Tag: children and parents

Watch out for the Goose Poop, Honey

I continue to try to enjoy the people my parents have become. My husband and children and I visited my parents at their retirement community today. I found remote-controlled boats to use in the lake by their apartment and thought that would be a fun activity to share with my dad.

After brunch, we went out to the lake. One of the hazards is the goose poop. I was surprised when my dad chose not to even touch the boats or participate, but to go sit in the shade and just watch. This is the man that would take us outside to see how high the soda can flew when he put a firecracker underneath it – he doesn’t want to race remote-controlled motorboats?

I have a 14-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl – so they quickly pick boats and plop them in the lake. Within the first ten minutes, one is caught in some bushes on the shoreline. We get the boat out of trouble, only to quickly need to rescue the boat again from another bush.

My daughter goes down and pushes the boat from the shore and I gun the remote. The boat is in shallow water and unfortunately, the boat sprays mud and goose poop right back into my daughter’s face. It was so inadvertent and so sudden it was funny. Even she laughed as I wiped mud from her face.

She was trying to help and I end up shooting goose poop at her. It certainly wasn’t my intention.

My siblings and I are bracing ourselves. For as hard as this has been, we know there is a lot more goose poop in our future. Expected.

Dad got up at 4 a.m. and ate breakfast.

My brother calls to share with me what’s going on at home. At first my mom is very combative about any need to visit a doctor, or even just to give a blood sample.

My brother and sister are staying with my parents while I’m away. We thought this would be the perfect time to have someone help make sure they don’t eat before their blood test. While this seems like a simple task, with no short-term memory and no knowledge or sense of your limitations, my parents have no system to help them manage tasks like this but do not know it.

Our interest is to keep them safe and part of that process is to understand their physical and mental state. Step one was the visit with the psychologist. Step two is a physical. The blood work requested means they need to fast. My brother and sister are with them to ensure they don’t eat before the blood test.

This morning they were going to get the test and my parents said they were on board. However, when my brother gets up, he learns that my dad got up at 4 a.m. and ate breakfast. I am constantly considering how crafty they have become. Was there some element to this action to prevent the blood test from getting done?

We still have Monday. I wish them luck!　Foiled.