This thread is to split out an interesting derail from the main COVID thread.
Aren’t your kids older? I thought for sure they were all at least double digit ages. I was assuming things would get a lot easier when mine are that age, but apparently not.
[obvious non-COVID content coming, but this thread has been slow]
Yes, they’re 11, 14, and 16. And things are easier in some ways - I can leave the house mostly without worrying about them taking care of themselves. But there is also a bunch of driving around to various events and appointments, in addition to cooking, laundry, and grocery shopping.
Tuesday was the worst in terms of running around and dealing with logistics:
5:30am: Take kid to weightlifting practice
12:15pm: Take kid to doctor’s appointment (and stay there for the hour)
2:15pm: Deal with irrigation service call that my wife had made earlier
5pm: Pick up kid from tennis
6:30pm: Take kid to swimming practice (45 minute round trip)
9pm: Pick up kid from swimming practice (45 minute round trip)
That plus the meals and cleaning up, plus the work I tried to get done (but didn’t actually get done) was pretty overwhelming.
Can the 16 yo drive?
Ideally you could use an Uber, but I think there is a minimum age for kids on their own.
Sounds like what you really need is a chauffeur.
I’ve got a friend who has someone he pays about $20/hr to come to their home and drive their kids to various activities for a few days a week. She doesn’t use her own car, she just drives one of theirs. Probably hard to find someone reliable for a one off situation, but if it was a recurring thing that’s different.
The 16 year old cannot drive. (Based on conversations we’ve had with other parents, we are not unique in this situation - many kids nowadays don’t seem to have any desire to learn how to drive.)
I don’t want to overstate how much of a hero I am or how hard my life is. This is a temporary inconvenience that my super-flexible job easily allows me to handle without much disruption. It just helped clarify exactly how difficult it must be to be a single parent, and how many opportunities for their kids they probably have to pass up simply because they can’t handle the logistics the way my wife and I can.
I legitimately don’t understand how two parents do this shit, much less one.
Well, I also don’t want to underestimate how much of a hero I am.
The most common way is $$$
Either have only one working parent or hire a lot of help.
Yeah the running around to various obligations, plus the various semi-mandatory volunteer stuff related to them, is always the killer once they’re in that ~10-17yo range. We only have two kids and they’re six years apart, and still we felt like we were in chauffeur hell for quite a while.
Kids getting their licenses is a life-changer though, especially once the oldest got hers and could help out with some of the logistics, although we didn’t want to make her a slave to carting my son around either. Driving age is 17 here so we had to wait a bit longer than most.
This is a thing? When did this happen?
Seems like it’s been happening steadily over the last 30 years?
Jokes aside, this has to be a real pain in the ass for basically anyone. The US and its cities, in general, were designed to be driven, save a few metropolitan areas.
My 17 year old doesn’t give much of a shit about getting their license. We’ll see if a taste of public transportation to and from school next year changes their tune, I’m done driving their dumb ass.
My kids are 22 and 20 and have learner’s permits. I’m not rushing them. It will be soon enough.
Back in the day, I got my DL on my 16th b-day. I couldn’t wait.
+1 to that, my birthday is early in the school year so I had to take drivers ed over the Summer to ensure I could get it on the day I turned 16.
The kid I had in my life couldn’t wait. A car meant freedom to her.
How are these kids going to get away with doing all the stuff they don’t want their parents to know about without a car?
I didn’t really care about driving. Don’t think I got my license until I was 18. I wasn’t super social in high school though.
Honestly I feel like that ship has sailed for them. Between social media and Find My Friends, where they are and who they’re with is not something they can really hide.
Welp oldest spiderkid just tested positive, so I guess we weren’t able to successfully quarantine Mrs spidercrab.
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