Sunday, April 11, 2010

Who's in Charge?

 I hate being in charge.

Well, maybe I should qualify that.  I actually like being in charge when it's something I feel passionately about.  Like preschool.  Or teaching my kids chew with their mouths closed.  

But when it comes to other stuff, I'd prefer to be a follower.  Give me a job and I'll do it.  And a decent job at that.   I just don't like being a taskmaster. 

Take science fair projects, for example.  I usually avoid them, but if my kids are required to do one, I'd rather not have to collaborate with anybody else to make it happen.  Trying to coordinate schedules is one thing, but figuring out which mom is in charge is a nightmare.

Right now Emma is in the middle of a required project with 2 other people.  Direction on the project is loose, to say the least, and it is abundantly clear that neither of the other 2 parents is willing to take charge and make things happen.

A small part of me wants to take over and just get the darn project over with, but I'm having a bit of an attitude problem about it all...

A) I don't like forced science fair projects and I'm not very good at them.

B) I have more kids' schedules to work around than the other 2 parents combined.

C)  I spend enough of my life trying to keep my own kids on task.  Giving me temporary power over a couple of extra kids may just go to my head and cause me to declare myself dictator over the entire universe and no one wants that to happen. 

D)  I prefer thinking my opinions are correct and don't like having my hypotheses disproved.

So, in a spirit of goodwill and cooperation, I've opted for the "benevolent dictator" approach.  Emma picks the project.  They perform the experiment at their houses...



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8 comments:

  1. Lara, you're hilarious! That's all.

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  2. Oh, dear. Worms in a microwave? I better not show this to my kids. ;-)

    I agree with your sister, you are hilarious!

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  3. What was the hypothesis? Put a worm in the microwave and it dies or gets cancer?

    Sounds like a winner to me. Next time, you can just put him on a short defrost.

    Or you could freeze it solid and try to see if you can revive it through the defrost cycle.

    Ooh! This is a good one. Bring me out and you can put me in charge-after all that's what grandpas are for. No!?

    Can I tell you how many late night trips I took to Festival Foods or Cub Foods to pick up stinking poster boards for projects due the next day!

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  4. I have my own post coming up on this. seriously HATE science fairs.

    um...worms? ick.

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  5. We don't do science fairs out here!!! Should I be worried????

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  6. Ha! Too funny! But they didn't really do that project, right? Wait, no, don't tell me.

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  7. Just a quick note: Our school district has really strict guidelines against using animals of any kind for science projects. This was just the most obnoxious sample project I could find online. Emma's real project is much more tasteful (and boring).

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  8. Phew! That's not really her project then? I am so relieved. Blowing up worms would be so disgusting!

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