Friends Who Have Different ‘Rules’ With Their Kids

What do people do? We’re not the type of people who just throwaway years of friendship with people who we don’t agree with on their parenting skills.
We saw some friends recently who both have 2 kids each. These friends are a few years older than my wife and I but nonetheless the kids are 6 and under. We’ve known these people for nearly 10 years and quite honestly we really like them. They’re fun and interesting people. One of couples (I’ll call ‘Jack and Diane’ to protect the identities) among them has amazing parenting skills. My wife and I still don’t know how they’ve managed to raise a remarkable young kid (My theory; I think the child could be a robot that her husband built in the garage out of car parts and spare computers, just like that TV show “Small Wonder”… But that’s just me.) Jack and Diane live a distance away and we see them maybe once every year or two. When we do, the wife and I always talk about how much we would like them to move back.

Then there are the other friends (We’ll call “Peg and Al” to protect their identities) and their children. One who is “bizzarro-girl” to Jane and Jack’s kid. This kid is a total freak and acts like she’s been raised by wolves and feeds on Pixie Sticks and deep-friend Sweet-Tarts. Constant whining, running off, yelling…(agh!). When she starts up I want to jump in a box, then mail myself to New Zealand. Her mom just goes along with it offering bribes and more junk food (and this girl doesn’t need any more junk food, she’s practically my weight). Diane has to tell “bizzarro-children” things like “Can you please say “Thank You””, “No, people don’t eat trash off the floor”, “It’s not nice to beat your mom with a stick...” all while Peg just shrugs it off. Diane shouldn’t have to do that, Peg should! I wonder what Peg says about Diane’s kids; how can she not notice the extreme difference in the outcome of their kids? I just don’t know and it drives me crazy!

A Night At “Cirque du Soleil: DELIRIUM”

Last night we left our daughter with the sitter and went to see their new show down at the Staples Center. We didn’t even know they were in town until our friends, Steve and Rick, went to the big “star-studded” (well, “D” and “E” level -people from Reality Shows and Kato Katlin) premiere last week. Usually Cirque du Soleil shows are advertised a lot more and we plan months in advance, this one wasn’t. Or maybe the ads were on TV (we rarely watch TV these days).
What made this show really weird was that it was inside the arena, and not in the usual “chic” tent setup in the parking lot. One thing about Sports arena’s, they’re definitely not classy places. It smelled like stale beer and they sold nasty Hot Dogs, Nacho’s with fluorescent yellow cheese and $11.75 bottles of domestic beer (Domestic! Would you believe? That should be illegal).

Anyhow, inside, the stage was setup like a catwalk right in the middle of the audience, with two big boxes on each side. And they used lots of amazing projections and scrims (thin see-through material) with performers behind them most of the time. Visually the show was amazing (like ‘eye-crack’)! I really like Cirque’s use of colors, costumes, eerie music, and “freakshow” human performers. Although this one had less acrobats and contortionists, it was more about the incredible projections and dancers. Ironically, this shows chorographer is one of the judges from “So you think you can Dance” (the wife loves that show).
Some things did bother me though, for instance the African modern dancer in a thong (why? I don’t need to see the guy’s ass - but some French chorographer thinks I do), the opening act singer Nitza, whose opening songs were very good, but then turned all weird with some latin/pop/club sound. Oh, and they didn’t have the audience clowns (street performers, that you avoid) before the show – which is a Cirque du Soleil staple. Although they made up for that by throwing large white beach ball balloons out into the audience at the end.
Another observation was that there were a lot of small kids (toddler-aged) that were brought to the show. The sound was so loud there was no way of hearing them. I think we’re going to wait awhile before bringing our daughter to one (maybe until she’s at least in 1st grade and can sit still.)

Overall I liked the show. After every Cirque du Soleil I always just say something to my wife like “Wow! That was really freakin’ weird. But in a cool way”. Or “Canadians are more French that I thought.”
I can honestly say this, Cirque du Soleil is definitely good at surprises, because every show we’ve been to, we just don’t know what to expect.

I Don't Know Spanish, But My 14-Month Does

My daughter is picking up a lot of Spanish words from her sitter these days. She’s begun to use lots of English words (“No!” being a big one) but sometimes she just starts saying things that just sounds a lot like babble to my wife and I. But it's not; our sitter has informed us that she's using Spanish words (which we...or "I" of course don't know). This scares me a little. I don't mind her learning another language like Spanish (it’s now essential living here in Southern California) that's all “coolio” with me - my fear is this:

I don't want to be somewhere (store, mall, Canada) with my daughter, when she's 4 or 5 years-old, chatting or laughing in Spanish to some stranger while I'm just standing there, smiling like cousin Balki from Perfect Strangers.

He could be plotting to kidnap her or directing jokes at me and I wouldn’t even know it. He could be talking to my daughter about jumping into his van for ice cream and ride's on princess pony’s or about my ‘big pore’ problem and I would just stand there smiling like an idiot. That scares me.
Maybe I can do something about this…possibly watch Dora or that cheesy Playhouse Disney show "Manny and the gringo talking tools" and learn how to say things like “Monkey, bring my banana hammer here, por-fa-vor?”