Prepare for a ride on the negativity train.
I'm having a tough time tonight. T was going to play his computer game and I'm not sure what I was going to do (not that there's a lack of things to accomplish mind you).
I started complaining that we don't spend enough time together in our down time doing anything other than watching tv. As I talked through it, I realized I might be having delusions of grandeur for a mother of two youngin's. That is, if you consider grandeur exiting the house to find a relatively nearby nice activity.
We don't play tennis. We don't ski cross country or downhill. We don't roller blade. We don't bike. Of course, most all of that is summer stuff, but even in the summer we don't do it. The thing is the boys have to be with us whatever we're doing and our rinky-dink town is the pits. I can't say it enough, buying a house in this town was the dumbest financial decision (and certainly one of the top 3 dumbest decisions) I've ever made. My dad told me there was a housing bubble and I didn't fully grasp at age 24 the gravity of getting trapped in a town I didn't fully realize how much I would hate. We're upside down on this old house of ours and we can't escape this damn town.
Kai falls asleep at about 6:00 so going somewhere as a family, even for a bike ride or a winter stroll, is out of the question weeknights. During the weekends we usually drive 30 min to the nearest larger town to do things (like the bounce house place 2 weekends ago).
As for inviting people over the problems are two-fold. Everyone needs to drive a minimum 1 hour round trip just to get to us. The second issue is this house. It's fine and dandy when you're 24 but not so impressive a decade later. And we still never decorated this house to really make it ours in all the years we've been here. We never planned to stay for more than 2 years. Almost every year we find ourselves believing we'll be out in about 2 years! Not only do we not want to invest a penny in this house but we don't want to give in! Remodeling Cole's room and investing a little after we tried selling and realized it would be another solid 3 years was only out of necessity from ignoring things we had put off for 8 years!
The point of my rambling? I'm not quite sure if it's just the way we're doing things or if I'm just having a crappy evening of really facing how stuck in the house we are. I realize if we split up for an evening, either one of us can do whatever, but personally I'm rather fond of hanging out with T!
Other mom's, what do you think? Do you feel unstuck with local, family-appropriate activities for your young ones? Do the weeknights get to be overly routine?
Enough moping I know!
1 comments:
Oh, honey. I feel you. It has been made fairly clear to me that we could not sell our house without some serious investment but who wants to invest in a house you don't plan on staying in? (I love my house but the location SUCKS) As far as activities go? Stuck stuck stuck stuck and more stuck. Matt goes out once a weekend, which I'm totally ok with and Matt has made it very clear that I can go out whenever I want but, like you, I kinda like to hang out with my husband. He's awesome! And, really, I have no time anyway because of school and work and the kids and trying to keep up with the never ending piles of laundry and clutter and AARGH! And don't even get me started on my blog that I just can't seem to write anything for anymore. Every winter I say, "This summer we're going to go on family bike rides every day! And go to the park every other weekend! And finally get the kids into swimming lessons. And oh the things we will do to spruce up the yard! Gardens and flowers and tear down the ghetto deck!" And then we don't.
I LOVE my kids but, man, I do feel trapped sometimes
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