reinventingtracy

Skylar really made out last weekend when we had no kitchen. For instance, on Sunday for breakfast, he got his favorite morning sandwich of bacon and cheese on a bagel, hold the egg. Way to keep the cholesterol down.

I am in heaven! Skylar got his lunch pass last week which means NO MORE LUNCH MAKING. Although it will probably get expensive I would rather pay him than make him a sandwich that he sometimes eats and sometimes doesn't. And there is the added bonus of using his lunch pass as black mail. All I have to say is "Skylar, if you don't listen, I'll take away your lunch pass." That is working like a charm.

On a cuter note. When I called him after his first excursion he said he "felt so free". For all those over-protective types, don't worry, they are not to travel alone and they have a 3 block radius and the crossing guards are there. And I have noticed an improvement on Skylar's perception of where he is and when to cross the streets and what to look out for. He's a good boy.

Skylar learned a hard lesson the other day. If a food is hot going in it usually is hot going out. Although he really enjoyed the wings he patiently waited over one and a half hours for, he did not enjoy the phenomenon called - fire butt!

Skylar's Dad and I agreed to fill out his middle school applications together so that's what we did - in the back seat of his car parked in front of my building. We are such a modern family! Anyway, it goes like this: 1. East Side Middle, 2. Wagner SP, 3. Clinton School for Writers and Artists, 4. Simon Baruch, 5. Wagner (zoned school)

In general I am happy with the selections because I was able to convince his Dad to eliminate School of the Future although the Clinton School for Writers and Artists makes me bristle. Last week at the Middle School fair all the district 2 schools were their strutting there stuff. I knew that School of the Future was what his Dad favored so I went over to take a look. In a nutshell, the curriculum is something out of what my High School had called "Whole Earth". It is an alternative school that doesn't believe in tests and encourages students to defend themselves and their learnings to their teachers. Something like a thesis. The woman telling me all this didn't have an answer when I asked her what happens when the kids go into the real world and get real jobs and they don't know how to follow rules and standards set upon them by society and institutions. I had to answer for her by saying that in a word, they crumble. I never thought I would take such a hard line on education, after all, I'm a bit of a non-comformist myself, but I see what that kind of thing does to kids. And Skylar is the type of kid that needs order and structure. He is like a horse that needs to be broken. He is already a free spirit who thinks the world will bend to his needs and he can convince anyone anything to get what he wants. As a Mom, when he was baby and toddler, I gave him way TOO much freedom and now I'm paying for it. It's easy to see in retrospect but when you're in it you think you are the greatest Mom in the world for letting your kid have free self-expression and little boundaries. You think you are creating a genius, and a leader but what you are really creating is just a self-entitled little brat. I see parents everywhere bend to their children's demands and cower in fear at the thought their little son or daughter will get mad at them and throw a tantrum. Parents, and I'm including myselft, ask their kids what they want to do, what they want to eat, if they are tired or hungry. I have news for you parents. Do not ask, TELL them this is what is going to happen. Parenting is not a democracy, it is a dictatorship. I'm not saying that a child shouldn't have or voice their opinion but ultimately the parent must have the control. You are doing yourself, your child and society a favor. OK. And now I'm going to step down from my soap box.

Let's see if I take my own advice if Aleks and I decide to have another child!

Since Skylar has finally reached the age of ten we are no longer required by law to have these foreboding child guards in the window. And if you ask me, they pose a fire hazard. Since we are only on the fifth floor it is feasible that we could 'jump' in case of a fire but with the guards up there is no way to get out.

Of course, the view doesn't get much better.