When Your Kids Can Read What You Wrote About Them

Yep, that stuff didn’t go away.

The children here went back to school on Thursday, which might sound early to you if you hadn’t been in the house with them all day all summer. They spent a few weeks away at camp, and we took a few trips, but on the whole, they were here, and, because I’m the parent who works more out of home, so was I. My mom, before she went to nursing school when I was in junior high, was better about this than I am. This was, roughly, the summer schedule for my sister and me growing up:

• Wake up, eat breakfast, brush your teeth, wave goodbye to your father.
• Go Outside. Where you go and what you are doing is immaterial. You are simply to stay Outside — wherever “Outside” may take you.
• Come inside for 15 minutes of lunch.
• Return to Outside. Previous rules apply.
• When father returns from work, wave hello, then return to Outside. When he whistles, come home, eat dinner, bathe, go to bed and fall asleep listening to the Cardinals game.
• Repeat until school begins again.

I have been far less successful laying down such clear ground rules. They’re shoved out the door, but it never quite seems to stick; before I knew it, I’d head downstairs and they’d…