Yesterday was the first day after the strike...

To celebrate, I overslept. By about half-an-hour. I'm telling you, I *ran* down those stairs (and then back up to grab change, as Jenn had my Metrocard), ran all the way to the bus stop. Oddly, my arms ached, but not my legs. I suppose it's a change from my jaw hurting, which is what used to happen if I had to run (instead of wanting to).

Got there with four minutes to spare. That bus was the best thing I'd seen in my life.

As I'm going back to Jenn's from the museum, on the bus, some idiot of a guy gets on and starts muttering Very Audibly under his breath about the strike.

Dumbass. You always wait until you're getting off the bus to insult the bus driver, because nobody wants the bus driver to do what he did then, and stop the bus to insult you. Some of us just wanted to get home, okay?

Besides, it really was ignoring the whole purpose of a union. See, when the union goes on strike, individual people don't get the option of saying "Well, I don't think this is worth it, I'll just go in to work anyway". If you have people deciding on their own whether or not to go to work, then you no longer have a union. What you have is a bunch of guys looking for work. So for all we know, this lowly driver was against the strike from the start, but what was he expected to do? It's a union. You have to be unified. Hello?

Ana's finally started to figure out that Mommy's not going to be there during the day. She is *not* happy about it. Yesterday, during bedtime, she planted herself in Jenn's bed, wrapped her arms around her mom, and refused to budge. "No! I sleep with Mommy. Snuggle?"

It was really cute, which is good, because there wasn't a way for Jenn to win that fight and still have everyone go to sleep at a reasonable time.

More on Santa...

(Link taken from sophiaserpentia)

I'll be upfront and say that the woman should not have broken the news the way she did.

But, really, it wouldn't've been a problem if these parents hadn't lied to their children. That's one of the first quotes we see - "Why did you lie?" The kid's not mad because the teacher told them Santa isn't real, the kid's mad that her mom lied to her.

This isn't like religion, where your kid comes home crying because somebody told him that he's going to Hell for not being a member of The One True Faith^TM. In that case, you can make a clear point that you're not actually lying to your child - you're telling the truth as you know it, just like everyone does. You can point out that nobody really knows (again, unlike Santa). You can have a nice, long, edifying talk. What do you do when the kid accuses you of lying, and you really are?

I'm not opposed to the Santa game when it's a game. When I let Ana push me down, then help me up, I don't think she really believes that she can force me to fall down, nor that I can't get up without her help. That's a game. Or, when I go on a hunt for the tickle-monster, I don't think she really believes in the tickle-monster - it's just another game. So if some other adult were to go up to her and say "Sweetie, there's no tickle-monster", I don't think she'd start crying - I in no way try to act as though it's not a game.

But the whole Santa thing... ugh. It's not just the lie, it's the whole frakkin' conspiracy.

So, I have a question...

And a story or two to go along with it!

Ana yesterday fell onto a puzzle in such a way that it hurt her in, ah, a sensitive area. Yeah. Owie!

And she wanted her mom to kiss it, which wasn't happening for reasons that were difficult to explain without giving the wrong idea. Poor Ana kept going "Kiss the 'gina!"

Except, of course, it's not the vagina. That's inside. It's the vulva. So why is it that parents who work to use the correct terms with their kids (often self-righteously, but that's a common thread among all such decisions, I find) go "Well, we use the right term, it's a vagina."? It's not! Vagina! Inside! Vulva! Outside! DUH!

[Poll #639771]

Also yesterday, while we're sitting in her mom's room, Ana starts clutching her vulva and asking me what it was, so she could say "I touch 'gina!"* (I didn't want to confuse the issue by adding a new term, though I knew better). If this keeps up, we're going to have to find a way to explain about private parts without warping her for life.

*_{She does this all the time. No, not *that*, asking what something is so she can use the word. "I touch Microwave! I touch ceiling!" It's cute.}

I'm not using the normal tag for issues with the kid, because I intend to friends-lock this anyway long before she gets savvy enough to look it up and KILL ME.

While we're on the subject...

I've decided. I can't leave holidays up to their parents. Because Jenn'd mess everything up!

*blinks*

No, really, this isn't as crazy as it sounds. Jenn really doesn't get as enthused about holidays as I do, so it makes sense that I should, um, be a driving force here. Besides, it'd give me something to *do* with all my holiday-related enthusiasm, while giving Jenn et al. a chance to not have to do anything.

Naturally, I'm taking my reasoning as an excuse to go completely overboard with holidays of all sorts.

So! *cracks knuckles* What're some common things people do for various holidays wherever you're from? What do you think of those things? What does your family do?

Yes, this post is prompted by the discovery that one can order Christmas Crackers online and get them in the US. It sounds about as fun as fortune cookies, and I'm always up for that. (Hey - it's for the kids, right? As we all know, that justifies everything! Yes, even that! And that! In all seriousness, I think it justifies letting me do something constructive with my insanity.)

Edit: They don't have to be strictly holiday traditions. Just post.

Edit again: I still don't want kids of my own. They'd be spoiled brats. Seriously. And I wouldn't get to go home every day.