I haven’t done a post in DAYS, but the days are flying by in a mad panic. It’s ridiculous.
1.
We had our Book club Christmas breakfast last week and we ended up talking about how you tell your children about strangers and not talking to strangers. We live in a society where we try to teach our children to respect adults and they always have to greet them, but this is not always a good thing. So, we demand our children greet strangers in shops that we talk to, but don’t realise that we could be exposing them to that person as they are no longer a ‘stranger’. This story also came up.
It was a really arb conversation, but it really made me think as we are exactly like this, especially as we are often approached by people in shops because we have twins. “oh look, are they twins” (ya think??), “oh look, are they triplets” (really, really we get asked this a lot) and my favourite: “Are they girls?” (dude, seriously, they are wearing pink dresses, what do you think??)
Our saving grace is that the kids don’t like strangers, so we normally deflect them by saying that our children are shy. But I usually cringe a little inside, thinking that my kids are rude. They aren’t, I’m being silly. So, from now on, if a stranger comes up I’m going to not make my children greet them, sorry. It is actually my job to keep them from harm.
What do you do? How do you deal with it? Do you acknowledge when your children are not comfortable with a stranger?
2.
Mignon had the weirdest fever/snotty nose thing last week so she got carted off to the doctor. She was just really miserable this weekend as well and still had a lingering temperature. We thought she was just tired, so we tried to take it easy with her until we felt our patience stretch until we thought we couldn’t anymore. Until it was bedtime and she refused to brush her teeth so we did it for her and her gums started bleeding, we got such a fright! Funny how, when there are 3 kids you don’t really watch what they eat with a hawk eye as you generally know they’ll catch up when they need to. Only when we looked back over the weekend did we realise she didn’t eat well at all. I felt SO bad. And this morning she has blisters in her mouth, my poor baby, so Husband is taking to the doctor. Hope she’ll be ok!
3.
Daniel is turning into quite a bug fanatic. On Saturday I wanted to iron a pair of pants until a rain spider the size of my palm came crawling over the edge. I must admit, I screamed like a girl, but no problem for my boy. Between him and husband they took it out. Yuk.
And here is further proof that he is totally fearless: (taken at Giraffe House, well worth a visit!)
I was very comfortable hiding behind the camera..
Ai bugs ,snakes….ewhhhhh.
Hope Mignon is better soon.
Rather a rude child than a molested or dead child. I think I may have to rethink the way I handle these type of situations.
Yup, a bit scary.
It’s really weird, doctor thinks it’s because of a viral infection.
Aw thanks 🙂
poor Mignon! hope she is better very soon!
lol at the “are they girls???” 😀 they look like girls even without the pink dresses!
its awesome that D isn’t afraid of bugs and snakes!
thats a very scary story you linked to!
Seriously, Tripplets! How doff can some peeps actually be? But hey, hope Mignon is ok, maybe she is suffering from PTSD from seeing the rainspider on Daniels pants, lucky you have a brave son, ten-gazillion camel points to him!!
What scares me most is how he managed to ‘introduce’ himself to the family..
Haha, maybe 🙂
Hope Mignon feels better soon!
Don’t you just love the arb comments. I got asked by a lady in our complex(while walking out the door baby in arms) “Did you have your baby?” “Errr no, I stole this one”
Shame poor M 🙁 Viral infection? I hate it when doctors say that. I reckon what they’re trying to say is “I don’t have a clue”! Hope she’s bouncing around again soon 🙂
Ahhh, the bug phase! Tristan’s been into bugs for about 3 years – keep lots of empty tubs with lids! Bug catching gear for Christmas? 🙂
As for ‘talking’ to strangers – I do not encourage it! If people think my kids are rude, I don’t care. I engage in idle chat when I’m in the queue at Woolies, and I always tell Tristan afterwards that the person is a stranger that I don’t know! And that I was just being polite by talking to them. Then I remind him that until he’s big like me, he doesn’t talk to anyone he doesn’t know. There’s way too many sick people out there.
Shame man! Hope Mignon is 100% asap!
Daniel not scared of snakes eh? Neither is Matti – but bring one of those stink bugs near him, and it’s tickets – girl screams for miles LOL 😛 I love our kids – they rock right? 😛 [nod and smile k lol]
Oh, isn’t she special?
Good policy you have there about strangers, I must remember!
Our kids absolutely rock!!!!!
So glad you went to the Giraffe House, we really enjoyed our trip there. When did you go?
Poor Mignon, I hope the Doc can find out what is wrong quickly.
Hugs. xx
People are really silly sometimes. Post bald pics please, I’d love to see!
We went last week, I think it was Tuesday, the whole week was a blur!
Hope M feels better soon. Cool bt D being so brave 🙂
I was a very shy child and my parents and elders always made me greet people that I didn’t even know! Heck my father made me call a woman I had only known for 6 months Mommy after my mom had been dead for only two years. I so don’t force Thomas to greet people he doesn’t know. I feel safer that way and I’m sure he does too!
I’m sure it’s a Montessori thing!
Phew, that’s hectic.
Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes?
I was made to kiss most people as a kid (grew up in a SMALL town). Still can’t stand people coming too close.
ugh, that kissing thing is truly weird, we also used to have to do that.
Hope Mignon is fine now. I read the article with horror. D is very shy and will not go to or greet a stranger (and often people he does know) but K is a worry because he’s such a friendly lttle chap. Rather rude than dead! I think the Giraffe House should be on our list of places to go these holidays.
There and butterfly world, they’ll love it!