in the fuel lines.

We have appealed.

Meanwhile, I thought I was suffering with indoor temperatures of 50 degrees. Obviously, I'm only second place in the Chill of the Week contest.

Hold your dominion.

Hey, explore away! Just stop putting those razor blades in the Halloween apples, okay?

(DO love your posts, btw!)

Sozobe, at the danger of being the 2934th person to tell you this, make sure to keep water running in all the pipes of your house! Broken pipes are Not A Good Thing (TM) , and this is not the time to save money on water!

(Thanks Eva -- love yours too! )

Just the 2831st, don't worry.

Advice genuinely appreciated, tho. No problems so far (knock on wood.)

Update: Sent an email this afternoon, Jack's dad wrote back right away, poor guy feels awful, he says that Jack wants to bake sozlet some cookies to apologize, what flavor does she like best? Aw. They're nice people, we had already talked about an older playmate that Jack's dad doesn't trust, (she tends to keep a sharp eye out for where Jack's dad is and whether he is within earshot, and noticably changes her behavior accordingly) and we think Jack got this from her.

Kids will be kids, and I do believe in not hovering over them at all times, in letting them go off and do their own thing which might not always be exactly what I would want them to be doing. That's part of growing up. This could've been awful (did I mention he broke the window with his HEAD?), but the injuries were actually minor and the salve for the psychic wounds is on it's way, I think.

Oh and the furnace is working, too. Whew.