Picket Fence Post

Item #1: Golden Smiles

The U.S. Women’s Soccer team triumphantly won gold this week at the Beijing Olympics. Not only did they emerge victorious, the players — whose ranks included moms of young kiddos – inspired a whole new generation of soccer players, as you can see by the beautiful photo to the left. Makes ya want to cheer, “U-S-A!”

Item #2: Parents Followin’ College Kids

The New York Times ran a story that I found disturbing. It was about a mini “trend” among parents who, once their offspring goes away to college, decide to buy a second home in the town where their kid is attending school:

“. . . [S]ome parents are investing in college towns in an unexpected new way: they’re following their kids to college. From South Bend, Ind., to Oxford, Miss., from Hanover, N.H., to Knoxville, Tenn., they are buying second homes for themselves near campuses where their children are enrolled.

Many, like [M.J. and Jim Berrien], want front-row seats to watch their family athletes perform. Some seek a gathering place for football games or family holidays. Others long for a retreat with the amenities of a college town — and why not the one where they have children attending?”

One of the parents said she’d “been seduced” by a college town, while another said the college community would make “an ideal retirement place.” Some said that their kids (and their kids’ friends) are thrilled with having access to the home, free laundry plus home-cooked meals parents cook when they’re in town.

Helen E. Johnson, author of Don’t Tell Me What to Do, Just Send Money:The Essential Parenting Guide to the College Years, told the paper that she hopes parents are buying the homes for the “right reasons,” and urged them to seriously ponder the answers to these questions: “Would I like to be in this town even if my child wasn’t?” and “Does this have more to do with my need than theirs?” Then she threw in this killer line, “You might be making your child more fragile, not less.”

Another contrarian opinion was voiced by DenYelle Keynon of the University of South Dakota who has studied “the parent-student relationship” once the kid goes to college. She told the Times: “Research has found that the parent-child relationship grows better once the child has left the house. Parents should be careful not interrupt that process.”

Ouch.

Item #3: Missing August

Jan Eliot, the clever cartoonist behind Stone Soup, has been making me sad. This week’s theme in the family-centered comic strip has been, “Ya gotta love August.” Each day’s installment has included those four words, along with images of children star-gazing on a beautiful summer night, lounging in the water on a warm day and sipping coffee while the others with whom you’re camping are still asleep in their tents.

August just hasn’t felt like August in my house this year. Football practices for The Eldest Son and The Youngest Son started the first week of the month and are slated for Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays until Labor Day. There’s also a weigh-in this weekend, followed the next day by a football jamboree.

School in my town starts next week, BEFORE Labor Day.

Plus, over the past 10 days, all three of my kids have been felled (at different times) by a mysterious bug/virus thingie (high fever on day one, hideously swollen throat and pounding headache on days two through three). I’ve been ferrying liquids and meals on a tray to each sick child while the kid whines and vegs out in front of the TV in my bedroom . . . on The Spouse’s side of the bed. Being sick in the summer stinks.

I shouldn’t have taken last August’s much more relaxed schedule for granted. (*sniff*) I miss August.

Item #4: Lifeguard Rules

This is a shout-out to a courageous, young lifeguard who works at the pool my family frequents in the summer months. Per tradition, every hour, for a very brief period of time, a lifeguard blows a whistle and announces that it’s time for “Adult Swim.” All kids must vacate the water immediately. The children slink over to the side of the pool and sullenly stare at the grown-ups who bask in a few moments each hour without their splashing, screaming and errant kicks to adults’ spleens.

One day recently, after the announcement of an Adult Swim, a boy — anywhere from 7-10 years old — looked directly at the lifeguard who’d blown her whistle and shouted, “You suck!”

My heart burst with pride when my three kiddos immediately expressed their dismay at his behavior. The Eldest Son said, ”Ooh, I can’t believe he said that.”

The lifeguard, a young woman in her late teens/early 20s, turned to her fellow lifeguard, a young guy of roughly the same age, and said, “My parents would’ve never let me act that way.” To her credit, she called the kid — who was still swimming in the pool, ignoring her – and told him he was gettin’ the boot, not just during Adult Swim, but for the remainder of the day. On my way out, I told her she did the right thing because, all too often, people don’t.

Image credit: Yahoo/Getty Images/Mike Hewitt.