The Human Beings Known as the Arnold-Klein Family

[BW Manilowe]

Will's still taking karate & he graduated from his white belt to a white belt with a yellow stripe or edging. Jen Tweeted about it, with a pic of a very happy/excited Will wearing the new belt, yesterday (Saturday). If you click on the link to Jen's Tweet (above the body of the Tweet), or the "pic.twitter." link after Bill's Twitter name in the posted copy of Jen's Tweet, you should be able to see the pic if you can't already.

https://twitter.com/jenarnoldmd/status/734073137441038336

OK my post futzed somehow. Sorry! If you click the link to Jen's Tweet you should be able to see Will's pic, which is cute, if you're interested.

[Jellybeans]

cute picture!  he is so proud.

[BW Manilowe]

7 hours ago, Jellybeans said:

cute picture!  he is so proud.

He sure is! The look on his face kind of reminded me (except for the currently missing teeth) of when he went to his first karate lesson, broke the board, & said something like "I breaked (sic) it!", particularly to Jen & Bill, & he had another huge grin on his face afterward.

[Foghorn Leghorn]

https://vine.co/v/i9rr1HhMULl

Here is the video of Will yelling Daddy with his eyebrows going up and down, so cute!  Jen tweeted he was waving to "us"....but he only has eyes for his Daddy!!!

[Snow8585]

His teeth are a mess. They really need to get him to an orthodontist.

[ZoloftBlob]

They might be waiting until he's a little older. He's what, six? I don't know many orthodontists who work on kids that young.

[Misslindsey]

I would imagine he is still losing baby teeth as well. I agree that they are probably waiting until he was older I was around 12/13 when I got braces, but I have a 10 year old niece who is probably en route to braces, but has some sort of retainer for now.

[Snow8585]

Duly noted. Orthodontists can start seeing kids at 7. I read little people can really have problems with overcrowding of teeth etc.

[Foghorn Leghorn]

13 minutes ago, Snow8585 said:

Duly noted. Orthodontists can start seeing kids at 7. I read little people can really have problems with overcrowding of teeth etc.

Yes and on other little people shows orthodontic work has been a necessity.  This is now the challenge to keep Will's thumb out of his mouth when his forever teeth come in.  

[Jellybeans]

I doubt these parents are ignoring Will's orthodontic needs. He will have his teeth fixed if and when it is time.

What a cute video!

[Snow8585]

Jen and Bill ignore many things. If and when is not even an issue. So i wonder about the wisdom of karate classes for a child who has no sense of boundaries and has verbally and physically picked on his "tiny" sister. Poor Zoey when Will karate chops the crap out of her.  I think I read that they had her try karate. I hope some of those lessons come in handy. He will probably karate chop Jen too at some point.

Edited May 29, 2016 by Snow8585
type o

[ZoloftBlob]

So I would suggest you attend a karate class for tots before you say things like that. The classes very much emphasis how karate is not a game and how fists are a last resort. Most instructors will take away rank for bad behavior outside of class like say, karate chopping a younger sibling. The point of the little kid classes isn't really to teach skills, it's to teach discipline and respect and self confidence. I actually saw it nicely done on tv on Growing Pains of all shows, where the youngest kid was being bullied and took karate and contemplated knocking the shit out of his bully but instead having the discipline and self respect to simply walk away.

Yes, I have taught karate to kids Will's age and younger, so I am not talking out of my ass. No legitimate instructor would encourage a kid to attack a sibling and no legitimate instructor would find it amusing if Zoey beat up Will with newly taught karate skills.

[Jellybeans]

Karate is wonderful!  It is all about discipline, love it.  

[Snow8585]

I do not need to take karate lessons to expess an opinion.

[BizBuzz]

Please move on ... 

[xldb2004]

They painted the house

[Jellybeans]

Beautiful color!  Love it.  

[Absolom]

That's a nice color, but I'm not sure it's an improvement to the neighborhood.  That's a really pricey thing to do just to change the color.

[toodles]

Zoey is a sweet little thing.  No pun intended.

That house is BLUE. Not my taste but it's not my house either.  I live in a neighborhood where you can paint your house brown and beige or beige and brown.

Edited May 31, 2016 by toodles

[Fostersmom]

Here's Will playing too. The comments on FB seem to think that's not their house. People are saying they don't have palm trees in their yard. I have no idea if they do or if they don't. 

[Jellybeans]

Aww! Another cute picture! 

