1. Today was the first time taking my kid to the playland at Burger King. The smell of a play place is something else–off-gassing hardened plastic and rubber plus sweat and socks and char-broiled burgers and onion rings and ketchup and static electricity. It’s a particular smell, like Mine Ride or Indoor Skate Rink or Jr. High Boys Locker Room.

Another child came in and asked me if he had to take off his shoes. I said no–because my kid didn’t take his shoes off–but then I noticed the rules, and indeed, one did have to take their shoes off. Oops. So I told the kid to take his shoes off.

When his mom came in, she asked him, “why did you take off your socks?!” And the boy points to me and says, “he told me to take off my socks.”

WHAT THE HELL KID

And that’s when I realized the politics of the play place.

2. When I told R he had one more minute in the play place, I saw, then heard him bolt up through the tubes, and then another boy slid down the slide and told his mom, “there’s another boy up there hiding from his dad.”

3. We went to my parents house this weekend. It’s not exactly where we were headed when we left the house on Friday morning, but we hadn’t made a reservation for any of the stuff we had planned to do. So. We ended up there.

And, it truly was a vacation.

If you want to have a vacation, get yourself some parents like mine. I have never taken a vacation like visiting my parents–and it only really occurs to me how pleasant it is now that I have children. I don’t have to cook or clean, and the kids are well-watched and entertained.

3.b. Seriously, well-watched: my mom gave R. four dead watches.

4. I got home and wanted to do some housework.