A Game of Two Halves

This weekend SS came to stay for only the second time this year. Her brothers had been looking forward to it all week, so when Friday came, and we went straight from school to Grans to pick her up, everyone was excited. The boys love bed time stories with Big Sis - in the case of O, she reads his story before he calls it a night, and the R reads his story to his elder sister, which has been the way ever since he started reading. This picture is the same every night she stays.....

 



 

Our hectic schedule meant that I had to squeeze in a recycle run with O during the afternoon too, as it was his turn to recycle the milk bottles from nursery. Never has a little boy been so happy with a job to do.....

But.....it would appear that SS isn't enjoying Dad's house quite as much as she says she is. Quite the dilemma is brewing for me I think.
It's reasonable to expect that with my Victorian Dad tendencies she will indeed become bored from time to time. However, she has to be treated that bit different to her brothers, which in itself gives me another dilemma to consider. It's very easy to be "hard but fair" on your kids when you and your wife are aligned in a common approach, but when one's ex wife's parental style is poles apart from your own, it's not really constructive, helpful or possibly even right to be either hard or fair in some situations.
Ah well, this will take over the stress of the new job for a while and give me something different to ponder and lose sleep over. I did expect some of this around the age of 9 or 10, but I'm no better prepared for it as a result.