[Wellfleet]

I think the dark blue color is a massive improvement. Looks great! IMO, that island green color made the Klein house stick out like a sore thumb. Beautiful house, but an altogether-wrong color for a middle-to-upper-middle class city neighborhood. If they buy that huge 4-bedroom, 4-bath beach house in Galveston they were looking at, Jen can paint that green. Or her favorite Tiffany blue. I was always surprised they didn't use that for the house originally. Maybe I missed something and Bill vetoed the blue on the basis of "we already have an awful lot of Tiffany blue stuff around..." Something like that.

[Snow8585]

It is not their house

[MissT]

3 hours ago, Snow8585 said:

It is not their house

LOL.   

Even if it was, who cares what color it is. It's their house!     Why does anyone care.    

Edited June 2, 2016 by MissT

[MissT]

12 minutes ago, auntl said:

Just conversation. I don't think that anyone really does care.

I really don't care about anything that they do that much. Just something to talk about. This website passes the time.

I'm with you.  I love to come to this site and see the conversations on the shows I watch.  I'm surprised I agree or have the same opinions as soo many people.  I just think there is so much horrible news on all day and to see a nice family on tv is a relief.  I'm sure they have issues like any other family.   

[Wellfleet]

5 hours ago, Snow8585 said:

It is not their house

I think it is their house. I found this image online, which seems to show 2 tropical-looking trees in the side yard. Windows, gutters, landscaping are basically the same.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Wellfleet
clarification

[Snow8585]

Excellent research. I was sure it was not their house as we never see Will and Zoey actually playing in their own yard.

[Foghorn Leghorn]

34 minutes ago, Snow8585 said:

Excellent research. I was sure it was not their house as we never see Will and Zoey actually playing in their own yard.

Perfect spot for a swing set and a playhouse and still room to kick a ball around.

[gunderda]

I loved the green.  I hate dark blue houses. 

But like someone else said, it's theirs, not mine so my opinion doesn't matter  :)

[Wellfleet]

3 hours ago, Snow8585 said:

Excellent research. I was sure it was not their house as we never see Will and Zoey actually playing in their own yard.

So true. Hope this means the kiddos will be playing outside more often in the future. At least when Texas dries out - the poor folks there are absolutely being hammered with rain and flooding. First, several years of drought. Now, much more water than they need. Sending ALL good wishes for our friends in Texas. Hang in there, y'all...

[xldb2004]

I don't think they will be playing outside in the summer.   Houston heat and humidity is oppressive. 

[Foghorn Leghorn]

14 hours ago, xldb2004 said:

I don't think they will be playing outside in the summer.   Houston heat and humidity is oppressive. 

Thankfully there other seasons and btw so is the southern US where I grew up, we still played outside from dusk to dark!

[Steff]

5 hours ago, Foghorn Leghorn said:

Thankfully there other seasons and btw so is the southern US where I grew up, we still played outside from dusk to dark!

Houston isn't really a place that has "seasons".  It has sorta hot, very hot, brutal hot, and 2 days of winter.  I grew up there & having to play outside was the worst thing you could hear in the summer. 

[Foghorn Leghorn]

3 hours ago, Steff said:

Houston isn't really a place that has "seasons".  It has sorta hot, very hot, brutal hot, and 2 days of winter.  I grew up there & having to play outside was the worst thing you could hear in the summer. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Houston

It appears they still enjoy spring/fall/winter temps thankfully!

[ZoloftBlob]

Heh. Dunno about anyone else but I would call dead of winter high temps of 60-70 to be a pretty warm winter. Steff's description seems pretty apt. Makes me think the pool was probably the wiser choice.

[Wellfleet]

9 hours ago, auntl said:

June, July, August, and September, 4 months appear to be very hot. The other 8 months seem like they would be great months to play in the yard.

In the northeastern states, where I live, we can't use the yard year round because of the cold months. That doesn't mean we don't want a yard for our children.

I'm glad that the Kleins have the grassy area on the side for the children to play in, as they obviously were in the kick ball pictures.

ETA: I was at my grandson's baseball game on Saturday. It was 90 degrees out. Life goes on even if it's hot. Especially for kids.

I don't remember really paying attention to the weather much as a child, other than noticing rain, snow, thunderstorms etc. And I don't EVER remember feeling uncomfortably hot on 90-degree days etc; at least not until I was maybe 9 or 10. My mother dressed us appropriately for whatever the weather was, and we played outside ALL THE TIME. All year long. So did all the other neighborhood kids [Baby Boomers all]. If it was raining we played on our 3-sides-of-the-house wraparound porch or down in someone's basement. This was long before people had AC in their homes. Only movie theaters and grocery stores had AC at that time. But the past 40-50 years have seen AC installed nearly everywhere and I think we're all pretty spoiled by it now. 

