G'day, folks.
Sharon/WO, I hope your meeting today is productive. sorry it's so cold for you.
Rabbit, enjoy your Tuesday. You seem bouncy this morning.
Sharon/LDM, sounds like your weather is crazy too.
Fran, here's hoping difficult child can continue to improve his independence skills. It really burns me up when therapists blame our kids' lack of capability on "being too dependent on the mother" as if WE have made our kids incapable; the kids depend on us BECAUSE they lack capability! As I keep saying - it's not always about blame, or cause and effect. Sometimes we just need to look at a situation and say, "it is. Now how can we remedy it?"
We've had a glorious, warm day today. It was 26 C in Sydney (79 F) which for almost winter is unheard of. I was wearing the same loose cotton sleeveless top I was wearing back in February, plus having to drive with the windows down when the day got warmer. Even into the evening, it's been warm. I didn't put my light cardigan on until well after sunset.
Today began early - my choir was performing at the local old folks respite centre. There were only four of us to perform, which limits us a fair bit. But it all went down well. The choir is definitely a work in progress!
We'd scheduled the performance so I could get away for a later appointment, but in fact we finished a lot earlier than I needed, so on the way back home I dropped in on my best friend for an hour or so. Then home to get difficult child 3 ready to leave for his therapist appointment in the city.
We left early, went in via husband's work (he had some gear to send home in our car) and got to the therapist right on time. It was a great session - we raised the subject of displacement activity, anxiety and distraction. It's bugging difficult child 3 that he gets so easily distracted, and he anted strategies to help him get back on task more readily.
The sky was full of smoke - we could smell it, and the smell of bushfire always concerns us until we know where it's from. Turned out there was a backburn in the Blue Mountains, and the smoke all blew into Sydney. It got really bad, people were warned to stay indoors, it showed up on the radar. The sky was orange, the sunset glorious.
difficult child 3 & I had an interesting talk on the way in to the city - he has been 'conversing' online with people and noted that often the insult expressed is "you're gay." He said his response to this is, "No I'm not gay. In fact, I'm homophobic."
We talked about this and he admitted, "I feel uncomfortable if I'm in a room with gay people."
I asked, "How do you know if the people in the room are gay or not? Someone can be flamboyant but straight. Or gay, but seemingly conventional."
He finally said, "I think I just feel uncomfortable knowing I'm being ogled."
So I told him that women ogle him anyway; the gender of the person ogling is immaterial. And in fact, homosexuals are LESS likely to ogle or act on it, because they know that an overt pass has a higher likelihood of getting their teeth kicked in for them.
The final convincing came when husband's offsider answered the door to let difficult child 3 in. difficult child 3 chatted to him while he waited for his dad, then we left. As we drove off I said, "Did you feel uncomfortable talking to Jack? No? Even though he is gay?"
Long silence. Then difficult child 3 grinned. "Point taken," he said.
After the therapist we headed back to our district, to the mall. difficult child 3 went in by himself to buy easy child's birthday present, while I catnapped in the car. Then we headed off to drama class. I got a bit more shopping done, we met up with husband, we had dinner (our Tuesday night ritual, we're enjoying our dinner for two while difficult child 3 enjoys his burger sitting in the car). As we came outside, the forecast cool change began moving through. Tomorrow is forecast to be cooler. No smell of smoke any more!
So we've had a busy day but accomplished a lot. Tomorrow we stay home and hopefully get some work done. I have phone calls to make, sewing to do and writing to catch up on.
Enjoy your Tuesday, everyone.
Marg
