Our niece

We have had our niece at our house for one week now. It has been an eye-opening experience. Children are a huge disruption to your life, especially when they are not your own or you are not used to having them around. This is the first time Pete and I have ever been responsible for a child, especially for this long. Thank goodness she was family and that she was already slightly neurotic before she got here. I don't think we ruined her.

So in the last 7 days I have learned a lot about kids and a lot about myself. The lessons about myself I already knew deep inside but was in denial; the lessons about children were a real eye-opener.

So the major lesson I learned about myself is that I am a control freak, which I knew already. What I didn't know is how much of a control freak I was...it is bad. So one of the lessons I learned is that you can't control much when you have a child around unless you want a fight. The fight just isn't worth it most of the time. So you have to bend what you want and not control everything they do.

Second lesson; kids can do everything..or they think they can. They don't need help, they don't want help and they already know the answer. The independence and confidence is amazing in these small people. Of course most of the time they are wrong but they will come up with a story to make themselves look right.

Third lesson; kids can never have enough stuff. It doesn't matter what you spend on lunch, admission, souvenirs...they always want more stuff. They also have no problem with you spending more money on whatever they want. Money is no object.

Fourth lesson; kids will do whatever they have to in order to get what they want. This usually involves crying, screaming, pouting and stomping feet. What my niece didn't realize but soon learned is that this behavior doesn't embarress me, it annoys me and I ignore it.

Fifth lesson; the simplest things make kids happy. For example, we had a great day planned at the zoo, we ate at the zoo, visited with family, saw all the animals. All she talked about was playing on the play-gym in the middle of the zoo. The one thing she can do in any city in any state.

Sixth lesson; all of life's complex decision can be made with a simple eeny meeny miny moe. There is no stress this way, it is decided by fate and rhyme.

Now that she had gone home and I have returned from the trip back home our nice, normal, quiet life has returned. It feels good to have things back to normal...just Pete and I.