So you think that now that they're grown up, and relatively independent, they'd be no trouble, right? Uh, nope. Little kids, little problems, big kids, big problems.
We just had an hour of flapping around, inconviencing two other families, YET again, in order to accomodate our son, Nick, the one in Oz. Here's what happened.
Last week I got an e mail from Nick asking if we could send some new clothes of his down to him with "Annie" who was coming to Oz this week. He gave me the phonetic spelling of her last name and a general neighbourhood in Toronto where she had a flat. Nothing more. Then follow up e mails asking me if I'd taken his things to her.
So I called a friend I hadn't seen in a couple of years, the mom of the guy who bailed Nick out of the Laotian hospital and took him to his uncle's house in Thailand to recouperate. Was this "Annie" the daughter of her best friend who pronounces her last name as Nick had spelled it to me, but is spelled completely differently? Yep, it was. And on top of that, they were going to Annie's bon voyage party on Sunday night and would be happy to stop over here and pick up Nick's clothes. Wow! I thanked her and when she arrived, we had a lovely catch-up visit.
But then yesterday this huge package from Viet Nam arrived and inside were the three suits and dress shirts that Nick had tailored in Hanoi, along with some art and various other goodies. And he wants those suits with him in Australia. And could I send them down with Annie. But I still had no way of contacting Annie without bugging my friend. So I just dropped it. I figured if I just left it all alone, Annie would be already on her way and that would be the end of it.
But no. At 9 this morning the phone rang and it was the old friend telling me she'd gotten a call from Annie's mom about those suits as her daughter had e mails from Nick about getting them. Long story short, Annie and her mom just left here, with the suits stuffed inside her HUGE and heavy duffel, and are now at the airport. It turns out that Annie is going to be staying with Nick and Laura in Surfers while she looks for a place of her own. She'll be attending classes at Griffith College right there in Gold Coast. Apparently there's a programme for a masters degree in education there at Griffin, same as at Loyola, where my d-i-l got hers. It's some Montessori thing. (Don't get me started.)
Anyway, little kids, little problems, big kids.....
I sent Nick an e mail thanking him for assuming that my psychic powers were still intact. Lesson for me - don't be so quick to e mail about packages arriving from far away. If I'd just kept my mouth shut about it, Annie would have gone on without the flap that happened this morning. And Nick would have one more reason to come home sooner.
It's not that I minded so much packing up and sending things off, but it was involving two other families in the exercise that bothered me. I'll always be there for my kids, and yeah, I do a lot for them, but that's my business. It shouldn't be anyone else's, and that's why I was so annoyed.
And besides THAT, when Mike was away for a whole year traveling, he insisted that he needed his trumpet, not just any old rental he could have found in New Zealand, but his very own. After much protesting, I trekked off to the UPS store and had them ship it down to him in NZ, cost just under $400. But then when it arrived in Auckland, he had gone off to see the south island so it was sent back to customs. It cost Mike $500 to get it out of customs and another $400 to ship it home. He never even played it once. So I'm not too keen on sending articles far away on whims.
In this case, Nick said he needed the suits for work. I suspect the suits will be just like Mike's trumpet.
Aw, thank you, Shelly. I love my kids a lot, as I'm sure you all do too (your own, not mine, lol).
Funny thing from Viet Nam package I forgot to tell you about. It's a bottle of some amber liquid with a snake and a scorpion in it. I have no idea what it is because the writing is in a foreign language, but I think it's a liquor to drink. I'll try to get it translated and get back to you on this one.
lol Well, if it is a liquor you've certainly deserved it. I would have to agree that you go above and beyond for your kids. I don't know if we'll ever have the money for any of my kids to go off to another country so I guess I'm kind of lucky in that aspect.
Jess, these expeditions our kids go on are all funded by them. My husband and I haven't contributed a penny (except for that darn UPS package). They worked their butts off to save enough to buy the airfare and housing, then found work wherever they landed. Some of the backpackers they've met along the way have indeed been sent off courtesy of the parents, but not my kids.
So it isn't a matter of how much money the mom and dad have access to, it's the determination of the kids themselves to travel.
We did help out temporarily when the hospital bills took him by surprise, but that's been all repaid now that he's working two jobs.
I don't think you do young people a favour by financing their every little wish.
I'm stressed right now and need a drink. We just got back from "picture day" at Sears, There was a wait of course, but then the kids get a little goofy, then they get just plain wild. After pics were over we had to wait to view them, and of course I'm always behind that one UNdecisive mom. She's there forever picking what she want to get of this or that, drives me nuts.
I always know what I want. One 8X10 of each kid and then the 10X13 of the group.
zach was smiling like he was chinese. Gabi looked away for one and scrunched her shoulders for another. Oh what a headache!
Glad it's over, now I have to pick xmas cards out.
and I'm a little sad. I sent a happy t-giving card to someone and got no response :(
To quote a former president, KaeEll, "I feel your pain"...!!!
I confess that I've never sent anything as far as you have, but I completely agree that even grown "kids" aren't ever really gone, and they ALWAYS seem to need help with SOMETHING at the worst possible time!
It always involves a lot of scurrying around, stress, frequently unexpected money spent (as in your shipping costs -- been there), etc., etc. It also usually involves something that causes the parents to be somewhat ethically torn too, either in a minor way, or in a broader way.
My oldest daughter requested something for this Thanksgiving that I just couldn't help her with. Her heart was in the right place, which made me proud, but I was not physically up to helping her out with her request this year. It's too long a story to tell, but I was torn between doing a happy dance over her thoughtfulness, and wanting to smack her for putting me in an impossible position in the first place!
KIDS!!!
(Still wouldn't trade them, though...)
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
Now that I've got grandkids that I look after quite a bit, I'm wondering if I'd trade little ones off for big ones. At least I can give the little ones back when they start to get annoying, as I did yesterday afternoon. It's not much fun trying to rock a baby AND help a 2 year old into the bathroom AND cook dinner, all the while listening to "Eating Apples and Banoonies" for the hundredth time. I got to come home and pour myself a glass of wine. My d-i-l and son won't have that luxury for another twenty years.
Hey, we've paid our dues!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. I can almost smell the turkeys roasting all the way up here. Yum.
