Stop eating plastic you furry idiot.

Yeah, that happens with kids too (not mine but that was just luck). Thank goodness they eventually outgrow being toddlers.

ltc loves plastic or anything else she can get in her mouth.

So, according to the fitbit, between getting up to feed ltc, and general insomnia/pain keeping me from sleeping, I'm averaging about 5 hours of sleep a night. I guess now I know why I'm tired all the time.

Mom would just banish me to my room or play room until she could deal with me again. I was pretty good at entertaining myself as an only child.

we were shoved out the door and told not to return until the streetlights came on.

We lived in the country, we were told to take the dog and go explore till we got hungry.

This all makes me feel better. Whew!

That's where all the stories of kids having adventures come from, Mom throwing them out of the house for the day.

Sending kids outside to play is a classic.

Here's my family's crazy: When we were young enough that a visit to the beach meant bringing back half of it in our swimsuits, my mom wouldn't even let us enter the house until we'd gone into the backyard, stripped off our swimsuits, and gotten hosed off. Suits went straight into the washing machine and kids went one by one straight into the shower to wash off.

Nowadays someone would shriek that you're pandering to the neighborhood pedophile and call Child Services on you.

After my mom and dad got divorced, my mom worked full time, and in the summers, 10 y.o. me, and 8 y.o. sister were basically on our own. Our friends mom and upstairs neighbor "watched" us, but she was a nurse on the night shift, so basically she was there in case of emergency.

We ran around the apartment complex in a gang of kids on bikes, swam (like fish), climbed treese, fixed our own meals, and were responsible for our chores.

I hung out a lot with Mrs. Mooney, an elderly lady across the parking lot. We played endless games of gin rummy, and she always had fixings for amazing ice cream sundaes, introduced me to Bugles and port wine cheese, and let me play with her cat, Sissy.

I wonder if they still allow the books I read as a kid, of bunches of kids roaming around their towns on their bikes, hanging out in empty lots, eating the bagged lunches they grabbed on the way out of the house that morning.

Connie, I'm pretty sure the old couple next door couldn't see into our backyard as there was a 10 foot tall fence between the houses. And there was the house itself blocking the view on the other side.

When I wished someone a Happy Pi Day they pointed out that it's 3.14.16 - which is Pi to four decimal places. yay math!