Don’t Trust the Village

It takes a village to raise a child. I guess it helps when the village and parents are on the same page. I guess it is doubly nice when the village tells the parents they are raising your child for them.

OK, I’ll get to it!

Girl Twin was invited to a sleep over at a friend’s house. I have said before I’m not sure about these sleep over things. When I was a kid, I played with my friends until it was time to go home, then we got up the next day and started playing again.

Its not like I haven’t tried sleepovers. My first batch of kids had a couple. The kids stay up until at least 2:00 AM giggling and eventually screaming. I yell down the stairs telling the kids that I need to sleep before I go to work. The kids finally go to sleep at some point in the wee hours and I lay in bed too angry to sleep. (Ivy, (lovely, first batch daughter) and her friend Sarah, once kept Elaine and I awake playing Hungry, Hungry Hippo until 1:00 AM. That was not a good night, folks!

When the kids get asked to attend a sleepover, I always have two thoughts. First, the sleepover parents have some kind of evil motive and next, I am going to have a sleepover at my house soon.

Sometimes, even I wonder where this story is going.

The mother of a friend of Girl Twin called to invite Girl Twin to a sleepover. I should have known it wasn’t going to go that great based on the initial phone call.

Friend’s Mother: Can Girl Twin come over for a sleep over? Elaine: That would be fine. Mother: Would it be OK if she stayed two nights? Elaine: We do family things on Sunday, let’s keep it to one night. Mother: Well, that’s not very convenient for me.

I have a thought, if something is not convenient, let’s not do it.

Friend’s Mother: I guess we could meet Saturday and I could let her come home. Elaine: (not as sarcastic as me) That would be great.

Saturday afternoon Girl Twin called me from her friends house.

Girl Twin: Can I spend another night? Me: Girl Twin, I don’t want to argue with you in front of your friends. (my mistake) Spend another night, we will talk about this when you get home.

After our talk with Girl Twin about one night does not mean two nights, I asked if she had fun.

Girl Twin: Yeah, we went to the movies. Me: They took you to the movies? That was nice. Girl Twin: They didn’t take us. They took us to a neighbor’s house. The husband and wife were fighting at that the house so the husband dropped us off at the movies. We saw American Sniper. Me: WHAT?

Maybe I’m not “cool” parent but, I’m not a big fan of sending twelve year-old kids to “R” rated movies. (Girl Twin spent the movie with her hand over her eyes. Her words.) I’m not a fan of dropping my kids off at someone’s house without telling Elaine and me. Actually, I’m not a big fan of my village making decisions for my kids, especially this batch of kids. Don’t trust the village.

One good thing came of this sleepover. I don’t think I will need to have a sleepover at our house.

Our crazy lives!

Monner