First Day of School & Wanderings - As Usual :)

Today is the first day of school for my boy. We leave for school in about an hour & a half - and he's driving me absolutely BUGGY! I was woke up by the question

"Do you know what day it is?" posed to me before I even got my eyes open. . . never a good thing. I do mornings very poorly to begin with. And the child hasn't been more than 2 or 3 feet from me, except when I am at work, for the last month. It's starting to wear on me. That last statement isn't an exaggeration, either. I feel like I've grown an extra limb. When he's not up my butt, I hear "Mom?" literally every two minutes. If I get up to go downstairs, he follows on my heels, walking 6 inches behind me while I attempt to do whatever needs doing. He won't go upstairs alone. He won't go DOWNSTAIRS alone. He barely will go in his room alone, and I'm about over it.

Not very Mommy-like, huh? Yet another item to add to my things-I-feel-guilty-about list *sigh*

This morning, about every 10 minutes I hear "Mommy? When are you going to get dressed" or "Mommy? How many more minutes until we go?" or "Mommy how many minutes has it been?" This started at about 8:00. It's now about 11ish, and we don't leave for another hour - hour and fifteen minutes. AAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH.
I'm very happy that he's excited about school starting, and hope he retains that desire to go to school for the rest of his school career, and I keep telling myself that this pestering to go is a good thing, but DAMMMM, I've heard all I want to! I am nearly as excited as he is, and I'm sure a lot more nervous. I mean c'mon - this is the arena where my (our) parenting skills will be judged, Daily. He's a good boy, but very energetic. I foresee ADD accusations in his future - with which I will  heartily disagree. I do believe ADD is a real "disease" and that there are children who have to try to function through it. But I also believe there are MANY MORE parents - and schools for that matter - who are unable or unwilling to deal with an energetic child and go looking for this diagnosis so they can medicate said child and therefore have a more pliable and calm child who will no longer challenge them.

The premise - nay the NAME - of ADD is Attention Deficit Disorder. This implies problems PAYING ATTENTION to something - anything. It doesn't mean a child who is high-energy, intelligent, full of challenging questions,and is basically - though not always - undisciplined. Yet (in my opinion) the majority of kids diagnosed as ADD are exactly that. And the adults in their world can't or won't cope with it. I truly fear for the world of these children's generation. What happens when they become adults? Does ADD go away when you reach a certain age? Or will they be medicated for life? And truly, aren't the adults who allow this to happen just giving these one-day adults an excuse not to be productive, responsible people? "Oh, I can't hold a job - I have ADD", " I can't be bothered to pay bills - I have ADD", "I'm not responsible for my actions - I have ADD" Kinda scary, if you ask me. We already have a generation of "It's not my fault . . ." adults who refuse to take responsibility for their own actions because they have a million reasons why nothing is their fault which have been spoon-fed to them since childhood.

Wow - I really do have a propensity for wandering from my original subject - that wasn't what this post started out to be at all . . . and just think - this is how my mind works all the time . . .

Ok, so, back to school and my boy. Who is currently sitting on the floor, leaning against the desk, about a foot from me. And every few minutes trying to crawl up in my lap . . . Don't go thinking I haven't paid any attention to him either. I have. A lot. I always do. I answer his questions when possible - even the pointless ones. Well, mostly. Except for the "What happens if . . " questions, which I DID answer for months, but have told him I will no longer answer if they aren't "real" questions. What are "not real" questions you ask? Let me give you an example.

Stacey lives about 10 miles north of us. We were going to get my car last weekend, which was even further south than our home, and passed a fire truck & ambulance with lights on going south. Here's the conversation:

My Boy: "Did you see the fire truck and ambulance?"
Me: "Yes . . . " (how could I not? I was driving.)
My Boy: "Where are they going?"
Me: "Well, someone is probably sick and they're going to help them and maybe take them to a hospital."
My Boy: "Or maybe they're hurt."
Me: "Yes that's possible, too>"
My Boy: "Maybe there was an accident."
Me: "Yeah, there might have been an accident, but we just came from that way and didn't see one."

OK, now here's where it gets jinky . . .

My Boy: "What happens if they're going to Stacey's house?" Now remember they were going SOUTH, Stacey lives NORTH - way NORTH from where we were . .

Me: " I don't think they're going to Stacey's, she lives the other way from where they were going."
My Boy: "But what if they were?".
Me: "Honey, they aren't going to Stacey's. Stacey lives that way *pointing north* and they were going that way *pointing behind us - south"
My Boy: "But what happens if they were? What happens if someone is sick at Stacey's? Or hurt?"
Me: ***starting to get slightly exasperated - mind you this is a very intelligent kid. As a rule, he grasps concepts and knowledge the first time around. He remembers things he was told, or heard, literally YEARS ago, and he's only five.*** "Shayne, honey they aren't going to Stacey's. No one is sick at Stacey's, and no one is hurt. If they were going to Stacey's, we wouldn't have seen them, because they would have been going the other way. Now please drop it."
My Boy: "But what happens if . . ."
Me: "That's just about enough 'What happens if . . .' questions. If you have an actual question, about an actual situation, I'll answer them all day long. But no more hypothetical questions. I'm done."
My Boy: "What's hypothetical mean?"
Me: *sigh* and we were off again . .

Ok, well I guess I oughta go clean out my car, since I'm picking Hunny up so he can go with us. Hopefully I'll be back later with first day pictures :)

See ya laterzzzzzzzzzz ! ! ! !