Items I forgot to add to vacation by the numbers:
2.5 – hours of precious internet connectivity (wireless at the beach was VERY spotty) I wasted surfing the Jon & Kate plus 8 controversy websites. Who knew that Aunt Jodi had been wronged and her sister was blogging in her defense? Seriously, that is 2.5 hours I will never get back.
9 - number of comments/looks that confirmed my mother’s dislike of people sharing all their personal dirt on the internet (when I was discussing the JK+8 shenannigans with my sister). Ahem. Glad she doesn’t know about this here blog, eh?
3 – number of people who could not refrain from commenting/staring at L in Charleston. The first time, it was annoying. The second time, I was visibly agitated by the gushing old lady. By the third time, when a woman pointed rudely and called her very uninterested son’s attention to L at the aquarium and said “Look, Brendan! Look at that baby girl! Doesn’t she just look like a little doll! She is just like a little china doll! Just look at her! Look at her!” As if L was a fucking display like the fish. Just as I was beginning to stomp over to tell her she was being rude when I saw my mom obliviously walking in my general direction. My mom is NEVER someone who approves of a scene, no matter how justified. So I stifled my rant and just moved to block the moron’s view of L. These kind of interactions rarely happen at home, so I am wondering if my fine-tuned keep-away, what-do-you-think-you-are-doing-don’t-you-know-staring-is-rude and don’t-bother-my-kids vibe is only effective with a Midwestern audience.
16.25 – dollars earned by M on our trip. The first day, I gave her 40 quarters. Every time she whined, complained, threw a fit, or misbehaved, she had to give us a quarter. I thought for sure she would come home broke, so I also gave her an additional 5 quarters every day. It worked like magic. The most quarters she lost in a single day was 3 and that was on the trip home when she was suffering from a bout of low blood sugar. I also gave her 6 post-its to use when she wanted to ask “How much longer until we get there?” Every time she asked, she had to give up a post-it. After all the post-its were gone, she had to start paying a quarter each time she asked. She only used 4 on the way to the beach and 2 on the way home. For each post-it she didn’t use, she got another quarter. Money was a good motivator for M, that is for sure. A trip without whining was worth every single penny we spent.
hehehehehe I love quarters. I bet your daughter had a blast and loves her quarters
That quarter strategy is brilliant. Did you construct that and if not, where’d you get the idea?
buy a dvd player for your car. Another item I swore I would never buy, but it has saved my sanity on 6 hour car trips several times!
The quarter thing is brilliant!
Dude, you need to patent that quarter strategy. Unfortunately I’m not sure it will work on a 17 month old, but maybe husbands?
Okay, the quarter thing rocks! I’m totally doing it the next time we take a trip.
(Is it bad that I want to go looking for the Jon and Kate + 8 controversy sites? Heh.)
I love the quarter idea!! I am always looking for ways to bribe my son into good behavior and he’s becoming quite the capitalist as of late, so what a perfect solution!
Yep, I spent an afternoon of quality “work” time on the J&K+8 debacle. Not too surprising I guess.
We are headed out tomorrow for our vacation, so this is great timing, thanks for the tips!
The commenting drives me batty. It happens just about every time I leave the house. I have gotten good at not making eye contact. I don’t even see the stares that way. But I also don’t see them approaching and don’t have time to appear unapproachable. Most of the time it is a short “nice” comment – like oh your daughter is… the end. Walk away. But man – some of them are doozies. Like – is that your daughter? She doesn’t look like you? And – I kid you not – “how much did she cost.” Last week at the zoo We were sitting on a bench discussing all the problems with kicking others when they block our line of sight to the bears and a woman interrupted us to ask if she was indeed my real daughter. I told her that that was a personal question to ask someone and she just kept right on telling me that her daughter had adopted “2 of THEM” a few years ago. Blew me away. The commenting is irritating – not something I dwell on, but I just worry for the day that my daughter understands – as I know many adoptive parents do. I really have to perfect my response and my body language. I guess the people making the comments are prob. too obtuse to even recognize when someone does not want to be approached. I think the best response I know of is just to say “why would you ask that?” At least that is a somewhat polite way to handle it in front of my daughter.
And by the way – great idea with the post-its and quarters.
Katie
I think ‘A’ should use the quarter strategy on you except with dollars. When you run out of money he starts deleting TV shows from the Tivo.
http://www.AnUrbanStory.com
Boo for comments. Ugh. Yay for quarters. U r 2 clever. Luv it.
Hello! I wanted to drop you a quick message letting you know about a new Social Network for Adoptees, called AdopteeNetwork.com.
http://adopteenetwork.com
If you’d like any more information, feel free to contact me personally @ johnsaddington@gmail.com. I’d love to discuss how we can work together!
John
Okay… what is the J&K + 8 controversy. Please tell us and save others the 2.5 hours. I’m feeling the itch to look it up too…
Thanks to your post, I just had to go found out what the J/K +8 controversy was. Now I will not get that part of my life back either
We went to eat at the Cracker Barrel and 2 older ladies came over and actually tried to pat our daughter on the head to say how cute she was. GRRRR.
That quarter thing is brilliant! You are super mom! I am totally stealing that idea next time we go to Spoiled Brat Central aka Grammy’s House.