It’s been quiet around here, I know. The Spouse just got back from the second of two back-to-back business trips and I am finally getting some ‘me’ time. I tend to get a little wacky after spending virtually all waking hours with someone whose idea of a good time is watching back-to-back episodes of Super WHY.
I’ve also been preoccupied (obsessed is such an ugly word) with house-hunting. We’re renting now and had planned to continue doing so at least until early 2010. But with the Spouse’s position here looking more stable, and that tempting tax credit, we’re starting to fall victim to the siren call of home ownership.*
Our main concern is where the Kiddo will attend school. (Admittedly this is not a pressing concern as she’s not yet two.) We want to be in the house at least five years, so that would mean she’d be well into elementary school. I’m interested in anyone’s advice on choosing the right school for your kid. What did you do? Talk to friends; pore over test scores; ask to visit/watch a class?
I’m starting to Internet research myself into paralysis. Feedback, please…
*Yeah, this technically isn’t our first go ’round. We owned a condo downtown before we moved overseas. We were lucky to sell it. But, having owned it just under two years, we barely got out with a profit, let alone enough to put back into another house. We did save a good chunk of money during our stint in Korea, but not enough to put 20 percent down on anything but a studio apartment in the areas we’d like to live.
This is the first in what I hope will be a series of posts about things to do in Atlanta with young kids. When I lived here as a single non-parent person, I seem to remember a lot of times feeling out of place being over 30 and childless. So many things designed to be “family friendly.”
Now I move back here with a toddler and suddenly find myself thinking, “Where the heck is all that family-friendly stuff when you need it?”
One of the city’s best kept secrets, as far as the recently childed are concerned, is the playground at the DeKalb Peachtree Airport.
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The last time The Spouse was gone on an extended business trip, I gained new respect for single mothers. How in the world they manage, alone, day in and day out, I’ll never know.
I still don’t, and I’m still in awe. But now I’ve come to realize that solo parenting when you have a partner is really different than if alone is your “normal.” When you’re a stay-at-home-parent, it’s too easy to let the other person become your main source of adult interaction. I think that’s what’s hardest about the times when he’s out of town. It’s not so much taking care of the Kiddo by myself, it’s how much my brain atrophies when I go more than 24 hours holding every conversation at the level of a 23-month-old.
It’s a little easier here. I’ve become good friends with the neighbors and it’s easier for me to do things on my own with a kid in Atlanta, than it was for me in Seoul. I’ve been more proactive, too, realizing that I need to make more of an effort to see friends I might not normally have time to see and plan some special mom-and-daughter things so that this time is more of a special treat for both of us, instead of this long period of waiting for him to come home.
Still counting the days til he gets back, though.
Every parent of a toddler has those moments when they realize that, by the grace of God, they have narrowly averted disaster. Try as you might to anticipate every move, lock away every sharp object and toxic substance, and keep your rambunctious young one in sight at all times, there are going to be times when you think that, if you had reacted but a second later or your kid been a second faster, something really bad could have happened.
Today is a good example.
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