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Home > ruminations on parenting. Plus mortgage refinance?

ruminations on parenting. Plus mortgage refinance?

September 8th, 2011 at 10:03 pm

I was looking at mortgage rates today, and even though we are trying to pay off our mortgage in 5 years, I think we might be able to save a substantial amount of interest during that time if we refinance into a lower rate. Our current rate is 4.8756, and today, rates on the loans we were interested in are about 3.125- 3.5 percent. I haven't done the math yet, but if it might save us more than 10k, I might just talk hubby into going for it.

We are finally settling into our new mortgage, income, and monthly groove with the preschool bills and such. So far, everything is fine. I am socking away $100 per paycheck to savings, $10 a week to the vacation fund for me and hubby, still sending $200 per kid per month to the 529 plans, and saving at least some of my freelance money in my IRA.

I'm hoping to bump up the monthly freelance work again, but things, as always, have been crazy. I'm about to start another round of the 6-week weight loss challenge at the gym, and it is very time and energy intensive. I might wait until that's over to take on anything new.

Although, I do have an extra project worth $250 this month, and it's an offshoot of a topic I write about every week, so it shouldn't be too stressful or labor intensive. That is always very nice!

My 3 year old started his new preschool last week. (we moved, hence new school) and he absolutely hates it. Granted it's not as deluxe as his last school, but it's good, and the teachers are nice. He even has a man teacher who looks like one of those 1900s old-timey strong men-- bald with the handle-bar moustache. He has a black belt in karate and is awesome. Still, every day he screams and cries and grabs my leg when I drop him off. He did this for a few weeks at his other school last year, and eventually became such a social butterfly that they nicknamed him "the mayor". Still, it just makes me feel terrible.

I also won parent of the year today. Well, kind of. I took my youngest, just shy of two, to his first gym and swim class at the Y. Of course they start with a song, and what is it? Finger popping. Seriously. They play that stupid song at every event with two or more toddlers in it. I had a very deep, personal revelation as it played, and all the other moms joyously (and some really belted it out) sang along.

My son hated it. I hate it. I'll just never be like those other moms. I'm just not programmed that way. I love my kids, but seriously. Am I the only one who thinks toddler stuff is so mind-numbingly boring. At least my toddler agreed. The last thing he wanted to do was finger pop. There was basketball to be played. Oh well, apple fell off my tree, right?

So yeah, it occurred to me once again that I'm just not like other people. I never have been and I never ever will be. I'm just tired of trying to fake it, especially in the kinds of awkward forced social situations I find myself in due to the kids.

Am I crazy????

4 Responses to “ruminations on parenting. Plus mortgage refinance?”

  1. My English Castle Says:
    1315516727

    I consider you highly sane. I think I would need narcotics if I had to watch "Barney" ever again. The way I figure it, most people are good at at least one or two stages of kid life. I'm a MUCH better parent to an 8-9-year-old than I was to a toddler. My mother-in-law was fabulous at little kids; she could sit on the floor and play for hours with them. I just sucked at that.

    I love that your son was called "the mayor." That is adorable, and says something about his socialization!

  2. ThriftoRama Says:
    1315517078

    Trust me, I'm tempted to take a nip from the bottle to help me deal with my life with kids. At least, I do try to wait until after bedtime... Smile

  3. MonkeyMama Says:
    1315520071

    I don't think I felt quite the same way (to that extreme).

    BUT... We have always gotten compliments & a lot of curiosity about our kids' advanced verbal skills. To set the stage... Anyway, I signed LM up for gymboree at some point (he was maybe 18 months??) and the whole thing made me want to barf. Everyone was just screeching to their kids in these really high voices and just way over the top. I had taken the kids to the community center "gymboree" but it never annoyed me like this. Probably because that was a slightly older age group? Anyway, at the time, my older child was EXTREMELY verbal (2 years older) and so I remember telling dh that I had figured it out - "We don't talk to our babies/toddlers like they are morons." LOL. & since they probably spent more time with dh - well, men do that dumbing down thing less than women. So, yeah.

  4. patientsaver Says:
    1315532501

    Truth be told, there are a lot of women I could never be parents with...because, dare I say it, because they're moms. Some over the top moms, like the ones you're talking about, I just can't relate to. We have nothing in common, I may as well be from Mars. Their heads are filled with kid stuff....what they're doing in school, the sports they play, yadda yadda yadda. Hey, I was a kid too, but my mother never got involved in my life to that degree. She was working all the time and I was lucky if she asked how my school day was.

    So someone like you comes across to me like a breath of fresh air. And the women friends I do have who happen to be parents, well, they have developed interests outside of their little ones. It's really amazing.

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