We are in the final stretch for the boy’s stay – the boy goes back home in two weeks. We had originally agreed to this plan because my daughter was scheduled to have her marrow transplant just after he would arrive and would be close to finished with needing to be sequestered away from the kids, pets, and plants when he’d return. Unfortunately, there were delays with the transplant (and more chemo) and now the transplant is scheduled a couple days before his return.
This arrangement was still helpful for them because she had many appointments and other procedures, but the main reason we agreed was to look after him while she had to be sequestered. At least during the day he will be in school so they won’t need to make day care arrangements for him, and his step-father’s mother will be staying with them to help with the transition.
There is a part of me that will miss him, but I will not be missing this experience. I had hoped to spend our time bonding and teaching him life skills, but his lack of interest in anything but his tablet, TV, and games but a bit of a damper on that. Even simple things like holding a fork are “too much” for him – he’s 11 and still holds a fork like a caveman.
I personally believe his unwillingness to learn to do things properly is solely because he knows this is a limited experience and he’ll be going home soon where he is relatively unsupervised. There, he has learned that he can weaponize incompetence and get out of doing things because, frankly, it would be easier to just do things ourselves instead of having him do them (it took him 5 minutes to put a bowl in the washer properly after being shown multiple times).
He’s in for a bit of a surprise, however, as I’ve told his parents that he has been instructed on things and should be able to carry on with them when home. Nothing big, just things like: drying off before getting out of the shower and turning the floor into a Slip ‘N Slide; wiping the rim of the toilet bowl when he pisses all over it; closing the shower curtain when finished so it doesn’t build up mold and mildew; how to put a plate or bowl into the dishwasher properly so it gets cleaned; and daily writing out the alphabet to improve his handwriting.
Anyhow, he decided today to hide out downstairs to get out of his daily tasks so we are taking the opportunity to enjoy some time to ourselves…
Song of the day: The Final Countdown by Europe
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