Friday, August 27, 2021

7 Quick Takes about Milestones at the Airport, Mostly Failing to Guess Who, and Being Forced into Retirement

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

1


This week we said goodbye to our furry new friend. We've been pet sitting for a friend's dog and they came home last night. 

You should've seen my 9-year-old calling from the driveway "I love you, Murphy! I love you!" and then running back to give him one last hug before we went home.


I'd better step up my game this week, because she's going to be so bored this. No Murphy, and her two older sisters are out of town visiting their cousins. 

This could be disastrous.

2


Sometimes you just run out of energy by 3 PM, and getting through the rest of the day is a genuine struggle. I had one of those days this week and was semi-comatose on the couch by 7, but my teens were leaving for the airport the next day and I needed to dispense a few words of advice and wisdom, like "do your laundry so you have clean clothes to pack."

I tried to summon them from where I lay but they couldn't hear me, so Phillip helped out by announcing, "Gather 'round, children, and listen to the dying words of your mother!"

I was so tired I almost had to give my advice Weekend at Bernie's style, but at least they did their laundry.

3


My teens have flown alone ever since they were 6 and 8, going to visit their grandparents in Minnesota nearly every summer. But this year they are 15 and 17, and they can fly like totally normal people instead of "unaccompanied minors."

No mounds of paperwork, no having to wear a name tag and a bracelet with a bar code, no flight attendants "carrying you around and stuff" (bonus points if you caught that reference.) No need for a parent to be there at all, really. You just drop them off at the curb and say "Have a good time!"

4


Bad news: they ruined Guess Who. 
My kids recently played the new version, which has gotten some updates since I owned it as a kid in the late 80s. 

Now there's more or less an equal number of men and women (I always wondered where all the babies came from in the Guess Who? universe, since there were only 6 women and some of them were old ladies.)

But other updates, while well-intentioned attempts to add diversity that reflects real life, don't seem to work in a children's yes-or-no guessing game. At least not from what I observed.

The racial diversity is on a spectrum, so if one kid asks, "Does your person have [insert a color] skin?" the odds are very high that they'll get a wrong answer or flip down the wrong person, because it's all relative.

Some of the characters now have streaks of funky colors in their hair. My son asked my daughter "Does your person have brown hair?" and she said yes, so he flipped down a person with brown and purple hair... who was the person he was supposed to guess.

This game is too hard and worst of all, there are NO rosy cheeks!!!

The best was when one of the kids asked "Does your person have a hat?" The response, after a long pause, was "I don't know... does a headscarf count as a hat?" Well, now we all know who you have so thanks, Guess Who!

5


I walked in on my 5-year-old the other day and asked "What are you doing?"

"Playing grownup," he answered, then took another sip of his coffee.

The plastic mug was full of water, I checked.

I guess I get the phone and computer, but no one in our house even drinks coffee so I'm not sure where he got that from.

6


Speaking of playing grownup, my youngest starts kindergarten in a week. I wasn't having any particular thoughts or feelings about that, and honestly believed I wasn't going to... until I got an email from playgroup.

Meetings are sporadic, but they're usually at a playground around 10 AM on a weekday, and it hit me like a ton of bricks that I am done with playgroup. Forever. Starting in September, for the first time in 17 years, I will have no reason to go.

I mean, we've been too busy to actually go to playgroup meetings for, like, the last 3 years. But we theoretically could.

I'm trying to be cool about this transition but I don't think it's working. Is it still being cool if you're making halfway-serious plans to kidnap a baby and take them to the park on the first day of school just so you can feel like you're not out of a job?

7


Overheard in a dispute between my 5-year-old and 13-year-old over a Nerf gun fight:

13yo: You're out! I shot you.

5yo: No, you didn't.

13: Yes, I did.

5: No, you didn't!

13: Yes, I did!

5: No, you didn't! I felt every single one not hit me!

And that is why you never argue with a 5-year-old.

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3 comments:

Madeline said...

Okay so Guess Who, you can still buy the classic version. (And you definitely should!) But looking at your pictures, they must have updated it recently because there was a different update and the people looked weird. Try searching for the person Jess. Honestly no idea if it's meant to be a boy, girl or what.

But truly, get the classic version. Totally worth it!!!

NuttHouse said...

Agreed. Our version is only 2 years old and look different than yours. No funny hairstreaks. And yes, we have no idea on Jess 😂

Diana Dye said...

I found a copy of classic Guess Who at the thrift store. I protect it with my life.

Is your kindergarten full day? There better be some existential crisis material for some upcoming posts.