why you should have kids

so, I had to work late again. Really late; I got home at 10:15 pm and so am not tired at all and am waiting for my evening to start, which is pointless because it is already over. Sigh.

Monster #2 is better at guilt than her father was. She greeted my announcement that I wouldn't be home until past her bedtime with "I never see you - why are you working later and later when we are here?". Great thanks, me feel guilty?

While I'm on the topic of M#2, could someone please explain to me why a child who, at 8, is incapable of remembering that she has to: brush her hair, wash her face and brush her teeth (seriously, have to remind her of that ritual EVERY MORNING), remembered to dig out her tooth fairy pillow and put it on my pillow so that the "tooth fairy" (aka me) would remember to put her money it? And because of the guilt, I put 10 €. Maybe that is why ??

***warning the anectode that follows is funnier if you speak French, but I will try to translate for my Anglo friends***

Anyhoo, I get home to a clean house, half a pizza and chilled white wine (gotta love your girlfriends) and my friend C, who assumed her babysitting duties marvelously, says "hmmm, the homework checking took longer than I thought". Really? Yes, M#1 told her he had to research a dinosaur. "OK", says C, "what kind of dinosaur?". M#1 responds "A nebachudnezzar" (in French, dinosaur names end in "-saure", i.e. stégosaure, Brachiosaure, et al and nebachudnezzar rhymes with saure they way that they pronounce it). Took C about 5 minutes to recover her breath to ask which class it was for. Turns out it was for Religious Cultures, for which he also had to define the Apocalypse.

Have I mentioned that I hated Jr High the first time round, but that it is worse the second time?