Where Did All the Nice Kids Go?

We spent a lovely day at the Beach on Sunday, a day before all the crowds would decend en masse' for Australia Day. After having a simple lunch of sandwiches and softdrink, the kids, with two parents in tow, hit the water. It was a gorgeous day, the sun was shining, the water was cold. It was just what we needed to blow out the cobwebs prior to jumping back on the school rollercoaster.

At a later part of the day, Husband and I meandered across the road to check out an Antique Store, leaving the kidlets to play in the playground. One item of fascination was an adapted flying fox which whizzed around on an almost oval track, sending all the kids into screaming fits of laughter.

As we came back across the road, it made my heart soar when I realised that Caitlin was helping all of the littlies to get up on the swing and was gently pushing them so they didn't fall off when it bounced back. Aiden was helping to pull it back up to its starting position and they were both making sure that everyone was taking turns. That is until a rotten little child of about seven, barged in and kept trying to get in front of everyone else. My dad was watching the kids and told Conor he couldn't have a go as he was too little. I explained to Dad that if he got hurt, well tough bikkies, he had to at least have a go. So, after wretched child had a turn, I went to help Conor up. And Brat promptly tried to get back on. I told him politely that he had just had a go, we were all waiting and he too could wait his turn. Needless to say, Conor had a go, didn't fall off and was way chuffed with himself.

It led me to the question though, "Where have all the nice kids gone?" Are mine the exception to the rule? I make my children say please and thankyou, they hold doors open for the elderly or ladies who are pregnant or with prams. They stop to pick up things others have dropped. Are they so rare these days? While swimming, occassionally the play was too rough so they were sent out for a time out. Again, am I the only one who stops my kids from doing wrong?

Brat child came walking back some time later with a huge icecream cone that my children were wistfully eyeballing. One by one they all came up and asked if they too could get an icecream. Unfortunately we hadn't budgeted for that for the day but I did counter offer with icy cold slices of watermelon. Well, my three were as happy as Larry, piling into the sweet slices and smearing it all over each other.

You know, this past year, Caitie was particularly rude to her teacher one day and was sent to the office to think about her behaviour. Admittedly her teacher was an idiot who was abusive to the children, threw things and was just awful BUT I made her write out an apology and give it to her teacher because he deserved her respect. I've done it with Aiden before. How can our children learn right from wrong if, as parents, we allow them to get away with so very much. Respect is an easy word to spell but a difficult concept to grasp. I hope that I have put in the hard yards and my kids learn these lessons now, to stand them in good stead later.

Flying High and Home Again

What a Christmas! As mentioned previously, we all lobbed onto a plane on Christmas day and flew down to Sydney. All bags arrived, all children were unharmed and the flight was a breeze.

The following day was our 2nd Christmas and we enjoyed a hot day followed by a small summer storm. Nothing as fantastical as the Queensland storms but a cool change none the less.

My mum lives on a very steep hill with an evil hook to the right at the bottom of it. Since the kids took their scooters with them, they were under strict instructions NOT to scooter down the hill...they were given strict instructions ,twice. While enjoying the cool afternoon, it came to my attention that three children were flying past the window at warp speed. Contrary to former death threats, they were indeed scootering down the hill, hitting Mach III. My rather worried Mum asked if she should go out and tell them not to. You know, we could have done that. You know, we then would have had an entire week of telling them over and over again not to go scootering ....you get the drift. So, I said no. They have to learn...the hard way.

Sure enough, not five minutes later, there was a crash followed by Caitie screaming. Yup, the evil right hook had got her. She had swept round the corner at devastating speed, wobbled, lost control and hit the grass which effectively stopped the scooter cold. When a scooter going at over 40km an hour is suddenly stopped, the law of inertia means that the child ON the scooter keeps right on going...over the top. She had a massive graze down her leg, a small graze on her elbow and more worryingly, she couldn't move her arm. We bandaged it and watched her over the next few hours. There was no swelling, no pain on bending, so it was quite obviously a sprain.

Mind you, they didn't go scootering down the hill again!

The following day we spent wandering around Taronga Zoo. I will post more photographs and info about that another day. I will finish however with this truly lovely photograph from the Zoo which has the infamous "Nuns In a Scrum" (aka the Sydney Opera House) as well as one of the Tall Ships sailing through the harbour.

Cheers,

Cin