I'm selling them all to the gypsies!

dragonlady wrote in message ...
In article ,
"Denise" wrote:

Perhaps we could work out a swap for an equally annoying trio of children
I'll send you my 3 bickering mimis and you send me yours. At least then the
voices will be different.


Any chance I can get in on this? This week isn't bad (but I've been
away for 5 days . . .) but there are times I'd gladly swap a 20 yo and
two 17 yos for up to five or six between, say, infancy and 10.

I'd be willing to swap my two 11 year olds for the two 17 year olds.
Heck, they're ALMOST out of the house, right? :-)

Marjorie

meh

In article ,
Noreen Cooper wrote:

dragonlady wrote:

: My mom and dad sort of had two sets of kids: four of us born between
: 1952 and 1957, and two more born in 1968 and 1970. When the older set
: was in our teens and the babies were still cute, they used to say they
: thought all parents ought to be able to drown their first set, and try
: again . . .

Who knows what I'll be saying when my son turns a teenager, since he'll be
too big to toss out the window by then. He's already showing some
premature signs of teenage-itis. I have a feeling it's not going to be
pretty.

Noreen

The thing is, I *like* teenagers -- even my own -- but there are times
when it really isn't pretty. The hardest part is that I sometimes I
feel like I have emotional whiplash: they go back and forth about what
they want, and i know it's because they are trying to sort things out
for themselves, or because their own circumstances have changed and they
didn't mention the change to me, but when I've busted my butt to provide
them the opportunity to do something they really wanted, and they have
changed their minds . . .

Ah, well. This will pass, and we will all like each other as adults.
At least, that's my goal. It worked for Mom and Dad, so I'm hanging on
to it.

meh
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

dragonlady wrote:

: The thing is, I *like* teenagers -- even my own -- but there are times
: when it really isn't pretty. The hardest part is that I sometimes I
: feel like I have emotional whiplash: they go back and forth about what
: they want, and i know it's because they are trying to sort things out
: for themselves, or because their own circumstances have changed and they
: didn't mention the change to me, but when I've busted my butt to provide
: them the opportunity to do something they really wanted, and they have
: changed their minds . . .

I find reading your posts worthwhile with your experience as someone who
has parented teens. I hope you're still around when my son becomes an
official teenager a few years down the line.

I do believe some parents are better with small children while others come
into their own with the teenage years. I probably am the kind of parent
who has more the disposition for dealing with the small ones. But the
teenage years are equally, if not more, critical so I'll probably need all
the hand-holding I can get from those who've gone before me and have lived
to tell the tale.

Noreen

On Mon, 25 Aug 2003 02:47:31 GMT, dragonlady
wrote:

My mom and dad sort of had two sets of kids: four of us born between
1952 and 1957, and two more born in 1968 and 1970. When the older set
was in our teens and the babies were still cute, they used to say they
thought all parents ought to be able to drown their first set, and try
again . . .

I have been known to refer to my oldest as the "practice baby" and
offer him to strangers in exchange for goods. It's not so much that I
think I screwed up, it's more that I think I did better with the next
two because I had more confidence in myself.

Oh, and the fact that #1 has a personality much like mine is
definitely no help at all.

--
Cheryl
Mum to DS#1 (11 Mar 99), DS#2 (4 Oct 00)
and DD (30 Jul 02)