The problem with autumn babies is that the summer months see me at my most pregnant. The heat is nigh unbearable some days, and I don’t know what I would do without air conditioning.
The other problem with autumn babies is that I get to miss out on excellent summer activities like tubing… pretty much the most fun I’ve ever had in the summer, and I missed it this weekend. In hindsight though I’m pretty happy I didn’t go, because it sounds like there was a lot more drinking done than last year.
My husband came home with some interesting stories to tell. He and his brother Josh had it out about who was wasted and who wasn’t, who bought how much alcohol, and whose judgment may have lapsed. It sounded like one of the petty arguments the girls have, except the subject matter was way more serious and the parents kept piping up about how disappointed they are that every time anyone goes to Aunt Nomi’s house for tubing, it turns into a booze-fest.
Before Josh got home and started fighting with my husband, we discussed Josh’s friend who went with them and how he probably doesn’t get much exposure to alcohol at home, so here he is with an opportunity to get wasted and jumps on it. Maybe if he hadn’t had so much to drink going down the river, he wouldn’t have ended up in the hospital after having smoked himself on a rock twice.
I made the point that if drinking is a big taboo subject, a kid will be more likely to seize opportunities like this to get shit-faced. Neither Pops nor Angela agreed with me. They were both giving Nomi shit for being irresponsible, but it seems that even with the older kids, once the “responsible” adults are gone, they let loose and do things that would normally be frowned upon. I think Nomi figures they’re old enough to make their own decisions and they wouldn’t go crazy drinking at her place if the rules weren’t so rigid at home.
Flashback to my mom and I, 2002 or so when I first smoked pot, and she told me that she was okay with me experimenting, but she trusted me not to let it fuck up my life. And hey look, it never did. Neither did drinking.
Thanks for sharing the life.
And again Congrats on the baby! SOOO exciting.
By: amillionthingstosmileabout on July 9, 2009
at 12:04 pm
I guess Cool Auntie’s hope being that the older kids will get their heavy drinking phase out of the way at her place, which otherwise they wouldn’t eb able to do until (if/when) they left home for good; it’s safer like this. I definitely agree with your mom – my mum and dad were similar. Well, my dad doesn’t really want to know who I’m sleeping with or what I’m taking, but wouldn’t see it as his place to say I shouldn’t. My mother is happy to hear all about what I get up to and is always there for me and basically, I can do anything, always have been able to, which means I don’t then choose to do anything stupid, not more than once (well, other than drinking excessively, but usually only where I’m safe to pass out in a corner with friends who I trust all in a similar state, but then, I’m not even twenty yet…) because I simply can’t see the point.
By: standingonthebrink on July 10, 2009
at 12:31 pm