The Dilemma

I have a dilemma and I'm asking for some advice, because quite honestly, I have no idea what to do.

Meg's 9th birthday is 3 weeks from tomorrow. This is the year I promised another kid party (every other year to save my sanity), and we've been throwing around ideas. We've come up with one that would work~have some friends over to watch a movie and make their own pizzas. Nothing too jazzy, but still fun for everyone and not too expensive for my rather tight purse strings.

But the issue is my child. My beautiful, smart child isn't very good with friends, especially at parties. She has had a meltdown at every single kid party she's ever had. It's rather easy to pass that off when your kid is 5, and maybe even 7. But 9. Nine is an age where kids start to talk at school, if they haven't already. I dread putting her into a situation which could cause embarrassment for her. We don't even have her friends over except one because she cannot handle the situation and ends up alienating her friends.

I wouldn't at all be concerned if she hadn't had a full on meltdown during Drew's family birthday party last week. Her behavior was so incredibly embarrassing for all of us, most especially for herself. The five of us are quite used to her attention-getting meltdowns, to the point that it didn't even phase Drew and he went about his business. My poor sister-in-law (who is a 4th grade teacher) ended up spending a lot of time dealing with Meg, but really no to avail. Meg did manage to behave well enough at Drew's kid party last week, and we praised her for that.

I love my child with all my heart, and I want to do things for her that make her happy. She wants this birthday party. I would love for her to have her friends here and for her to have a good time with them. Is it wrong of me to question whether she could handle herself? I've been down this road too many times with her and I'm at the point where I think that I need to save her from herself. Talking to her is almost a wasted effort. She gets defensive, cries, and doesn't listen. Round and round we go.

So dear friends. Help. Give me some advice. Should I have the party and let her deal with the consequences of her actions if she melts down, or should I just pull the plug?

More Twists and Turns

A couple of days ago I posted about my turn as "that parent" (and honestly, if I could figure out how to link it here, I would, really). The story takes another interesting twist.

After the G&T teacher emailed me detailing what is keeping Megan out of the program, which was basically her inability to consistently go "above and beyond" in her work, I opted to just let things go. Doug and I talked, and while we agree with some of what the teacher said, we weren't going to fight the system just yet. After all, she is 7 and just figuring out the whole school thing and what is expected of her. So, when she came bombing off the bus this afternoon with a grin THIS wide, I knew something was up. Sure enough, she got asked to go with the group to the G&T teacher today. WTF? Either she is, or isn't, in the group. Not sometimes, but it's got to be either all or nothing. Now Meg doesn't know of my correspondence to this woman, but her teacher does. Maybe her teacher decided that it was time to have her try again. But HELLO! I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to be kept in the loop. Why now? Because I complained, or because all of a sudden they feel she's ready? I just don't get it. I wasn't about to burst her bubble so I just asked her if she was happy to go, and of course she was. She even brought home the project they made, with instructions for parents. Oh, and get this. The letter and instructions had missing words. From the Gifted and Talented Teacher! OMG! That was the first thing I noticed when I took the paper out of her backpack. Now I know that I'm in backwoods Maine here, but come on! I'm sure there will be more to tell of this tale.

The weekend roundup~yeehaw!

We had a pretty decent weekend. It all started, for me at least, with a nice arrival in the mail from my old friend Jane. She had read about the sock incident and sent along a lovely striped pair for me. I was having a very cranky Friday and that cheered me up. Thank you Jane!


Saturday was a good day. It started off early, watching Megan play goalie for the first time. She was so excited to be a goalie, but so nervous that we had to practically force her onto the ice. Once she got out there though, she was AWESOME! We were so proud of her!

Saturday night we had a little date to go see our niece and nephew in their high school performance of Guys and Dolls. They were incredible, as always. We can only hope that our kids grow up to be as talented, smart, wonderful and caring as their cousins.

We had a nice Easter as well. Ok, so you can't tell from this photo (Izzie was mad because we wanted her to stop playing for the photo op) but the Easter candy hunt was fun, the kids got loads of stuff from everyone, and we got to visit both families over the course of the day. It's so nice that our parents only live 10 minutes apart.

So, that's it. Now we're back to Monday. And the girls are back to a barely 45 minute nap. And still no one has invented the coffee IV.