Read Online Little Kids, Big City: Tales from a Real House in New York City (With Lessons on Life and Love for Your Own Concrete Jungle) by Alex McCord, Simon van Kempen - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Alex McCord, Simon van Kempen
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cop routine, but it worked. During the drama, Johan cocked his head at François and asked, “Why don’t you make sense?” Very good question, kid!
Simon
After becoming parents we realized that we not only worried about keeping the kids safe, but that we had a responsibility to them if something happened to us as well. When François was born we still hadn’t got around to writing a will. And prior to that it really wasn’t that necessary in that in New York State, a childless spouse, unless a will states otherwise, inherits the deceased spouse’s estate. After his birth, and while we should have written wills, the main thing we did was to ask my younger brother, Adam, and his wife, Vanessa, to adopt François in the event of our simultaneous death, which was amended to include Johan after he came along. Adam and Vanessa have a son, Ties, who is just 16 days older than François. Also to that end, when we took François to Australia at three months old, I took Alex on a tour of the school I’d attended in Brisbane, Queensland with a view to let her see the fantastic academic record and facilities and to enroll François for entry in 2016. Private school registration in Australia is very different than in NYC in that it is basically necessary to enroll your children at birth to guarantee entry, and we registered the names of first François, then Johan once he came along, in case we both died and they went to live in Australia.
Alex
It’s funny how giving life can make you think of death. Prior to becoming a parent I never gave it the slightest thought, beyond a random daydream of what my funeral might look like, complete with lots of big black hats and chanting.
It took a weekend trip to Israel for a Bar Mitzvah (where the boys weren’t coming) for us to finally work out our wills and contingency plans for exactly what would happen should either or both of us die (i.e., a plane crash or car accident involving both of us coming home to the boys, etc.). As we have no family in New York, it was particularly important to us to specify exactly whom should be notified if the worst happened, down to specifics such as who stays with the children while family flies in. We’ve only left the boys in New York twice, but thought it down to the last detail, such as airlines calling our nanny, our nanny calling my mother, etc. None of this is fun to think about, but having it done and copies sent to our executors made us breathe a bit easier. It only took us three years after having kids. Ahem.
Simon
The great strides in medical science in the last 100 plus years have meant that an awful lot of illnesses never happen, and so vaccinations, while not preventing accidents (this chapter’s sub-heading), do prevent illness and worse. However the advent of the Internet has added to the information about vaccinations and for every site out there stating how important these preventative measures are, there will always be another stating that having a vaccination for disease A may, or worse, will cause condition B.
Which brings me to the dreaded swine flu, or correctly named H1N1, strain that arrived in early 2009 followed by a huge media frenzy that only succeeded in whipping up unnecessary panic. In April 2009, when the disease first struck NYC, the panic was palpable. My mum called us from Australia (which at that stage was H1N1-free) wanting to know what emergency precautions we were taking. When I said none, other than normal good hygiene practices, she sounded a little scared. Summer came and the panic subsided, but warnings came that when winter approached H1N1 would be a real threat.
Six months later with both boys in school, we received a letter home from their school stating that all children were eligible to receive the H1N1 vaccination at school providing we authorized it. Neither Alex nor I were keen for them to have it, but I found myself scared that if we stopped them from having the vaccination that
Simon
After becoming parents we realized that we not only worried about keeping the kids safe, but that we had a responsibility to them if something happened to us as well. When François was born we still hadn’t got around to writing a will. And prior to that it really wasn’t that necessary in that in New York State, a childless spouse, unless a will states otherwise, inherits the deceased spouse’s estate. After his birth, and while we should have written wills, the main thing we did was to ask my younger brother, Adam, and his wife, Vanessa, to adopt François in the event of our simultaneous death, which was amended to include Johan after he came along. Adam and Vanessa have a son, Ties, who is just 16 days older than François. Also to that end, when we took François to Australia at three months old, I took Alex on a tour of the school I’d attended in Brisbane, Queensland with a view to let her see the fantastic academic record and facilities and to enroll François for entry in 2016. Private school registration in Australia is very different than in NYC in that it is basically necessary to enroll your children at birth to guarantee entry, and we registered the names of first François, then Johan once he came along, in case we both died and they went to live in Australia.
Alex
It’s funny how giving life can make you think of death. Prior to becoming a parent I never gave it the slightest thought, beyond a random daydream of what my funeral might look like, complete with lots of big black hats and chanting.
It took a weekend trip to Israel for a Bar Mitzvah (where the boys weren’t coming) for us to finally work out our wills and contingency plans for exactly what would happen should either or both of us die (i.e., a plane crash or car accident involving both of us coming home to the boys, etc.). As we have no family in New York, it was particularly important to us to specify exactly whom should be notified if the worst happened, down to specifics such as who stays with the children while family flies in. We’ve only left the boys in New York twice, but thought it down to the last detail, such as airlines calling our nanny, our nanny calling my mother, etc. None of this is fun to think about, but having it done and copies sent to our executors made us breathe a bit easier. It only took us three years after having kids. Ahem.
Simon
The great strides in medical science in the last 100 plus years have meant that an awful lot of illnesses never happen, and so vaccinations, while not preventing accidents (this chapter’s sub-heading), do prevent illness and worse. However the advent of the Internet has added to the information about vaccinations and for every site out there stating how important these preventative measures are, there will always be another stating that having a vaccination for disease A may, or worse, will cause condition B.
Which brings me to the dreaded swine flu, or correctly named H1N1, strain that arrived in early 2009 followed by a huge media frenzy that only succeeded in whipping up unnecessary panic. In April 2009, when the disease first struck NYC, the panic was palpable. My mum called us from Australia (which at that stage was H1N1-free) wanting to know what emergency precautions we were taking. When I said none, other than normal good hygiene practices, she sounded a little scared. Summer came and the panic subsided, but warnings came that when winter approached H1N1 would be a real threat.
Six months later with both boys in school, we received a letter home from their school stating that all children were eligible to receive the H1N1 vaccination at school providing we authorized it. Neither Alex nor I were keen for them to have it, but I found myself scared that if we stopped them from having the vaccination that
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