The print., June 03, 1987, Page 3, Image 3

Opinion
Parents - what a concept
by Stephani Veff
______________________________________________ Opinions Editor
For your kids:
Summer vacation activities
Oh no, it’s back. Not again.
Why couldn’t it skip one year just
this once? What are we ever go­
ing to do with them this year?
Does this sound familiar? If
not, it should. It’s parents
discussing the impending closure
of summer vacation and what
they are going to do with the
children during those months.
Ah, summer vacation. Every
kid dreams of it, every parent
dreads it. It’s hard enough keep­
ing them occupied during those
few hours after they come home
from school and before bedtime.
Of course, homework and after­
school activities take care of part
of this time, but there aren’t any
of these things during the sum­
mer. As parents you must then
search for other forms of enter­
tainment for your children.
Ideally summer camp is the
number one choice, whether it is
an overnight camp or just a day
camp. The main objective is to
keep the kids occupied for the
majority of the time. Of course
this isn’t the parents’ only ob­
jective, they would also like
their children to be with other
children: learning, exercising in
the sunshine and enjoying life
while they are still young and
without responsibility.
If, for some reason, it isn’t
possible to send the kids to camp,
you (the arents) can find lots of
other ways to keep the kids oc­
cupied and happy. A summer
“story hour” at the library keeps
the kids out of trouble and gives
you enough time for a short
shopping trip or nap. Swimming
lessons at the local pool can fill
another hour or two, while sum­
mer baseball/softball can take up
to another three hours.
But there is one drawback to
these solutions - you get to play
“taxi service” all day long. Even
so, there is a solution to this pro­
blem - carpooling. Just find some
other desperate parents and trade
days on which you take all the
kids and they take all the kids.
If none of these solutions
sound as if they will work in your
situation this last one may be
your “saviour” - hire a babysit­
ter. By doing this you can work,
take some classes for fun, exer­
cise, go shopping or do whatever
your heart desires and know that
your kids are safe and sound and
driving the babysitter crazy in­
stead of you.
The ideal babysitter is one
who will drive the kids to any of
the activities mentioned in
paragraph five. He/she will
take the kids to the movies,
museums, the zoo, the park,
etc. He/she will also feed the
kids, clean up after them and
even do household chores for
you. But most of all a good
babysitter will care for your
kids as you would care for them
- firmly, but with lots of love.
Although these are just a few
solutions to an age old problem,
they should be enough to get
you started.
There is something I must
add here though. For those of
you who may be dreading the
teenage years - don’t. This is
one of the problems that is solv­
ed when the kids reach their
teens. You no longer have to
find ways to keep them oc­
cupied during the summer.
They will find many ways to
entertain themselves with sum­
mer jobs, working endlessly on
an “awesome” tan, and think­
ing up ways to get a date to their
friend’s summer barbeque.
I hope this column has been
helpful; I enjoyed writing it, as I
have enjoyed doing so all term.
While this column was intended
to be a humorous look at the
ways in which parents deal with
their most difficult job - raising
their children, it is also a dedica­
tion to all the parents out there
who have done, are doing, or
will do for their children.
I would like to thank you for
reading my column and I hope
that you enjoyed reading it as
much as I enjoyed writing it.
Before closing, I have one last
dedication to make: To Mom
and Dad - Thanks for always
being there for me and always
supporting me in my endeavors.
I couldn’t have done this
without you. I love you.
All the uJ<Xt| rrom .Jest ¿jermanubvt, Cis
l|Ou Isriou? Its bet|Or>d ui.
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The uncolumn
by Dean Grey
____________________________ Editor______
Lunacy:
a step away from reality
The Lunatic is on the grass.
The lunatic is on the grass.
Remembering games and
daisy chains and laughs.
Got to keep the lunies on the
path.
The lunatic is in the hall.
The lunatics are in my hall.
The paper holds their folded
faces to the floor.
And everyday the paperboy
brings more...
I took this from Eclipse, which
is from Pink Floyd’s The Dark
Side of the Moon. The lunatic,
not so much a person that we can
all see and be afraid of, but so
many disembodied people that
appear daily in the newspapers, is
someone or something that we all
look out for but don’t know
where to look.
I bring this up for the purpose
of showing a transition of life.
How? Quite easily as we grow
older we can more define what a
lunatic is. As a child it may be a
stranger or a monster or an aunt
with a mustache, but with age
comes experience and with ex­
perience comes a dreaded
knowledge of the lunatic. Maybe
in a too personal way.
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The lunatic is in my head.
The lunatic is in my head.
You raise the blade, you make
the change
You rearrange me till I’m
sane.
You lock the door.
Throw away the key.
There’s someone in my head
but its not me.
And if the cloud bursts,
thunder in your ear.
You shout and no one seems
to hear.
And if the band your in starts
playing different tunes.
I’ll see you on the dark side of
the moon.
Older still, just out of college,
just out of a job, just out of life,
it doesn’t matter. Sometime soon
we will all feel that familiar line
of sanity being crossed within
ourselves. And who knows, some
of us may choose to stay. Why?
Because its a comfortable way of
life. It takes away all the respon­
sibility that you once had.
Unless some catastrophic event
takes place, it’s rare that a child
goes insane. However that may
be because they have very little
responsibility. We, as self­
acclaimed adults, have an ever in­
creasing amount of pressure to
perform in an acceptable man­
ner, a manner trained in the
direction of achieving. If we
stagnate we fail. Or so it is in the
eyes of society.
If I may, and of course many
will say I cannot, I would like to
compare life to the centrifical
force created by a spinning ob­
ject. As you continue in life
(God 1 use that word a lot) or as
you start to spin, you have a
comfortable surrounding. Kind
of an eye of the tornado effect,
calm yet not for long. As you
spin faster, or the eye moves on,
you are subjected to the storm,
which equals an increase in
responsibility, and a dislocation
of friends and sometimes fami­
ly.
At this time you either
become self sufficient, or you
escape into the realm of the
(what’s the word?) crazy.
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