Don’t tell and they won’t ask

Some of you may know that I my policy is not to tell my kids anything until the last minute.  If we are going to do something fun, they don’t find out about it until right before we go.  Vacations?  I try not to tell them until a day or two before we leave.  If someone’s coming to visit, I write it stealthily on the calendar and try not to let them know what it means.  Why?  Two reason, mainly.  1-Plans change, and 2-Because I can’t stand the pestering.

Mom, when are we going to do that fun thing?  How many more days?  Are we doing that fun thing today?  Right now?  Let’s go RIGHT NOW!!  When we go do that fun thing, I’m going to take my whatever with me.  Is it time for that fun thing?  Is it?  Is it?  Hmmmmmm?  And this goes on and on and on.

Some parents might think I’m depriving my kids of the anticipation, of the counting down on the calendar, the fun that is waiting.  Whatever.

John got an invitation to a birthday party this week.  Being only 3 (well, almost 4, actually), he doesn’t get to go to many parties, but all his little friends are turning 4, so there will be a few parties in the near future.  He doesn’t really understand the concept of getting an invitation a few days before the party so that the moms can plan and get a present.  So every day about 53 times a day he talks about Carl’s birthday, and finds things around the house that he can give Carl for a birthday present.  Then he asks me where Carl’s cake will be, and talks about the spiderman invitation.  It’s quite cute, even though he’s annoying the heck out of me.  I told him that we had a nice shark book to give Carl, and that we would wrap it soon.  So, right after breakfast today, he asked me where was the shark book, and could we wrap it, and he was going to give Carl a big car with the shark book.  So, being the average mother that I am, I got out the shark book and showed it to him.  I got this cool pop-up shark book for a great deal a little bit ago, and even though I think it’s a little bit advanced for a 4 year old, I think he’ll enjoy it.  Lucky for me, it’s wrapped in plastic so John can’t open it and look at it wrinkling all the pages before we give it to his friend.

The party is tomorrow.  I think he’ll only ask me about 84 times about it today, so I can handle that.

Unfortunately, tomorrow is also Back to School night (the kids are SO excited to meet their new teachers, can you believe it?) AND a cool party for Megan with her friends to watch High School Musical 2, AND the other kids get to go to Grandma and Grandpa Erickson’s house to sleep over.  So they have all kinds of things to be excited about, and to ask me WHEN they will happen.

Patience, my dear.  Patience.

Oh, and before I forget, thank you all for your nice comments on yesterday’s post.  I’m glad I’m not alone in my wanting to be alone–just once in a while.  I actually did send the two small kids over to a friend’s house, one friend came over here, and I stealthily crept up to my room and had a little nap.  And I’m feeling a lot better today.