Seriously missing the fun gene
What a whiny subject line! This is not a whiny post, really, I promise.
Last week I took Rocketboy (and Buttercup) to the Great New York State Fair. What I learned is that the solution to the difficulty of having a super high-energy 8 yr old boy is having 2 super high-energy eight year old boys! We brought a friend and it was awesome. They rode some insane number of rides, they wasted too much money winning really cheap stuffed animals and were thrilled about it. They ate hot dogs, drank lemonade, had instant ice cream made with liquid nitrogen. It was end of summer heaven. Rocketboy was so glad to have a friend there, that he didn't complain (too much) when we spent a long time looking crazy chickens (OMG - Candy Cane Silkies - WTF! People dye their chickens!) and row after row of cows.
My problem was my distinct lack of fun. We wandered around the midway and the conversation in my head went something like this:
"Wow, how much energy does it take to run one of these things? They just load them on trucks and transport these huge machines around the country burining more fossil fuels." Then, "I have to throw away this food packaging! Where are the recycling bins? What do you mean there are no recycling bins on the midway!?!" And my ever-favorite as the boys begged to try to win more stuffed animals, "What are the conditions in the factory (probably in China) where these cheap toys were made? How old were the workers?" Yeah, I was a bucket of fun, luckily I kept it to myself. All that stuff is important and is part of making good chioces for the sake of our world, but I need to loosen up!
I'm going out tomorrow night. I don't know where or with whom, but I'm leaving the kids with Steve and heading out. I think I've been in my own house and in my own head too much lately.
Last week I took Rocketboy (and Buttercup) to the Great New York State Fair. What I learned is that the solution to the difficulty of having a super high-energy 8 yr old boy is having 2 super high-energy eight year old boys! We brought a friend and it was awesome. They rode some insane number of rides, they wasted too much money winning really cheap stuffed animals and were thrilled about it. They ate hot dogs, drank lemonade, had instant ice cream made with liquid nitrogen. It was end of summer heaven. Rocketboy was so glad to have a friend there, that he didn't complain (too much) when we spent a long time looking crazy chickens (OMG - Candy Cane Silkies - WTF! People dye their chickens!) and row after row of cows.
My problem was my distinct lack of fun. We wandered around the midway and the conversation in my head went something like this:
"Wow, how much energy does it take to run one of these things? They just load them on trucks and transport these huge machines around the country burining more fossil fuels." Then, "I have to throw away this food packaging! Where are the recycling bins? What do you mean there are no recycling bins on the midway!?!" And my ever-favorite as the boys begged to try to win more stuffed animals, "What are the conditions in the factory (probably in China) where these cheap toys were made? How old were the workers?" Yeah, I was a bucket of fun, luckily I kept it to myself. All that stuff is important and is part of making good chioces for the sake of our world, but I need to loosen up!
I'm going out tomorrow night. I don't know where or with whom, but I'm leaving the kids with Steve and heading out. I think I've been in my own house and in my own head too much lately.