Thursday, April 13, 2006
A Little BUMP In The Road
My sister and I are co-parenting my baby girl...now I know what it must be like in a divoced family...we have very different parenting techniques. She's a RULES person and I'm not.
I'm probably guilty of spoiling my kids too much but I believe that kids should be happy as often as possible. Life will kick them in the gut soon enough and responsibilites will weigh on them for the rest of their lives. Not that I don't think my kids should have responibilities, they've always had those, they've always worked and had chores (minimal ones). The older they got and the more of a 'life' of their own they developed the less I expected of them at home. I always put a ball game above the laundry. A smiling face from one of the kids means more to me then clean dishes, laundry, dusting, ect.
Baby girl came for a visit tonite and she was just so frustrated with her Aunt. Some of her complaints are valid and some were just frustration and I think that she knows the difference. Her biggest complaint is her 9 o'clock curfew. She thinks, and I agree, that at her age she should be allowed to be out, or have company in, until at least 10, as long as her grades are good. My sisters problem is that she doesn't sleep until baby girl is in the house. I never fell asleep until she was home either, however I was always willing to sacrafice an hours sleep if necessary. If she decides to play basketball, there will be many nights that she's not home until way after 9. Sister is trying to apply the same rules to baby girl as she does to her daugher, the trouble being that my niece is only 14.
I was trying to stay out of things as much as possible but after seeing the frustration on baby girls face tonite I guess that I'm going to have a chat with my sister. I REFUSE to let this co-parenting stuff come between us. I'm pretty sure that we can come to some compromises that all parties involved can live with.
Baby girl is so happy with everything in her life, except for her living arrangements, I think that some of it is just her being homesick. It still hasn't been very long and nobody has adjusted completely yet...maybe we never will. I told her that she needed to really think about things...weigh the pros and cons...remember why she made this move to begin with and decide if she's willing to 'give a little'. I hope that she takes some time to do just that.
She'll be home for the next two weeks...I'm not sure if that will make things better or worse.
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