Many children were no longer involved in “free play” situations with other neighborhood children. The scheduling of play dates became commonplace where calendars were marked with appointment times for child socialization. I refused to agree with this new procedure for arranging playtime and so the children of parents who did this, did not play with our children due to the absence of the spontaneity to socialize with a friend. In other words, getting together to play with a friend became a “forced” situation because of a parental desire to adhere to a playtime schedule. I also noticed an increasing lack of respect shown by children to adults. Many children began to address adults by their first name with permission granted by some adults to do this. This general lack of respect for adults by children can lead to a lack of obedience shown by children when chastised for bad behavior or dangerous behavior, by the adult in authority. Also noted were the presumptuous and rude behaviors of some child guests who helped themselves without asking permission to food items in the visiting household. I also noticed that small groups of children when playing together with minimal adult supervision resulted in destructive behaviors, such as the wanton throwing of toys around a room. Additionally, this behavior suggests a lack of ability regarding an organization of play, by the children. Outdoor play sometimes consisted of children screaming when engaged in an activity which I despised as this behavior created an anxiety in me due to a sensing that perhaps a child was physically injured.
My life became increasingly hectic due to the running to our children’s school for a variety of reasons including scouts, PTA (parent teacher association) meetings and events, class mother duties, and the frequent bringing and returning of our children to and from school. The birthday parties of children’s classmates consumed many weekend hours due to the transporting of our children and the cordial, friendly conversation with other parents whose children were also attending these parties. I began to wonder how parents with more than two children could manage the logistics of this society’s requirements. Religious education scheduled one day a week at the local Catholic parish also necessitated the transport of daughter and son. Also, to help at the parish and gain teaching experience, I volunteered to teach a second grade religion Communion class. To digress a bit, I was surprised when provided with a monetary payment at some point during the religious education term. When first provided with a check, I inquired about the reason for this payment. It was stated to me that a small stipend was paid by the Church to cover teacher’s costs. This was completely unexpected and I stated this to a religious education staff member. The staff member said that the policy is to issue the check but the money could be donated back to the Church. In addition to all the above activities, I was enrolled in nine credits of courses per semester at the university that demanded time for class, study, and research assignments. Spouse also continued to travel extensively with his job which necessitated the delegation of all household and yard upkeep responsibilities to me. In the autumn of this year, spouse had resigned from his current job to accept another job with a higher salary and more responsibility. This job required more extensive and frequent travel. To boost my energy level, I purchased a box of “energy” vitamins that contained individual packets of about five vitamins in each packet to be consumed daily according to the directions on the box. On day two of ingesting these vitamins, I became sick and nauseous disgorging the contents of my stomach. Later, I thought that