Mental Note #1: I let ASid
know that it is his job as a host to meet and greet each one of his guests. It
is also his responsibility to get their jackets and put them away, or at least,
let his guests know where to put their jackets away.
Mental Note #2: ASid should
not proclaim a totalitarian regime if he is not going to follow through with
his threats. Actually ASid would have to
ban himself for a couple of spills! The teens left their half-drunk drinks
all over the place and ASid kept tripping on them. This is where I want to take several hundred Gods' names in vain! If
a drink left on the floor accidentally spills over, it is most likely to do so again
if it is not removed from there!!
The 10 teens are in a special program that is supposed to have some of
the brightest brains in their age category! Intellectually, these kids are
probably there (wherever that maybe), but they have a long way to some basic
common sense! Maybe I am a tad harsh this morning, but I did have those kids
including mine for a little over 12 hours...on that note...
Mental Note #3: Please stick
with the time planned! I gave permission for 11 am to 7 pm. Somehow, it became
10 am to 10:30 pm! I am partially to blame as well.
Feeding teens is not an easy
feat. One teen got through a 2 L bottle
of Mountain Dew! They will demolish bags of chips and boxes of cookies. On
top of that, they will consume hearty meals. The aforementioned are simply
snacks in between meals.
Mental Note #4: ASid needs to
budget for how much and for how long he is going to feed his friends when he
invites them over. It is all part of the planning.
When I sat ASid down and
explained to him the time and money that went into the day, he was actually
shocked. He felt like he had failed miserably. But I assured him that he did
not. As long as he is willing to listen to constructive feedback and learn from
it, I am fine with him inviting his friends over and over again. However, I
need to see improvements each time.
ASid is a great kid. He is
generous and he is a good friend. He took the time to organize a gathering. He
confessed that the communication part was the most challenging. His friends
took their own sweet time getting back to him on most everything. He wasn't
entirely sure of who was going to be there till the day before the gathering.
Given the crowd ASid had to
work with, he did really well. He hosted an event where half the guests didn't
want to leave. That is a good sign. A couple of them actually posted thank you
notes for him in their group chat. The boy will be a fantastic host one day.
These are merely first steps to getting there.
I could sleep well last night
because ASid did not dismiss any of my constructive feedback. He actually
acknowledged that there is room for improvement. Most importantly, he thanked
his mother for supporting him through everything and putting up with him. The
boy also thanked his younger brother for staying out of his way.
I think it was a wonderful day overall even with the massive cleanup we
had to do after our "after chat"! At the end, it was all still worth
all the trouble.
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