I like to see people's reactions when I tell them I have a teenager. It usually goes like this: they see The Pooter and ask how old she is. Then they ask if she's my first. I say no, I have a 14 year old. Then their jaws drop. "That's a big age difference!" Yeah, no kidding. My new neighbor(who I suspect is actually crazy) actually had the
cajones to say Pooter was an accident. Her being a mother of 4 might be an accident. A 10-car pileup, actually. But my Pooter is here on purpose. The most common response, however, is all the folks who say, "Oh, you have a built in babysitter." This always makes me cringe. I don't want the Dear Kid to think that Pooter is another chore. Especially when I still carry the scars of my big sister babysitting me. Like
I asked her to babysit me. I think I'd rather have had Lizzie Borden for a sitter, at least she was nice to her sister.
Well, anyhoo, I try not to advantage of Jenn. I do a lot of, "can-you-sit-with-the-baby-while-I..." And I told her if the baby swallows anything she leaves around-like
paper clips-she has to sift through her poop to find it. But paper clips aside, she is a really good big sister and her Pooter loves her.
5 comments:
Nice twosome!
At our house, we have a very complex sibling babysitting matrix. The sixteen and fourteen years old both occasionally get called into duty (which I try not to overdo, because that does make them kind of evil). However, I also have a special level of babysitting. On, let's say, Saturday morning, I tell my 9-year-olds that I will "pay" them to "babysit" their 4-year-old brother. Fifty cents buys us a good hour of having the kids play together nicely while we can sleep!
Just to let people know that DK does not look that crasy in real life, and now that DK has found out about this picture on her mom's blog she may just have to hurt her.
And maybe someday, DK will learn how to spell "crazy". sigh.
They are adorable.
I go through this ALL.THE.TIME. I heard it several times today at the hospital. "YOU are almost 45? YOU have a 21 year old? YOU have an 18 year old?"
Thanks for visiting my blog. So nice to meet you!
Hi, I have just been blog jumping and saw your comment about having a teen and a baby combo and I had to come visit your blog! My first born will be 15 when my second child is due...glad to see that this is not terribly uncommon - I also get the jaw dropping stares and people asking me if I am sure of what I am doing...personally I think it will be a fun journey!
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