I love, love, love summer. Especiallly summer vacation. My kids' last day of school is Wednesday and I'm soooooo looking forward to being home with them. But I'm dreading it a little too. Not for the typical reason that most moms dread. A lot of friends of mine don't like to hassle with bored kids or feel like they need to keep them entertained. Sure I can get frustrated with my children, but more than anything I love being at home them. We have a rhythym to our days and we just have a lot of fun together. The only thing that tops that is John being home with us too. Weekends are valuable time for us to re-connect and play as a family and all five of us need it What we don't need are "others". Oh yeah, sometimes it's fun and important to welcome others over for dinner and sleepovers and picnics and outings. But we have a couple of neighbor kids who call and come over WAY too much for my liking.
This morning I was talking to a friend on the phone. It was 9am and my other line beeps. I recently got caller id call waiting so I could see that it was the neighbor girl and I chose to ignore her call. What the heck is she calling us for at 9am? It's Saturday for pete's sake. She's a persistent kid though and when I didn't answer the phone she decides to pay us a visit. At 9:02 am?? Folks, if this happened once in a blue moon I think I'd be okay with it, but it happens with much more frequency than I want to think about. 9 out off 10 Sundays our family goes to church. You'd think she'd figure that out, but every Sunday our caller id shows multiple calls from this little one, usually starting around 9am and continuing til we've arrived home. We've designated Sunday as family day and our kids aren't allowed to have playmates on Sundays. Been telling the kid that for YEARS and she still keeps calling and coming over. Even on days like Easter, Christmas Eve, Mother's Day, etc. It's actually quite sad.
I used to feel a little guilty. It's obvious that the kid is dying for attention from anyone who will give it. But I've put my guilt aside because I can and will give her attention, but not to the point that it interferes with mothering my own three children. And believe me...the possibility of interference here is high. You give an inch and they'll take a mile. I pray for this kiddo when I see her or her name on caller id. And I pray for my attitude towards her. It's bad sometimes...and it's off the charts this morning.
So, I'm dreading summer just a bit because I don't like the daily hassle of telling her (and others) why my kids can't play every single day and why she (they) can't call our house so early and blah, blah, blah. It just sucks all the fun out of it for me some days.
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