<p>My favorite thread of all time! Now that we are down to only 1/4 left living at home, I find that I miss all of the juggling of kids and time. Even though I sometimes felt like tearing my hair out, (and that of my husband and kids) it was fun listening in on the conversations in the car, spontaneously having 20 kids show up for dinner (and oh by the way can they all spend the night too?) and all of that kind of stuff. Our youngest gets his license soon and I will really miss spending that time in the car when he is forced to be with me if he wants a ride somewhere! Oh well, our oldest is married and teaching- maybe it’s time to start planning for grandchildren???</p>
<p>Very late in the parenting game, this Donkey Mom got a van with a door that opens at the press of the key. When I think of all the years where I had a baby on my hip, kids by the hand, a diaper bag hanging on me as well as other things and had to figure out how to unlock the car door, I think of how much easier today’s donkeys have it. Also, have you seen the strollers they have now where you don’t have to wake up the baby because the seat comes out? And how did we get buy without a cupholder in the stroller? I’m just saying, this generation will not know true hardcore donkiness as we did.</p>
<p>^^Agreed! And those shopping carts with the built in baby seats! Why were they invented after my kids were no longer babies?</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>I saw a potty seat that makes music and cheers when the toddler tinkles. Can you imagine? I cheered the old-fashioned way – with my own voice. Now they have special things moms throw on when nursing – back in the day we threw a blanket on. How we suffered. (And my previous post should have said “get by” not “get buy”. I do know the difference, but am impaired by a head cold.)</p>
<p>How about those things in airport bathrooms for changing diapers! How cool is THAT?</p>
<p>Not to mention the baby monitors with VIDEO!!</p>
<p>My mom always said my first words were “My mom can drive!”</p>
<p>Donkey Dad used to get very upset that so few men’s rooms had changing facilities. By the time the guys were PT, that was changing. </p>
<p>I used to walk to the grocery store with one kid in a front sling and the other in a pack on my back!</p>
<p>My boys say one of their favorite “mom” memories is when I couldn’t take the spitty tuba any longer and lugged it to the shower and washed it with soap and hot water. Of course it took the three of us a looooong time to get most of the water out, by turning it end over end, interspersed with the blow dryer, and finally the fan when we were all too worn out to handle it any more. Needless to say it only got washed once in 4 years.</p>
<p>“I told them my mom would volunteer.” I heard that often, and that’s the same reasoning that saddled us with a tuba. Son said no one else wanted to lug it around, we had a van, and “I knew you wouldn’t mind mom.”</p>
<p>Donkey Fathers are more diplomatic than Tiger Moms. When phoned up to bring in our pet kangaroo for First Grade show-n-tell, DF first asked the teacher why she believed we had such a pet? Evidently, S told teacher that scratches on his arms came from “chasing our pet kangaroo into a prickle-bush after he jumped off the deck.” </p>
<p>DF gently disengaged from schlepping in an imaginary kangaroo, meanwhile never insulted the teacher’s intelligence, called his son a name, or insisted his son be tested for giftedness. </p>
<p>Also DF knew: donkeys can’t convince kangaroos to get into cars.</p>
<p>paying3,
coffee spewed onto the keyboard…
please pm me your DS pen name…I want to read his fiction ;)</p>
<p>CD: I’m the Destination Imagination team manager this year…you mean I’m still going to be finding materials years from now? Oh wait, that’s right…I’m still finding Girl Scout stuff 8 years after moving away from my troop.</p>
<p>the Donkey Father in my house may not have done that much of the carpooling but he’s done something far more stressful: coaching girls softball since 1997. Oh sure it’s cute when they’re 5 & 6, but when they hit the teen years he started questioning his sanity. And they never know the score or even if they’re winning (which makes him crazy: says boys ALWAYS knew what the score was) and there would always be dancing & singing in the dugout. BUT his team always has a fun time (probably not knowing if they’re losing helps that 
