Update and comments on Children's Privacy

The additional room: The walls are in, electrical and plumbing is in, the brick is about 75% done on the outside, and they are ready to put in the furnace (and a/c?). The a/c will be for the whole downstairs, so they will run ductwork all over.

The torn shoulder: I've added two exercises (twisting my arm behind my back like a policeman would, and doing like a standing push-up against a door frame). They are both moderately painful (by definition). The rest of my exercises are now pretty easy and not as painful. I go to the doc a week from tomorrow. Maybe I won't have to wear my sling anymore (which I am still wearing).

A child's right to privacy: Disclaimer: The rest of this post is completely out of character for the blog to date. It has little to do with the Mitchell family doings, and is a bit of a downer. Please feel free to skip it.

When I was in high school a girl who was one year my junior committed suicide (let's call her Mary). A week or so later, her mother addressed the whole school and gave a tear-jerking talk about what it meant to have a child do that.

In the months preceeding the suicide, Mary's mom had run across Mary's diary a few times. She always put it away without reading it, thinking that her daughter deserved privacy.

After Mary killed herself, she read Mary's diary. Mary had written about how sad she was, and that she wanted to kill herself. Her mom realized, too late, that Mary probably WANTED her mom (at some level) to read the diary.

She begged us, once we became parents ourselves, not to mistakenly think that children have a "right to privacy". Mary's mom pleaded with all of us high schoolers to remember what she was telling us.

I won't forget. I love my children too much to respect their privacy.