I love the passing of time

Delivered 2 moon jumps on Saturday. Jim did the deliveries. I went with for the pickups.

Jump 1 delivery - Affluent neighborhood in Elmhurst. McMansion right next to another McMansion. Guy at the setup house seemed like a schmoozy salesman/VP kind of guy. Asked Jim if he could keep the jump overnight. Jim told him that he’d have to call the company about that, that he was just delivering. Had Jim set it up in the front yard, but turn it off so it would be deflated until he was ready to use it.

Jump 2 delivery - Nice brownstone-y, urban neighborhood in Forest Park. The lady from the moon jump place had them pay an extra $10 for us, for gas, since it was out of her territory. They gave Jim a $20 tip (our first). Really nice people.

Jump 2 pickup (they were done first) - Neighborhood kids (teens & pre-teens - I’m guessing the little ones were all in bed already - it was 9pm) were all out front. Sounds like they were playing ‘ghosts in the graveyard’ or something. We went up to the door & one of the boys came up & helped us to find his parents in the back yard. Very polite. While we were taking it down, one of the adults chatted, saying he hated to see us working so hard. The homeowner stopped Jim & gave him a couple of bottles of water for us. As we were about to drive away, the teen boy came up to our van window & said ‘Thank you’ to us, again.

Jump 1 pickup (10pm) - It ended up being a block party. We had to park about 5 houses away from the jump & go past all kinds of stuff scattered on the sidewalk to get there. Kids of all ages - 5 years old up to teens - were still in the jump. I went up to the people sitting in the middle of the street, asking about the homeowners. After saying ‘We thought we were going to have it for 2 days”, they finally pointed us to the homeowner’s house. I rang the doorbell & we waited. After a bit, the homeowner came from the party to the front porch. He signed the paperwork to say that we returned his rain deposit, then said “I suppose you want the kids out, now”. I said ‘Yes’. He said “You’re going to have to tell them yourself” & walked away.

We told the kids “3 more minutes, while we go get our gear, then you’ll need to get out”. When we came back, I asked them, politely, a few more times, as I took my shoes off & Jim took out the stakes. A couple came out, but most stayed in. Finally, Jim talked to them a bit more aggressively & some more came out. But, still, we had a few stragglers (big kids - teens), who we had to hassle a few more times until they got out.

One of the little ones, on the way out, asked, again, if they weren’t going to have it tomorrow, too. Sigh - I guess Mr. Bigshot had made some promises that he couldn’t keep…

While we were rolling it up, a couple of teens came by & chatted a bit. Seemed nice enough, but, for the most part, the kids in that neighborhood were rude and self-centered. Kind of like the parents.

And, as Jim brought it to the van one of the neighborhood adults helped move a big brick oven out of his way on the sidewalk. But, that was about it. No acknowledgement of people there, doing a job for them. Of course, we were being paid for it, so nothing is really *expected* from them, but that didn’t stop the families in the other neighborhood from saying “Hey, man, that looks like hard work that you’re doing, so that I don’t have to do it & so that my family could have some fun. Thanks”.

And, the difference in the parents attitudes towards people definitely showed in their kids behavior.

Saturday morning, on the soccer field… I’m the ‘field director’ for the U5-U6 fields on Saturday morning. I wish that I didn’t have to spend my entire morning (and into the afternoon) on the soccer fields, but no one else is stepping up to do it & they said that if no one does it, then the 4, 5 & 6 year olds simply won’t play, so… :shrug: Allison came with. I paid her to hang out on the playground with Annie & Shelby until their games. Jim worked Friday night & had some moon jumps to deliver in the early afternoon, so he missed the games.

Anyway, the first game of the day was a U6 game (5 & 6 year olds). I was a couple fields away, setting up the goals, when I heard some real harsh parent voices, shouting *at* their children (and the other children on their child’s team). It’s going to be hard to convey the tone of voice on-line, but I’ll try. It was demeaning sounding, not encouraging. It was demanding & negative. It was offensive. It was “Get that ball away from them, Jason!”. It was “Charge, Charge, Charge!”. It was yelling. It was not positive in any way at all. The words and tone of voice could only make a kid (and an adult, for that matter) think that they were disappointing someone if they did not succeed.

I went over to stand by the game, in my yellow ‘Hey, I represent AYSO’ shirt. I started shouting out the positive things that you are supposed to be shouting out to 5 & 6 year olds when they are learning to play soccer. “Way to control that ball!” “Good try!” “So close, you almost had it!” “Great teamwork!” “You can do it!” They noticed me. They stopped yelling at the kids. They started trying to sound more positive. I heard one of the mom’s say something to another like “They’re going to kick me off the field, for being a bad mom” (or something like that).

I went back to setting up the goal. In a minute or two, they started up again. I ended up having to spend much of that hour simply standing by that particular game, policing the parents.

The parents on the opposing team, by the way, were as positive as can be.

And, wouldn’t you know it… The opposing team was scoring more goals. The kids were having a good time playing. They were working together. They were showing respect to their coach and their teammates.

I’m not sure if the more competitive parents even noticed the major difference between the two teams. I’m afraid that they will keep on thinking that the major reason for their child’s inability to score goals & work as part of a team lies with their child, instead of with the way that they are communicating with (and teaching) their child.

1) More baby hamsters discovered when I was cleaning out the cage on Saturday. Not sure when they were born. I didn’t notice them on Friday night when I was feeding the hamsters, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t there. I wasn’t really looking for them & I knew that I’d be cleaning the cage on Saturday, anyway. We separated the two cages & put Yoshimi in one by himself, after Annie saw him messing around by the babies while Hamtaro was away from them. She’s got the babies (don’t know how many) in the exercise wheel again, so I’ve got it taped to stay still. I didn’t even see them until I was taking the wheel off to clean it, after I had already taken Hamtaro & Yoshimi out of the cage & put them in a big storage bin full of paper towel & toilet paper tubes to play while I cleaned. I hope that I didn’t upset them too much.

2) David was off work sick until today. They said he had a viral infection (isn’t that the same thing as ‘a cold’?) & that he should take Motrin & rest. Of course, that meant that he couldn’t do anything to help Uncle Bob over at the house. Sigh…

3) Annie’s birthday party was on Sunday. Kind of sedate, even though it was at Enchanted Castle. She got some great gifts that she loves & says she had fun. Everyone was just kind of distracted, I think. I’ll post pics later… Her actual birthday is tomorrow, I’m going to have to make sure we make a big deal of it for her. She’s got some more presents coming from Jim, the other kids & me, so that should make her happy. Shelby’s got soccer practice that night, but I may take her out to dinner somewhere, too, if I can figure out how to fit it in.

4) Speaking of soccer practice… I should really get Shelby back into Tae Kwan Do. We’re still paying for it (it was a 3 year contract), but we haven’t been in months. Just busy & lazy.

Can’t think of any more update-y, newsy stuff… Feel like I haven’t updated in a while about stuff in general.