One Foot on a Banana Peel

Blinkie by LilMsGlitter

It’s finally Friday.  Woot.  I can’t for the life of me think why I find this exciting in any way.  During the summer all the days are pretty much the same since I’m on the same schedule as the schools and don’t work.  Add to that Tim’s workaholism, which means he is rarely home on a Saturday and Sundays are up for debate.  And it’s all just one giant party for Megan.  She runs with the neighborhood pack all day long except for those brief moments when her wicked mother makes her do an actual chore (the horror of it!) or pick up a book and read.  I mean, like, really….don’t I know it’s summer?  Summer is for fun, not chores and books.  Well, damn!  Someone forgot to tell me.  I’ve been whiling away the days doing laundry, training puppies, supervising hordes of swimming pre-teens, shoving cotton in my ears during sleepovers, feeding the hordes, cleaning up after them, swatting off mosquito-esque attempts to bleed more money out of me and just lolling around living the high life in general.  At least there is a big party to go to at our friends’ farm tomorrow.  And yes, Tim is going.  He’s just working half a day first.

So far, Avon is making it rather tough to be successful in my new side-profession.  Everyone assured me that if I ordered on time on the specified Friday, my order would be here by the following Wednesday.  It’s Friday.  I haven’t seen it yet and it has indeed been shipped.  Meanwhile I keep getting my catalogs late so any potential customers don’t have very long to look at them.  I am hoping that if this shipment ever gets here with the next batch of catalogs (that aren’t due for a while) that maybe I’ll finally be able to get on track.  I’m not expecting to zoom right to the top of the sales ladder and become an Avon executive or anything, but I’d like to pick up a couple of hundred dollars a month extra.  Enough to keep gas in my car, maybe? Or pay for my own Avon order. The cheaper price I pay on my own stuff makes it a good way to pick up gifts.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned any time in recent memory, either on my old blog, and definitely not here, how much I long for a simpler, pared down existence.  One that allows time to enjoy life, not merely acquire its trappings.  One that is way, way, waaaaaaay less expensive.  Anyone I’ve talked to who is "living the dream" tells me that I don’t have to pack up and move to some unheard of pin prick on the map to simplify.  They say I can do a lot right here.  Well, maybe to some extent I can, but I’m struggling with 4 things; Tim, Matt, Megan and the suburban have-it-all influence on them.

On the whole, Tim is not too bad.  He doesn’t spend a lot out of pocket.  It’s those big things with him.  He’s a member of the instant gratification club.  When he decides he wants something, he wants it now.  There’s no saving, no comparing prices, no checking to see if our finances can actually bear it.  There is, however, much grumbling later when we are feeling the pinch.

Matthew thinks nothing of calling and asking us to drop everything and drive to his apartment when he needs something.  Hello!  Gas is $3 a gallon.  Does the kid not notice he’s running out of food before he’s actually totally out?  A call a couple of days earlier would allow me to mail him some money.  Then there is the whole car thing.  For some reason (probably because it seems to be how it is with all his friends) Matt thinks we owe him a car and it’s been suggested flat-out stated that we are screwing up his entire future by not buying him a car.  For something that he wants soooo much, it’s never once crossed his mind to try saving up some money himself.  To let you in on a (sort of) secret, we plan to buy him a car at Christmas with Tim’s bonus.  We just want him to show some kind of responsibility.  When he got his current job back in April we told him if he would pay for his share of the insurance premium each month we’d get him a car.  I wanted to see him succeed so I grossly underestimated his portion and told him $50 a month would take care of it.  He has made exactly one payment.  To say I am disappointed would be an understatement.

Then there is Megan.  I’ve just about given up on her.  She has bought into the consumer mentality, heart, mind and soul.  We sit her down and talk to her about how she cannot do every single thing she wants to do, nor buy every single thing she wants.  She nods and tells us she understands then comes back in five minutes asking for money.  She has this idea that she should do everything that each one of her friends does. When she does tell them she can’t do something, they want to know why and Megan feels compelled to tell them that we don’t have the money.  Sheeesh!  Sometimes that is true, but usually it’s just that I think enough is enough.  Our neighbors probably think we are living below the poverty level since my child doesn’t get to do everything. 

And this is where our suburban neighborhood comes into play.  There are a lot of kids in the neighborhood and every one of them has a "gimme, gimme" attitude.  They do not take "no" for an answer from their own parents or anyone else’s.  A no from one’s own parents results in the most amazing display of whining, begging, pleading, grandios promises, deals and outright tantrums you have ever seen.  A no from someone else’s parents results in pressuring the kid in question to enter into the most amazing display of whining, begging, pleading, grandios promises, deals and outright tantrums you have ever seen in an effort to wear said parent down to a "yes."  Sadly, it works all too often, because we parents can’t take it any more.

I really need to move to the boonies.

Well, this has turned out to be a rather grumpy post.  Can I blame it on the rainy, gloomy day?