Thursday, July 24, 2008

So I just found this lady's blog CityMama and it turns out she is from Hawai'i too. The post I linked to is one about ohana and all that it means. So it put me in a good mood about things and ladeda I went on my way.
Then we went to the playground today and I was reminded HOW MUCH this place is NOT like home. All nanny's and no parental makes for a hard lesson about sharing. The nanny's are not the bad guys and I can't honestly say that the parents of the kids would do different but there does seem to be a lapse in responsiblity when the children are not being watched by family. See I think in Hawaii the ohana thing seeped in everywhere so it was everywhere. But here there is such a disconnect I can't even begin to type it properly.
We had an incident a while ago that I guess subconciously made me avoid the playground for a while. Some boy got into it with Osky over yet another toy brought to the playground and the boy threw sand in Osky's face. I told him that "No - We do not throw sand in anyones face. Apologize now" - he ran to his nanny crying - she came over mad at me and I had to tell her why/what I told him - the whole time with Osky crying over the sand and the lack of sharing over the toy...
SO basically everything is usually fine unless there is a non-playground-object-toy there.Today it was a lawnmower push toy. First Osky was trying to grab it so I intervened (even tho this was being done in front of the others guardian) and had to tell him to wait and ask politely. So he sniveled over to me on the bench and we waited for the kid to come back after he ran around the park. He waited and asked through about five kids - who all said no (of course-they are three)- and we waited and waited. Then another random kid took the toy from another boy and walked to Osky. He assumed that meant to share - said please & share - and the kid said no and kinda pushed osky. That was it. No parent or anything came up..I grabbed Osky and left. He got really mad and as we were leaving the park I turned to see 6 kids grabbing for the damn thing AND NO ONE INTERVENING!!!
WTF.
I don't know. I get so disheartened when we go to that playground.
It makes me all sad that I don't know how to do this right and that I get frustrated and leave- what kind of lesson is that teaching Osky y'know?
Grrr.
Bummer.
And my coffee sucked this morning. If I order a small double iced latte DONT GIVE ME A SUPER MASSIVE BIG ONE AND MAKE ME POUR IT MYSELF AND ASK ME IF I WANT LEFTOVERS!@!!!!!
Maybe I like it smaller cause I don't like all that milk. Junk part is it is the owner who always mucks up the coffees. The staff know how to make the drinks but seriously - if he is on the machine I should just know better already.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm done with Mojo! Who pours the espresso over the ice BEFORE the milk??? What's next - cats and dogs living together? pigs flying? the ice in the Arctic ceasing to melt?

(Well I hope the last one happens!)

You are doing a good job! I've been to that playground and those people are lunatics!

Conspiracy theory: something in the water at the drinking fountain makes them like that?

Unknown said...

oh man! and I totally feel ya! Paul and I were just talking about how park play is soooo not what it was when we grew up and we were at the same park on sunday that we played at as kids. And what the hell is up with kids not knowing how to share and parent's not being the village anymore as far as rearing kids in public????? Ok now I am on fire! ;)

Totally off topic. Paul has a friend from work and they are from Hawaii and he burns great music for us all the time. Have you heard of Katchafire? We love them.

Anonymous said...

same problem here with the coffee shop owners and their staff. i only go on certain days when i know the one person who can make my drink properly is working. otherwise, i'm not wasting five bucks for nothing.

ditto on playgrounds here. although, i do see more of the parents with their kids but most times, the parents are so engaged in their conversations, they don't pay attention to what rascally behavior their kid is up to. not saying sabine is an angel but i make sure that if she hurts someone, she apologizes and then proceeds to share part of her snack.

the one thing that irritates me beyond craziness is the mom that is SUPER encouraging, you know the type... "good job, good job, good job" for everything.

if it reassures you any, sabine is bullied by two boys in her program. the teachers are waiting for her to fight back. i think this might be the reason why she is not inclined to come to school so much. the hard thing is i know the parents and they are nice. but their boys not so.

move back here already! we miss you.