Reporter’s Notebook
RICK HOLTZ
Have you ever noticed that raising kids is a lot like herding cats?
Each night in the Holtz household my kids are feeling great, footloose and fancy-free — until bedtime. At bedtime is when my kids remember that their stomach hurts, that it is bath night or just remember that one ever-so-important story that they need to tell me before they put their head on their pillow.
It’s like cutting the head off a Hydra, get one in bed and two others get out of bed.
My wife and I have four kids. The baby learned to walk last week and now he is climbing — we don’t stand a chance.
On Friday I had to cover the Osceola football game and it’s pretty hard to take pictures and take down stats at the same time. So I asked my oldest son to go and do stats for me.
Calvin doesn’t really know too much about sports. He is more into video games and Pokémon cards.
But he was excited to go.
We got to Humphrey about 45 minutes before kickoff and he was telling me he had no idea how to do stats. I told him not to worry — I’d tell him exactly what to write down for me.
He did great. I only needed him to do it for the first half for me. I could handle it the second half.
He asked if he can keep coming with me. I don’t think he really cares for football — he just wants to spend time with me.
The best part of the evening was the drive.
We had a long drive to talk. We talked about everything from life and politics to faith. He asks good questions and can come up with some good answers and insights.
Before moving to Nebraska my wife and I were junior high/high school Sunday school teachers at our church. We always enjoyed asking the hard questions and having deeper discussions with the students in our class.
Some of the kids didn’t appreciate the higher-level conversations at the beginning, but over time they enjoyed it more. Rather than treating them like kids we had adult-level discussions.
That’s how my conversation went with Calvin on Friday night driving back from the football game.
Sunday night I had to run to the store to pick up a few things. My middle two kids — Penny and Charlie — wanted to go.
My wife was going to read a library book to the kids while I was out, but Penny and Charlie started crying that it wasn’t fair — Calvin got time with me and they wanted it now.
So I load up the van and the truth spilled as we drove to the store:
“Can we buy a toy? How about we just look at the toys?”
If you ask my wife she will probably tell you I spoil my kids more than I should. I won’t lie, I’m wrapped around every finger they have.
Secretly I knew that question was coming. They ask that every time we leave the house. Sometimes they ask for a toy at the second store after getting something at the first store.
We made it through the store and no one got a toy. The baby will celebrate his first birthday later this month so we did look through the toys, but instead of them looking for themselves I suggested they try to think of something Timmy would like.
I never knew how much Timmy had in common with Penny and Charlie. From a new Barbie doll to a Star Wars lightsaber, Timmy has really mature tastes for a baby.
The only thing harder than getting kids out of the toy section is keeping them in bed at bedtime.
Rick Holtz is a reporter for the Polk County News. Find his column, Reporter’s Notebook, from time to time in the newspaper and online at www.polkcountynews.net.
