A few weekends ago, we had a weekend visitor, and she likes to party.
She (@ksujulie - follow her on Instagram!) flew into NYC from the Great Plains and was ready to rock and roll. (She’s from Kansas, so she’d never seen electricity before!) We were happy to have a friend to show around Brooklyn - and to have a reason to go on a bar crawl. Unfortunately, we have children, and children aren’t allowed in bars. (Babies are, in the right neighborhoods, but not children my sons’ ages. They talk too much and can’t hold their liquor.)
It was a last-minute visit and we were unable to secure a babysitter, but we were hosting her, in our town, and we couldn’t let her have fun without us! So we had to improvise by… leaving the kids home by themselves. It was during the day and we were in the neighborhood. DON’T CALL CHILD SERVICES!
They survived, as we knew they would (despite some anxiety and frequent checking in). My oldest is 12, and his brother is 7, and they can be trusted to be alone together for a few hours. Not because they’re super responsible or anything - don’t get me wrong! It’s because it’s 2023.
Despite what the media would have you believe about the world and the United States and New York City, I feel like it’s safer today than it was when I was a kid. At least for my kids. Because they only care about video games.
When I was 12, I wanted to be outside riding my bike without a helmet or exploring unfinished construction sites or getting into some other kind of trouble, often involving smoke bombs for some reason. You’ve heard this from 80s kids before, but my parents hardly knew where I was half the time - my friends and I used to ride our bikes miles away, across multiple towns, just to hang at the mall or raid the candy store or buy a McRib. We had no phones or anything, we would just leave in the morning and return by nightfall and most of the time our parents were none the wiser.
My kids? We left them alone for a couple of hours and they spent the entire time sitting in front of the TV playing Zelda and Minecraft and Genshin Impact and Super Smash Brothers. When we eventually returned, they were disappointed; to them it felt like we’d been gone fifteen minutes, and they wanted more screen time!
I’m not gonna pretend it was entirely good for them - giving them a little independence is, especially for my oldest, but nonstop screen time isn’t exactly ideal - but they weren’t in danger. All the internet boogeyman/online predator stuff aside (and I’m not taking that lightly, nor should you), they were safe inside our home, locked into the Matrix, eating snacks and drinking juice boxes without a care in the world. And we got to have a few hours of adult-time with a friend we rarely get to see.
It all worked out. Except for the couple thousand bucks my son sent to Nigeria. But around here, that’s cheaper than a babysitter!
Social Round-up
Pop Culture Stuff
I’ve been under the weather for the past couple of days and I’ve been going to bed early in a fruitless attempt to feel better, which has limited my pop culture consumption. Mom and Buried and I did watch BODIES BODIES BODIES over the weekend, which I enjoyed quite a bit. It reminded me of SEARCH PARTY, in that it’s a mystery involving a group of twentysomethings that is ultimately a mockery of their generation. And Pete Davidson finally gets his comeuppance!
I also took my oldest to see DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS. It was raining out, and I’d heard it was fun. It wasn’t great, but it was definitely fun, with a likeable cast, some good jokes, and an absolutely bizarre cameo in the middle. I felt a little silly seeing it in the theater - it would have been a great stream - but Detective Munch loves going to the movies, and so do I. Thankfully he’s going to see the SUPER MARIO BROS movie with a friend, and the next time I hit the theater it will probably be for BEAU IS AFRAID, all by myself, and I can’t wait!
Personal News
It’s Easter this weekend, and my kids’ spring break next week. We are visiting my parents before heading up north to Montreal for a few days, and we’re actually taking the train! It’s 10 hours each way - gulp - but it’s cheap in a way that traveling by train never seems to be? Maybe because it’s finally warm here and we are squandering the nice weather to go where there’s snow?
Usually the Amtrak is always like 30% too expensive to make it worthwhile, but because they’ve only just reinstated the Adirondack line that goes from Penn Station to Montreal, the fares are lower than usual. Needless to say, my kids will be getting more of that screen time they desperately crave, but once we get to Quebec I’ll be getting more of that poutine I desperately crave, so it works out.
Let me know if you have any tips - we’ve been before, but not in years, and I bet there are some new breweries worth checking out! Send me your recommendations!