1 post tagged “children”

Something is happening to the children.  An evil influence.  The black veil has been pulled over the little ones.  A veil called "summer."

Daisy displays a pig's heart she plucked out at the last tribal gathering.

During the school year, both kids had structure around them.  This created strong, able little citizens that understood the idea of going to school and the privileges of doing well in life.  There were time restraints.  We would try to get them into bed by 9pm and out of bed by 7am.  There were duties.  We came home to do our homework or spent the hours after school doing activities and sports (with expectations that our children will become professional dancers and/or baseball players).

Then summer came.  With it, I've seen a frightening fraying of the school year's sense of order.  In the Kallenberg household, it's been like watching "Lord of the Flies."  T and D have gone from bright-eyed little rule-followers to dirty little natives with a keen sense of "survival of the fittest" and how flexible their non-violent, coddling parents can be.

Tobias commits an act of civil disobedience with reckless aplomb.

The kids started going to bed later and this sparked midnight conversations based around how "school sucked" or why "that kid is a crap head."  This devolved into Daisy listening to Hannah Montana really loud and finding Tobias spending his summer reading time "learning about life by using my Wii."  Now, the kids have started to dictate that every other night is "pizza and ice cream night."  The nights in between those nights have been reserved for "watching PG-13 movies and drinking Coke Zero."

What next?  Who knows.  The summer is just beginning.  All I know is that both kids have taken to Googling things like:  "Anarchy Johnny Rotten How", "Martial Arts Fatal Self Defense Parents Bossiness", "The Who Teenage Wasteland" and "Endless Summer Surfing Babes."  As they further descend into the orderless chaos of the season, I'll keep you posted.  Until then, pray for us.