I like my quiet. I don't know why, but I grew up in a fairly busy, noisy household, and I'm not the stereotypical "elderly" person. I NEED quiet. I get fairly grumpy if I don't get some quiet time, or time to myself. I need time where no one makes any demands of me, where I can do what i want, including or not including chores.
So on weekends when the kiddo is here, I obviously am not going to get much of this time that I crave. I have to keep talking myself down off the ledge, keeping myself flexible and open to the "fun" that is having a 9 year old take over your house. I send the kiddo and his dad out on "boy time" to the movies, or the local small indoor waterpark. They go sledding. They go over to kiddo's friends house and get him to go to the park. So I get an hour of quiet here or there. Recently Rob figured out that when he takes the kiddo away, things get done! The kitchen gets spotless. Laundry miraculously gets folded and put away. Dinners get made. It was an epic realization for him.
So today we had frozen pizza for dinner. We all sat and watched a few episodes of a show together. Then Rob went to take his nap before going to work, and the kiddo and I watch a few more episodes. Rob got up and went off to work, and then, it happened.
First, the kiddo got up and put the string cheese wrapper in the garbage, without having been nagged about it. Then, he turned to me and said "I think I'm going to bed, I'm tired."
So, let me tell you, I'm freaked out. Mostly, it seems to be that our house is the "I can do whatever I can't do at my mom's" house. He tends to stay up late. He sleeps in late. He eats ALL THE TIME. He doesn't do many chores. He watches ALL THE CARTOONS ever. And for the most part, I'm okay with that. I can imagine what his life is like at his mom's house. I know he has lots of chores there, and he does some here, just not a lot. I get the feeling he is micromanaged at his mom's. I tend to go the other way: I tell him what needs to happen in the end, and give him the freedom to the right thing. This works about 98% of the time. For example, I will tell him "We need to go to Pop's house tomorrow morning. I'll be getting you up for your shower at 9, so you probably shouldn't stay up all night." The times that he fails my/our expectations, we have a "talk" with him, he might get a few days of "probation" to earn a privilege back, and on we go.
So, I digress. The situation at hand, currently, is that it's midnight, on a Friday night, and the kid has been asleep for about an hour. He turned off the dvd player and TV, grabbed his blankie, and went to bed. I stopped him to ask him if he wanted my kindle so that he could watch some netflix in bed, and he took it, but I think he only watched it for a few minutes. Also of note, his bedroom door is open. This is strange. Usually it's closed whenever he's in there.
So I went and checked on him, while he was still sorta awake.
"Are you okay?"
"I don't know. I don't feel right, but I think it's just because I'm tired."
"Are you warm enough?"
"Yea."
"Do you want your door closed?"
"No."
"If you get sick or something, just come get me, wake me up. I'm sorta worried about you."
"Okay."
I went down the hall a few minutes ago, because the bathroom is next to his bedroom. Because his door is open, I can hear him in there, breathing evenly. Sleeping. SOOOO WEIRD. And now I'm in the living room, completely at a loss, because it's quiet. And I can watch whatever I want, eat whatever I want, wear whatever I want. When the kid is in the house. On a weekend.
I think there's a glitch in the matrix or something.
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