Friday, October 03, 2008

A New Stage

Yesterday I began a new stage of my parenting career. The mom-in-the-car stage. The chauffeur.

We have been the kind of parents who wanted our kids to have lots of free, unstructured time. So the Possum took dance for two years, gymnastics for one, and has now been learning guitar for one year. The PandaBat followed her sister into dance for two years, and is now taking gymnastics. That's it so far. One class each per school year, and one big day camp week or two in the summer.

No more. Last Sunday we went to Girl Scouts University, spurred by fliers distributed at school. The Offspring were curious, but within about ten minutes of walking into the lobby filled with tables from the local troops, and running into many girls they know, both were clamoring to join up.

From what I can tell based on yesterday's new troop meeting, they're both going to love it. Lots of varied activities and meetings, and camping out, and excursions. Unlike the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts are inclusive and welcoming, with no religious or sexual orientation issues.

Plus, the Possum has been wanting to study fencing ever since I read her the Spiderwick Chronicles when she was four. Well, two weeks ago we observed a class and she's ready and excited for that, too.

So, suddenly, our calendar is abloom with entries. Brownies three Thursday nights a month. Junior Girl Scouts three Tuesday nights a month. Gymnastics and fencing both on Mondays. Wednesdays will continue to be library trip days. Thursday afternoons still have guitar. In addition there will be school events (the Fall Festival, the Winter Concert) and sometimes weekend camping.

And my role is to write checks and drive the car.

I'm going to need a good book light, with darkness starting earlier. Thank goodness I get great gas mileage. And on the bright side, we have plenty of time to empty the freezer before the cookies come out. Thin Mints, yum!

2 comments:

radiantfitness said...

I, too, am being dragged into the Mom-mobile lifestyle. We have the cub scouts (who are so disorganized here they don't have time for overtones of any kind), Quick Recall (Reese is apparently the same kind of triviahead his mother is), and various church things. Plus I'm toying with Graeme and baby German classes (because yes, I am nuts).
I'm wallowing in Naomi Novik's Temeraire books and various paperback romances. Look for the Judge a Book By Its Cover blog and Cake Wrecks. You can never laugh too much!

Kaethe said...

Oh, no, trivia, too? Don't tell me, It'll be like finding out about Sudoku.

As you can see from my little books widget there, I've pretty much given up anything but kid's books. Although the list of non-kids books I want to read gets longer all the time.

Yeah, I have both of those in my blogroll. I'm also heavily dependent on Cute Overload and I Can Has Cheezburger. Mommy brain=mush. Albeit, fluffy, cute mush.