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Mostly Mama's Way

I didn't read a story for the boys last night. And I didn't read one tonight. And it breaks my heart. Story time is one of the best parts of the day.

But it's the rules. If you don't listen to mama and papa then story time goes away. Usually I'm pretty lenient with this kind of stuff, but once in a while I figure I should actually follow through with the rules. I know that's bad parenting; inconsistency with follow-through. I rationalize it by arguing (to myself, Eri's cool with it) that inconsistent parental follow-through with rules and expectations actually strengthens kids' resilience by providing them with plenty of chances to deal with unexpected circumstances.

I know that's a slippery slope so I'm just going to have to do better.

I just love story time.

Eri was the "lenient" one tonight and read a pretty long Japanese story for the boys. She said at the start she was only going to read five pages, but I witnessed her read the entire thing. It was over fifty pages.


Kenzo and Osamu loved it. 

Eri's story reading is different than mine. Theater degree versus business degree. The boys intuitively seem to understand the value of mama's way and papa's way. Mostly mama's way. She's better.

I think this year's rainy season is about to end. Today it poured like crazy, so our neighborhood association flowerbed maintenance was canceled again. I picked up a mini whiteboard at Daiso the other day and walked down to the gazebo-covered picnic table by the flower beds this afternoon.


Some of the older neighborhood folks who don't use modern technology keep showing up for flowerbed maintenance even when it's raining heavily, so I took matters into my own hands and made it very clear to anyone who showed up that they should return home. The underlying message, too, is that you don't need to ring me.

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