Mother son bowling night and lessons on being careful what you ask for

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Last night Year 4 at my son's school had a Mother Son Bowling Night. It was a lot of fun and while we mothers felt we would love to have a mothers-only bowling night as well we wouldn't have the excuse to raise the lane bumpers if the boys weren't there!

All was going most excellently with the sauvingon blanc and soft drink flowing nicely until one mum decided it would be a great idea to issue balloons to each mother-son combination. We were to write a loving message to each other on the balloon and then keep it as a memento of the night.

Right.

So without any instructions like "Write what you love about your mum" what do you reckon the boys wrote? One boy in our team wrote "You stink unless you give me $20".

And my beautiful blue-eyed boy? This is what he wrote:

They thought they were being hilarious.

I'm not sure whether I feel amused by the message, concerned about the spelling or just relieved he wrote "you are" and chose not to get confused by "your/you're".

What did I write in return you say?

"I may be grouchy but I still love my blue-eyed boy".

Be careful what you ask for, I say.

Do Your Kids Ride Up Front?

With summer sports starting up this week families are madly arranging shared transport to and from training and games. Parking is at a premium in our area and my car has the capacity to seat 7 so I often find myself as Parent Most Likely to Be Primary Taxi Driver.

TECHNICALLY I could take six kids but I seem to be the only parent left who will not let their children sit in the front passenger seat. I think that five excited kids in a car smooshing pieces of apple and SAOs into the carpet is more than enough anyway.

By the way, we are talking age group 6-9 here.

It is not illegal anywhere in Aust. to have a child in the front seat if they are "properly restrained". However, the most commonly reported recommended minimum age for sitting in the front of a car with airbags seems to be 12, although some say 10. Some US-based reports say 14. And that it is not a size but an age-related issue (muscle/bone development/tone etc).

Anyway, what do you think? Am I truly the only parent left whose primary school-aged children are strapped into the back seat? Am I over-cautious? I know I rode in the front seat all the time as a child, but we didn't have airbags then.

*image from here