Childing: The kids' side of parenting

The boy
I spent about 15 minutes on the phone with my son - he asked me to guess his favorite Football team. The Colts. Right.

Second Favorite? I just couldn't remember and then he gave me hints. The Broncos.

Third favorite? Omg - there're three? uhhhh -

Look, he's 7 and I don't follow football. Clearly - that's going to have to change. I told him I would start watching so we can talk about it. Seems he spends sundays at his moms watching FOOTBALL. *sigh*

The girl
My girl was acting a fool and really doing things that were uncharacteristic of her. I confronted her about it - gave her examples of her behavior, that usually pointed to her being rude to me. It told her she needed to think about it really good because I was expecting her to tell me WHY she was behaving this way.

later that day, she told me that I always do things for her brother but not for her ... and SHE had examples: I read him a bed time story ... she has to ask me to tuck her into bed ... etc. etc.

Now, that bedtime story? My son ASKED me to read it. I don't do it on the regular now because ... well, folks - they know how to fucking read!

Tucking her in? My son hit the mattress and is asleep in 0.4 seconds. So, I go in there with him to tuck him in. She, on the other hand, gets up to get water ... then gets up to pee, then reads ... and when she's ready to go to sleep, she calls me in to tuck her in.

So, I'm not playing favorites, but clearly she's noticed that there are differences. So, I explained the differences to her from my perspective and that I wasn't trying to play favorites. I loved on her and we talked for a good long while. And I could tell she felt like daddy's little girl again.

The dad
I learned a lot in September.