Still pissed off about what happened this weekend. Theres a lot of stuff that happened that I haven't quite been able to talk about just yet. Maybe I'll get around to it, maybe I won't...who knows. I'm going to be mad about this for a while, thats for sure...
I found out today what else Robert got for his birthday. A week before his birthday, his mother gave him a gameboy advanced and some games. She spoils him. I'm still trying to tell myself that the presents Tom and I gave him were good ideas. After hearing what she gave him, though, I can't help but feel bad for suggesting the bike to Tom. I know he was short on ideas, and he was *this* close to resorting to buying typical kenshin stuff that he gets the kid on a regular basis. I had to talk him out of that one.
I've been trying to convince myself that our gifts were much better than some mind-numbing video game that promotes next to no interaction with anyone else. The bike, on the other hand, is bringing the kid and Tom together. The kid is learning how to ride a two-wheel bike and Tom has been helping him, which means they've been spending lots of fun time together. Tom even decided to get out his video camera and has been keeping track of Roberts progress on tape. Can't say a video game helps anyone 'bond' can you?
My gift ot him was a big box full of art supplies. Thanks, Meghann, for your idea. I still don't know whether he likes it or not...probably not. Tom was trying to talk me out of the idea, saying he already had a box full of art supplies left over from when he and his brothers were younger. Shocked at the fact that the six year old was using hand-me-downs from when his dad was a kid, I decided to go against Tom and do the box anyways. At least the box full of paper, markers, colored pencils, glue sticks, stickers, etc. promotes some sort of creativity.
I've seen some of Robert's drawings in the past, he's pretty good. I was kind of hoping that he'd maybe draw me a picture using his new stuff, but I know better than to hold my breath on that one. Wishful thinking as usual. Oh well. At least he called me to say thank you to me, I really liked that. I suppose thats all I can hope for, I can't really force him to use it.
Can you tell I'm desparately trying to validate all of this? Maybe if the situation wasn't so shitty, I wouldn't have to...