I am spending a few days with Mom and tthe the nephew. This wasn't what I had planned at the beginning of the summer and periodically I checked to make sure the dates I requested off would be dates my nephew would have free. And they were until his other grandma wanted to see him and this weekend was the only one that would work.

But it's ok. Matthew came up with me and we did early birthday shopping for my nephew. I got him a kit to build a small table top trebuchet. My brother will probably kill me because I keep getting him things that need to be put together but my nephew had no ideas for his birthday other than "electronics". He desperately wants a tablet or a phone . Almost every other kid has access to something like that or a gaming system and he just mainly wants to play games.

Mom's birthday is tomorrow but we had cupcakes and presents tonight. We played Uno amd Exploding Kittens, which Matthew impulse bought today and it's fun. Tomorrow we are trying our hand at Chickapig again. It's a funny little game we were playing all wrong.

I'm worried about my nephew. He is about to turn 11 and he just seems so frustrated by his schedule. Granted he was able to go to some really cool summer camps amd spend the summer in NC but he hasn't seen his parents in a month.

This summer he has done:Tae Kwan Do camp, pottery camp, kayak camp, 2 week sleep away camp, gone to Florida, and another outdoor day camp this week and he'll be going back to Florida. All thar is awesome especially going to Florida and being at the beach and seeing my dad but there hasn't been a lot of downtime for him.

What he really wants is to stay home and be lazy for a few days. He rarely gets a day when he doesn't have to be someplace or do something. I know when he was in NC he had to be on the swim team even when it got the point he hated it. He had something every day after school and most weekends. I think he needs more downtime or unstructured time than he gets.

He has anxiety about things and I know with his family history he is more likely to have depression. I worry my brother isn't going to notice signs in time My brother ignored when E was getting burned out on swimming for a long time. At the end he was able to only do it 2 or 3 times a week but he had to do the swim meets. But it got to the point E was crying before every practice before anything changed.

I just don't want E to have issues or problems that need to be addressed and they because my brother or his GF don't take them seriously in time.

I'm being the calm waiter to msbelle's ... not. It's a really great house, y'all. I got to do the honors of being her drone/proxy & touring it in person. *totally boasting because seriously, an awesome job to have*

Fingers crossed.

I hope it all works out msbelle. Sending lits of ~ma your way

msbelle! That is so exciting. Go you with jumping in with both feet!

I'm sorry about the anxiety over your nephew, askye. Kids are over scheduled and get grumpy and overwhelmed by it often. Mostly it is good to keep them busy with a variety of activities. There are way too many of them that do nothing except play video games or watch tv. My 9 year old nephew here would much rather play Minecraft all day than do the swimming, riding, camping, and other activities his parents have him doing. But he ends up having a good time and makes new friends. His parents also have him doing regular school type work daily all summer before he can game. Most likely because she is a teacher and knows the cost of getting out of that routine all summer.

It's such a hard balance between keeping kids active and over scheduling them.

It really is hard. You can't just listen to most kids, because most don't reslly understand what is best for themselves. Sone want to do everything and get burned out and done would do nothing. Mac would have done nothing and eventually got old enough that I could not make him do things. He is much moodier when he stares at a screen and now I would categorize him as depressed, but he will not do things that might help, like therapy or cleaning his room, or even shower daily.

When I was that age all I wanted to do was read all day! Not much has changed there, but at least I have a better understanding now why Mom made me get my butt outside doing stuff. We didn't have all the organized activities and packed social schedules kids have today. I spent so much time transporting when the boys were young!

eta: we had our best conversations and one on one time in the car

Oh msbelle, I know how hard it is. In 27 year old teenager news, Big B has a 4th interview this morning at 11 so I have fingers crossed. He has been actively looking for work for months now, but his resume is so slim for someone his age that employers look at it (and him), and don't want to take the chance. He did shave off his beard in anticipation of the interview today since the previous 3 were remote. The meeting today includes a bunch more skill testing so no doubt he will blow those away. Kid has always tested brilliantly. But 100% if he could stay in bed with his computer all day and night forever he would choose that plan.

I think will need to cut his hair some to get a job, but he will not listen, at least not to me.

Despite the horrible Sat with him, I am texting him again starting today with goals for the day and sharing my thoughts on depression.