<p>After racing from the Rodin museum to L'Orangerie in Mom +S2 and Dad plau S1 pairs, I once let my 10 year old and 7 year old loose in Paris with a map--following behind a half block. Idiotic experiment because we rounded one corner and they were gone. Vanished. I thought I would die. It was the worst ten minutes of my life.</p>
<p>However, all the previous exercises paid off. They knew where they were and had run to the Tin Tin store. After fifteen visits, the owner knew them and they were playing happily when we finally found them. Don't tell my mother or MIL I did that! :eek: Believe me, I know where my kids get stupid from.</p>
<p>That was also the trip where they played WOW in a french internet bar for an hour each day. (Take your kids to France and all they want to do is get into cyberspace). I remember walking in to hear younger son yelling across the room to his french teammates--"Look out! They are in the bois! They are in the bois!" The French players were in their 20s but they adopted both boys and had such a laugh with them.</p>
<p>I was shamed into letting go of paper registers by my OLDER sis-in-law who one day said to me...why are you STILL doing that LOL
and we were shamed into starting to use debit instead of charge cards by D who claims she hardly carries cash anymore, you can debit everything from a cup of coffee to airline tickets.
S got a checkbook along with his account when he started college this fall. He's written 1 check so far.</p>
<p>Agreed....Cheers has a great list. My kiddos also knew how to cook a meal, shop for food, do laundry, balance a bank account online, change a flat tire, call AAA, figure out what to do if a plane flight got canceled, fix their own computers.</p>
<p>
[quote]
That was also the trip where they played WOW in a french internet bar for an hour each day. (Take your kids to France and all they want to do is get into cyberspace)
[/quote]
Sounds like my kids. We just left my older son at CTY the year we went to Scotland. But younger son dragged me to every Games Workshop store in Scotland.</p>
<p>Between cheers and jmmoms great list, we've had a lot of it covered before chicky went off to college (especially laundry, getting a job, managing money, maneuvering travel and writing thank you notes) in addition to;
If you are on the upside of the power dynamic, don't make the other person feel as if they are on the downside.</p>
<p>Don't let any one treat you as if you are on the downside of the power dynamic.</p>
<p>knowing that no one can make you feel inferior with out your consent (E.Roosevelt)</p>
<p>never discouraging anyone who continually makes progress no matter how slowly.</p>
<p>when you talk to someone official on a phone, ask and jot down their name so you can get back to the same person a second time, or defend what they told you as a decision by saying, "J-- K---" said so, not, "Someone from Registration said so"</p>
<p>Paying...we could start another thread about things the kids do NOT know...here's where I would start. Neither of my kids knows how to take a phone message...period.</p>
<p>thumper...ha!
LOL
I grew up in the house of a small town dentist with, gasp, a LISTED phone number. We had "signal" rings. We learned (us kids) how to answer the phone and take messages (i.e. lie- "he's not in right now, can I take a message...") You wouldn't believe the messages we'd take! By the age of 10 I was able to discern the drug addict from the truly suffering. We were pros. When I look at the crap I used to have to do/take/listento/putupwith, my kids have no idea. Maybe that's why I have so little problem talking on the phone.</p>