A Silver Lining to Simply Not Having the Bandwidth
When Robbie started prek3, we were supremely lucky to snag one of the limited spots in his school’s aftercare. A friend’s daughter, in kindergarten at the time, was at the same school and also registered for aftercare. A month into the academic year, the friend pulled her daughter from aftercare because, she said, it didn’t have enough enrichment programming. It was glorified babysitting.
How I Explain Christmas to our Interfaith* Kids
Christmas has always been big for our little nuclear family. Jon’s family in England goes all out on Christmas and, despite being Jewish, I love the Christmas spirit/season; having been a chorister at Washington National Cathedral through my entire adolescence, I have an intimate understanding of the liturgical context, too.
On top of that, Robbie was born on December 25. We went to the National Gallery of Art in Washington when he was nearly two and saw lots of mother-and-child paintings, and we pointed out that Robbie and Jesus shared a birthday. Ever since then, Robbie’s felt a special affinity for Babycheezus, as Robbie called him.
November Searches, Saves, and Sources
I’m not publishing a full meal plan this week - Jon’s mum’s here and it’s Thanksgiving, so we’ve got a lot going on that will replace (at least sort of) standard dinners.
But I can’t help myself from at least sketching it out:
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Anyway! I thought that instead I might start a new monthly series to share my searches, saves, and sources. These round-ups won’t be long because we’re not buying much as we continue to save up for our renovation, but I’d like to see how they do. So… shall we?
Our Weekday Default
The other week, I mentioned that having a “default” routine helps me avoid burnout. We often have to make small tweaks to that routine - and sometimes, like next week when Jon will be out of town and I’ll have to stay in the office late at least a few nights, big ones - but it means we’re not starting from scratch with the logistics every time we plan our steps for the day ahead.
So let’s look at the morning and evening defaults through the week:
A Thank-You To Daycare
Tomorrow is Claire’s last day at daycare. We’ve been with this daycare for almost six years; Robbie started when he was nine months old, in September 2018, and he and Claire overlapped for a few months before he moved on to preK-3.
I’m not going to delve into the bowels of Reddit or conservative parenting blogs to find exact quotes from people who think that sending a child to daycare is tantamount to abuse, but one I remember seeing repeatedly over the years is “Well, I could never let someone else raise my child.”