Recent content by TheOldMan

It has been a peaceful and harmonious winter, but now that warm weather is returning, Freddie is roaming the neighborhood again, so the stress back. The story has taking an odd turn, though. At first I was worried about Freddie and other girls excluding my daughter, but now they sometimes ask...

We heard "Tumbling Dice" by the Rolling Stones in the car the other day. My daughter said "Are they saying 'pepperoni'?"

Thanks for the advice, all. Most parents just wait out in the hall, but Obnoxious Mom seems to think you can't even present yourself in the doorway to let your child know you're there until her child comes out first. I think that's only the second or third time my wife has gone into the...

My wife picks up our DD from school every day. The school has set no official pick-up procedures, but what usually happens is the parents walk to the classroom and take their kids out when ready. The other day as my wife was walking into the classroom a rude parent accosted her and accused her...

We don't shelter our girl from specific music, per se. Her mother and I just have a strong aversion to music that sucks, therefore our daughter doesn't get exposed to it. But we love a lot of different types of music and we expose her to all of it. And if she comes home one day asking about a...

What is this...radio...of which you speak? ;) Terrestrial radio is so terrible that I haven't listened to it in years. At home or in the car we listen to either CDs or Slacker Radio. And of course it's all music that my wife and I like and approve of. Our girl is almost 8 and has no idea...

Great photo!

Well, my DD continues to avoid Freddy, even when Freddy is around some of the girls that DD likes. I'm glad that she doesn't want to play with Freddy, but I'm afraid it's going to continue to worsen her relationship with other kids in the neighborhood because they all like to play with Freddy...

The adventure continues. Our DD had a rare chance to join a couple other girls outside before Freddy got home tonight. They went down to one of the girl's house to play. Shortly thereafter, however, Freddy came home, and of course she headed straight for the girl's house to join them. I...

I'm afraid to think how much worse online threats and behavior will be by the time my girl is a teenager, so I can't say for sure how I'll handle it when the time comes. As an IT guy, though, I hope to be able to stay on top of of those threats and educate her on how to avoid them. The biggest...

Thanks, Maser. I think with girls the struggles are less physical and more psychological. That said, I'm ashamed to admit that I've considered coaching my girl to do or say mean things to Freddy to try to put her in her place, but I know that's not the right thing to do. But I do want her to...

Wow, that's a tough call. I think I would consider such a tool only in extreme circumstances, such as suspected criminal activity or something that would put my girl in real danger. I can understand the temptation to use such tools, though.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions, all. Oddly enough, several weeks ago we put our slip-n-slide out and every kid in the neighborhood ended up at our place. Freddy showed up, and instead of joining in the slip-n-slide she got on the trampoline and tried to get others to jump with her...

This is a long, involved story but I'll try to condense it as much as possible. We just moved into a new neighborhood. My girl was in heaven at first because there are so many kids to play with. We soon realized, however, that the ring leader of these kids is a 5yo brat (I'll call her...