and their parents always tell him how much they appreciate that he’s not a yeller. </p>
<p>Signups started yesterday for the spring 2011 season…</p>
<p>
Clearly one of cc’s all time best lines.</p>
<p>
Yup. </p>
<p>One of DonkeyFather’s early assignments in this family was Saturday morning 5-7 year old basketball at the Y. He was a schlepper, not a coach, and Mrs. DF (that would be moi) enjoyed coming along for the ride.</p>
<p>Being politically correct and all, this peewee basketball league believed in equal opportunity score-keeping. Whenever either team made a basket, 2 points went up on the electronic scoreboard for each team. Ergo, the score was permanently tied on the notion that this would make all the little tykes happy.</p>
<p>Yeah right. Those kids knew the “actual” score every minute of every game and reported it to each other in breathless huddles whenever one of them came off the court to the sidelines.</p>
<p>Needless to say this was boys’ basketball. I’m amazed that girls would have been any different, but I I defer to the superior knowledge of the DonkeyFather in RobD’s house.</p>
<p>Somehow they grew up unscathed. Must have been because they all got the same-sized ice cream cones when being schlepped by DonkeyFather for post-game refreshment.</p>
<p>Donkey Father here coached girls soccer after years of boys. Found he needed half again longer practice time to allow for “gap fest”. They told him “'shush not yet” if he wanted to start practice too soon.</p>
<p>DH and I are the king and queen of the donkey parents also! Not that our two little a##es always “got” it! I remember them asking in a particularly busy season (as we were living on ice cubes and mayonnaise sandwiches :D) “WHY do you always have to be the costume mom/cookie mom/room mom/chaprones/set dad, etc. Are we ever gonna eat at home again?” (You get the idea.) They thought EVERYONE was a donkey parents…sooooo naive.</p>
<p>Which begs the question: what kind of animal are all the OTHER parents…the ones whose kids I drive home everyday, or whose kids are always in MY basement, or who are in the front row of the play, but never would think to put one toe backstage to help?</p>
<p><a href=“I%20think%20I%20can%20answer%20my%20own%20question:%20%20they%20are%20ostriches.%20Their%20heads%20are%20buryed%20in%20the%20%22someone%20else%20will%20do%20it%22%20sand…but%20I%20am%20not%20sorry%20to%20be%20a%20donkey.%20My%20DF%20and%20I%20realized%20long%20ago%20that%20we%20really%20KNOW%20our%20kids%20friends,%20their%20ups%20and%20downs%20-%20carpool%20is%20my%20favorite%20time%20of%20the%20day!%20-%20%20and%20get%20to%20spend%20so%20much%20time%20supporting%20them%20in%20what%20they%20love%20to%20do…we%20embrace%20our%20donkiness…!”>i</a>* ey-aw!</p>
<p>Gotta go…daughter needs her uniform washed and dried in 20 minutes so I can run it to school! ;)</p>
<p>
This is the benefit of donkey parenting–you get to see your kids’ activities up close. They get used to having you around. They talk to you more easily. Their friends like you. And you get to see a lot of games and performances other parents miss–of course, you will have to be there, because you will be the one making the video, or running up and down the sidelines with the flag, etc.</p>
<p>Hi, my name is Shellz…and I’m a Donkey Mom. Have been for almost 21 years. My back is sore, my feet plod along a little slower these days, but with a younger one still in the stable I am keeping my eye on the prize…the day DF and I are put out to pasture. No more schlepping, toting, lugging and waiting while Donkey child dawdles after practice. No more last minute “sign this paper for school please…you don’t need to read it!”, or my favorite, I forgot to bring my PE clothes today, can you bring them to me? (uhh, you mean the ones that have been festering in your closet all weekend because you forgot to bring them down to the laundry room? EWWW) Yup…it will be a fine day when it’s just the old a** and me, sitting on the couch, staring at each other, wondering what the early bird dinner special is at Denny’s.</p>
<p>Maybe be a DP isn’t so bad after all…as long as you don’t try to stuff the donkey into the helicopter come college time. ;-)</p>
<p>RobD: I still have feathers and balsa wood scraps…heaven knows what else is in the basement (and what has used it to create a habitat in the meantime!).</p>
<p>I enjoyed the amusing stories on this thread. This is also more or less our parenting style as well.</p>