(Sigh. I hate how it redates blogs when you edit them. This is from late November, post-Thanksgiving weekend. I just retitled it today... forgetting about the re-dating. Grumble.)
Well, I have returned from a four-day trip to Cincinnati for the Turkey Day weekend. It was a wonderful trip. I haven't seen these particular friends in about 3 1/2 years, and since then they've bought a new house. Also, their child, 2 months old last time I saw him, is quite a bit bigger. :)
I am grateful to be home, though. It's always an interesting experience to be in a loud family atmosphere, especially when I'm sleeping just down the hall from all the noise. And I dig the love and everything that goes with a family. But I welcome the quiet back at my own house... at least for a few days. If I stay at home, alone, for too long, I end up lonely *laugh*
This weekend did make me realize that I have quite definite ideas about parenting. And how much I admire my sister for her parenting skills. I think in many cases we tend to practice the type of parenting we were raised with, and I know that's mostly true for my family. And I'm ... OK, let's face it -- I'm such an opinionated know-it-all in many ways... I had to keep biting my tongue not to say something about the 3-year old playing Halo (!!!) and the constant sugar intake, and the 3 a.m. bedtimes for children under 10, that sort of thing. I know, I know, everyone raises their kids differently. And different parenting skills don't mean that the kids don't grow up healthy and happy and productive. It just drove me a bit crazy, that's all... I think I'm used to less wild children. And children who sit down and read and play imaginatively, and don't run wild and wrestle, and who seem to be unable to entertain themselves except by staring at a screen.
Grateful to be back home to a nice quiet house where I only have to deal with three demanding cats who are really pissed off at me for being gone for four days. :)
Hope everyone had a stellar Thanksgiving! (If you celebrate it... if you don't, that you had a stellar weekend.)
