Somewhere in the middle of the parenting spectrum.

Boy, you learn things about people when you host a little kid's birthday party.

Spawn's party was a hoot and also the very definition of chaos, mostly because there were 17 kids, plus a good many of their parents, at the bowling alley, where there were also two other birthday parties going on at the exact same time, with roughly the same number of children and adults attending. So yeah, like a rock concert except with bowling shoes and no illegal substances. Next year we won't be doing anything quite so ambitious.

But I got a little glimpse of some of the other parenting methods used by my kid's classmates' parents, and it confirmed for me that thank god, I am (as the title suggests) somewhere in the middle when it comes to parenting my child.

Exhibit A was the mom who was obviously uncomfortable with leaving her Little Precious with us, but really had some errands she needed to run, and who actually worried out loud to me "What if he drops a bowling ball on his foot and gets hurt?" To which the little voice in the back of my head replied "Lady, you have got to be kidding." Followed by my other little voice saying, "Aren't you glad you're not that uptight anymore?" But understanding that you just don't know what people's circumstances are (who knows? she may have had many scares in getting her kid raised to the age of five, maybe he was a preemie, maybe he was a miracle conception... maybe she was just a naturally uptight person), I mustered up some compassion and took down her cell number with the agreement that if anything happened I would call her.

Exhibit B was the mom who dropped off her kid without so much as a by-your-leave, without explaining to me or anyone else that her child was also to attend the party happening right next to us. I have developed a natural skepticism toward what a kindergardener says as truth, so when the kid told me that she was staying for the party next to us, too, I was a bit unsure about it. Sure, she seemed to know the birthday kid next door, but without my knowing for sure what was going on I was pretty uncomfortable with allowing her to crash the next party over. Since Exhibit B's mom is also a teacher at Spawn's school, I was pretty surprised that this was even an issue. And if it turns out that we left the kid there (no parent had shown up to pick her up at the end of our party time) unsupervised, then I'm going to feel really bad.

Still, there is nothing quite like a six-year-old's birthday party, at which they pounce upon the wrapped gifts like a pack of rabid dogs, fueled by cake and ice cream. A good time was had by all, and thank god I don't have to face it for another year.




-- Mox