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Saturday, August 28, 2021

French apartment renovations, Day 250: I have no idea what I'm doing

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I am mystified about how to parent teenagers. Little kids are so easy! Feed them when they're hungry, get them to bed when they're tired, cuddle them when they're sad. That covers most of the bases. But adolescents? I am so lost.

So for example, when my *cough* unnamed son acts like he's being sent to his own execution when Eric takes the kids to a friendly soccer match this morning, what should I do? Or if this hypothetical child is spending all sorts of time on an internet server and wants to be a moderator (keep in mind, he's only supposed to be online 30 minutes per day and only after he does his practicing) and I tell him I'd prefer him not to because he doesn't have time to moderate other people's internet activites, and he gets so glum you think his favorite pet had died.

What is a parent to do? I am not equipped to deal with this!

While the others were playing soccer, I did MORE taping and mudding. Yay. In the afternoon Ivy and I did seaglass art. We ran out of epoxy adhesive and the huge supermarket was completely out--I've never seen that before. We tried another adhesive and I'm hoping it will hold.

School starts at the end of next week. This is the longest summer break the kids have had since 2014. Every summer since then, they have only had a month because they were finishing school in France (early July) and starting in the States (early to mid August).

The little Pekinese dog we are watching, Baya, is acting off. She's been hiding in the smallest crevices she can wedge herself into. She's not been eating much. She vomited once yesterday. And she has been scratching herself a lot, to the point that she has red, inflamed bald spots (this last thing was happening when we first got her). Poor little dog. I've been messaging her owner so she's aware of what's going on. I don't think it's serious enough to go to the vet, but something is definitely off.

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