The Death of a Hammock

Confession: I'm frustrated right now. I just set up a "new" hammock (new to us) this afternoon. As soon as the neighbor boys came over after school it was broken. Thirteen of the ropes at least. It was a free hammock from another stay-at-home dad. But I hadn't really gotten to use it yet. And I'm mainly frustrated because I had asked my son and the other two boys not to play on it--that it was just for laying on--because I noticed a couple ropes were broken after they started playing on it.

The hammock may be fixable...or at the very least I'll see if I can find one off of craigslist. I'm mainly frustrated because I want our house to be a place where the kids can play. But I want to know they'll listen and respect things. And I'm slightly frustrated that I didn't even get an "I'm sorry" from anyone (my son did say sorry a bit later).

But that all goes with the territory. You often end up parenting other kids, too (it's that "it takes a village" thing). And you hope that some day your influence and witness pays off.