"Sad Week at the Lake"
Last week was a sad week on the lake. Jake disappeared. Jake
was the daddy of at least four of the ducklings, and he was the
sweetest of the drakes.
Jake did most of the babysitting when the ducklings were first
hatched, while Mamma Dora slept for part of the day. (She stood
guard over the babies all night.) He's also the one that took
care of Alice in Wonderland and Leroy last year after they were
hurt so badly they were both crippled for a while.
He'd get them under a little stand of trees with brush all the
way to the ground. Then, he'd stand outside the hiding place
each night until they healed.
Jake barely flew, so I know he didn't fly away. Something
obviously happened to him. I suspect it has something to do
with the two kids I saw throwing rocks at the ducks the day Jake
disappeared.
Tink's been eating from my hand, again, for a couple of weeks
now. He even makes it up to the patio. He doesn't go more than
a very few feet from the bank of the lake unless he sees me,
though.
The tally is in. We have 10 males and 4 females in that bunch
of ducklings. This may have made our problem worse than ever.
Three drakes for every duck - NOT good!
They all have names, now, and most of them already know their
names.
3 Look like Dora ... Dee-Dee, Danny and Denny
4 Look like Jake ... Junior, Johnny, Maynard and Michael
4 Look like Leroy ... Gibbs, Kate, Ziva and Tink
2 May be Cody's after all ... Tina and Tony
1 Completely different (There's always one) ... Buford
A Couple of Clarifications
Lots of nice email last week on the article I wrote about my
kids. If you missed it - and you care - you can find it here:
The Family Jewels
I did get a couple of questions. One was a bit accusatory -
asking why The Earth Mother (third daughter) didn't adopt from
among all the children needing homes in THIS country.
So, I'll tell you.
The Executive (first daughter) had a good friend who adopted a
baby boy in Illinois. All nice and legal. Four years later,
the birth mother reconciled with the child's natural father, who
was Russian. They decided they wanted the baby back. At the
time of adoption, she had claimed she didn't know who the father
was.
After a couple of years, and going all the way to the Illinois
Supreme Court, the adoptive family was forced to hand the child
over. He was taken out of this country to Russia, and that was
the end of that.
When The Earth Mother and her husband decided to adopt, she
wouldn't even consider doing it in this country because of that
very situation. It was horrible for both the adoptive parents
who had raised the child from infancy - AND for the little boy
who was dragged (literally) away by strangers to a foreign
country.
The Earth Mother already had a son by birth. So, she turned to
China and the little girls who are stuffed into orphanages
simply because they are not boys. Then, she chose a couple that
most likely would never get out of the orphanage any other way.
No one in China is going to come looking for them to take them
away.
A couple of astute readers noted that two of my four children
had run away and wondered why they were so afraid of me.
So, I'll tell you.
When you have a litter of four kids in just over six years, you
have a problem. If you don't keep tight control, you'll have
anarchy in three days. Just like, if you don't keep your house
clean every day, you'll be living in a pig sty in three days.
Today, they'd probably send me to jail. Because, in my family,
children only had two rights: the right to be loved and the
right NOT to be abused. However, if they needed a right smart
smack on the butt, that's exactly what they got.
Was I “hard on them?” Probably, by today's standards.
But, I didn't have any 4-year-olds tearing up their bedrooms,
attacking me like vicious little demons and refusing to do as
they're told. I didn't have any 9-year-olds openly defying me
with smart little trash-mouths, being bullies at school or doing
as they pleased. I didn't have any 12-year-olds demanding
thousands of dollars worth of electronics - or a freakin' debit
card, fer cryin' out loud!
My kids sat down to dinner, at the dining room table, every
night - with the TV OFF. They had a chore routine that was
accepted as a natural part of living in that house. They had
boundaries - physical as well as behavioral. And, stepping
outside those boundaries was NEVER a good idea!
They got helped with their homework when they needed it, tucked
into bed, and told they were loved, every night. They were
allowed to make whatever personal decisions they were mature
enough to make. But, I made the decisions about maturity.
I honored - even celebrated - their differences and allowed them
to be who they were - as long as they were fairly civilized
about it. (That did NOT include mutilating their bodies) And,
their punishments fit the severity of their crimes.
Can you imagine what a girl thought after defying me about going
to a rock concert - and what the boy thought getting caught
having one ear pierced and wearing an earring to school? Of
course, they ran away! Wouldn't you?
I'll admit, the teen years were a bit rough. I did have to warn
that, if I heard anything about kids' rights, they could rest
assured they had the right to leave my house, get a damn job and
support themselves at any time.
(Actually, they all did work part-time jobs when they were old
enough. This taught them responsibility - and how to get things
I didn't consider essential to their precious little psyches -
like fifty dollar designer jeans.)
But, we all got through it. I didn't raise any car thieves,
hookers, abusers or serial killers. And, none have turned up
on The Jerry Springer Show. So far.
Last Week of Fooling Around
Damn - I had no intention of writing about blasted kids, this
week. But, it's okay. It's the last Monday of summer
“vacation” (in the USA). Next week, we're going to digress a
bit.
Since so many readers agreed with me, we'll be returning to my
rants of a couple of weeks ago ...
Random Rants
... and discussing how some of these things affect our businesses
online; along with what we might do about it.
When I first started working online, I kept insisting that
business online wasn't any different than business off-line.
Well, except for the obvious, of course.
Now, nearly 12 years later, we have some HUGE differences. In
the interests of our sanity, we should probably discuss them and
consciously decide how to handle those differences. If we don't
do it consciously, the differences will handle US unconsciously.
The first week of our best selling season seems the perfect time
to do that!
Have a fantastic week, and ... Keep on Keepin' On!
jl
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