A while back I mentioned something about snoopervising and I promised to write something about it. Well, here it is.

When my kids were little, I liked to have an idea what they were up to most all the time. Not hanging over their shoulders, but just keeping one ear open and one eye on what was going on in the back yard or in the back room. Still, I missed plenty, and some things I will never know.  But when they were playing cannibals and missionaries in the back yard, I didn’t really mind, unless we had company, and then I might suggest another game.

They had one “tricky” game that involved making the youngest a “queen” who was carried to the front yard on a homemade litter of sorts or pulled in a wagon with great pomp and circumstance. They would leave her with a bell to ring any time she needed her “servants,” while they headed off to the back yard to play without any interference.  Now I may have known about that game, but I’m not sure I was clued in to the very shrewd motives behind it!

So even though my kids went to play at other kids’ homes or yards, I always wanted our house to be the center of activities so that I could do the snoopervising. And when they were in junior-high and high school and even college, I pretty much continued to try to make our house the party house for the same reason. If my kids wanted to have their friends over, I was all for it. Yes. By all means. I enjoyed the hospitality, but I also enjoyed getting to know their friends and being up to speed on what was going on.

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