Freeville Rocks!: Fresh Air

For 10 days, we hosted a young boy named, Tristan, who lives in the Bronx with his parents, sister and brother. We were excited that Alex and Sophia would have a playmate. It was an adjustment for all of us. It becomes a huge responsibility when you host a child who comes with their own personality, guidelines and needs. He also had to become familiar with a new family and environment that is completely foreign to him. What we learned quickly was that Tristan did not like being alone. My kids and us enjoy our alone time but we had to put our desires on hiatus to assist this young boy. Drew and I understood that this was temporary. My children did not understand this; to a child, ten days can seem like an eternity. We all survived, learned lessons about others and ourselves. Tristan took away four more people who care about him, memories and hopefully some life lessons.

When I planned for Tristan’s trip to Freeville I was excited to share our life with a young boy who never experienced “rural life”. I was thinking he would see his first cow, nighttime star filled sky, bon fire, smore, hay ride and playing in a fort. Tristan took all his new experiences in stride; in fact he did not appear that this was the first for him. When I asked him what he thought of the farm he would respond by saying that he lives next to a farm and he gets to see cows and horses all the time. He stated that he even milked a cow. My kids believed him of course. I inquired with his parents who told me that he would see farmland on some of his school trips to the apple farms in Westchester County. The only activity that really excited him was the bon fire. He enjoyed playing with any fire including candles.

After Tristan left, my home seems so much quieter. I now can see that having three children would be exhausting; it feels like it quadruples the parenting load. The car rides become more challenging because it is not physically possible for each child to have their own space since they all sit tightly together in the seat. On outings I had to search for three kids instead of two. Luckily, Tristan did not want to wander to far away.