Vermont Ho!

~ Laura

What kind of idiots would take a medically fragile kid on a ski trip to Vermont in -9 temperatures? Oh, that would be us. All is well. More later.

Published by Laura

7 thoughts on “Vermont Ho!”

    1. ds,

      That is interesting.

      It reminds me of the quotes from Frost’s Death of the Hired Man, “‘Home is the place where, when you have to go there/They have to take you in” and home being “Something you somehow haven’t to deserve.”

      I liked this bit from the blog piece, “My proposal is to allow seniors to receive their full Social Security payouts early if they can demonstrate that they are providing full-time or at least substantial childcare for their grandchildren.”

      A number of more socialistic countries used to give women earlier retirement than men. I believe Soviet retirement age was 55 (!) for women and 60 for men, even though women lived longer.

      I think Brooks’ death-of-the-extended family stuff is really oversold, because I see the grandmas bringing up kids, coming to help when babies are born, picking up kids from school, driving them to speech, providing free/cheap childcare, etc. I know quite a number of young graduate student moms/young faculty moms with helpful grandmas. However, helpful grandmas are very inequitably distributed as a resource–some people have them and some people don’t. My local BFF (who is Hispanic–a very relevant fact) had her mom come to help from out of state for six weeks the last time she had a baby. My sister also hosts European friends and in-laws 3-4 months out of the year.

      For those who are not blessed grandma-wise, my best piece of advice is to live in a neighborhood with at least one friend nearby, befriend a neighbor or two and/or coax a friend or two into moving to your neighborhood. I currently have two friends living in my neighborhood, and it’s like winning the lottery.

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  4. My FB feed is full of people skiing and it looks beautiful, but I wince at each picture, with the thought of the cold, the skis, the lifts, and the downhill. No wincing at the beach photos :-).

    Hope you are having a great time, but, really, what about a long hike?

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