[ZoloftBlob]

Wellfleet - to a point, it's not the AC, its a change in parenting and how certain actions or lack of actions are perceived by other parents. Nowadays, I hate to say it but if a parent doesn't have constant eyes on their child while they are playing, they are deemed bad parents if ANYTHING goes wrong. Honestly, I see this on Judge Judy all the time. A 5-10 year old is riding their bike/playing with friends/doing whatever outdoors and something happens and the first thing said? Why was this young child alone in the street playing ball or riding a bike or in any way not under constant parental view? So since parents generally have other things to do than constantly watch their kids, kids tend to be encouraged to play inside where they can be more easily monitored.

It's like we want it both ways - open the door and let the kids runs free and play.... but you're a monster parent if anything happens.

[SongbirdHollow]

We used to sleep out overnight in lounge chairs when we were kids! Like a neighborhood kid campout. Can you imagine that happening these days?

[Steff]

I'll also add that in Houston there is a LOT of concrete which holds the heat.  The closer to the ground you are the hotter it can be.  Think about walking across a hot parking lot barefoot.  We also don't know if little people overheat more often than a regular sized person.  It's possible that they don't play outside for long periods of time because it's too hot for specifically, them.  Our heads and body core are several feet off the ground, theirs isn't.  You can easily fry an egg on the sidewalk in Houston in the summer time.  It's that hot.  Being only a couple of feet away from that kind of heat would be more intense for them than it would be for us. 

[Foghorn Leghorn]

10 hours ago, Steff said:

I'll also add that in Houston there is a LOT of concrete which holds the heat.  The closer to the ground you are the hotter it can be.  Think about walking across a hot parking lot barefoot.  We also don't know if little people overheat more often than a regular sized person.  It's possible that they don't play outside for long periods of time because it's too hot for specifically, them.  Our heads and body core are several feet off the ground, theirs isn't.  You can easily fry an egg on the sidewalk in Houston in the summer time.  It's that hot.  Being only a couple of feet away from that kind of heat would be more intense for them than it would be for us. 

Thankfully their yard is not made of concrete and all kids are short.  The pool or the indoors is for the ONE season when the majority (not all) days are too hot for human comfort but we still have the majority of the year.  I suspect having seen the pics of Zoey and Will kicking a soccer ball that joining a league is in their future and they will have games/practices in those hot summer months like the other little kids on other shows have successfully participated in.    

They have a nanny for supervision if Bill is too busy to be his usual kid self!  The kids built a playhouse out of a cardboard box inside the house so I will bet they would love their own playhouse outside, what kid wouldn't!

Edited June 9, 2016 by Foghorn Leghorn

[HooHooHoo]

23 hours ago, ZoloftBlob said:

Wellfleet - to a point, it's not the AC, its a change in parenting and how certain actions or lack of actions are perceived by other parents. Nowadays, I hate to say it but if a parent doesn't have constant eyes on their child while they are playing, they are deemed bad parents if ANYTHING goes wrong. Honestly, I see this on Judge Judy all the time. A 5-10 year old is riding their bike/playing with friends/doing whatever outdoors and something happens and the first thing said? Why was this young child alone in the street playing ball or riding a bike or in any way not under constant parental view? So since parents generally have other things to do than constantly watch their kids, kids tend to be encouraged to play inside where they can be more easily monitored.

It's like we want it both ways - open the door and let the kids runs free and play.... but you're a monster parent if anything happens.

This is such a great point. I live in a neighborhood where kids do run around, ride bikes, and play quite a bit. My youngest is 10...every time she wants to ride her bike to a friend's house (a few blocks away) I let her go, but I feak the whole time. Not because I think she is in danger, but because if something WERE to happen I know I would be blasted all over the country as the bad mom who wasn't watching her kid. I relax when she makes it to her friend's house & gives me a call. Growing up we were gone all day. Came home for lunch when we were hungry and then when it started to get dark. I am sure my parents never knew exactly where we were. And it is not like we had cell phones to "check-in". Awesome memories, awesome childhood. 

Sorry for being off topic as these kids are not old enough to be running around the neighborhood by themselves. Just hit a nerve. 

Edited June 9, 2016 by HooHooHoo
Off topic

[ZoloftBlob]

Quote

The pool or the indoors is for the ONE season when the majority (not all) days are too hot for human comfort but we still have the majority of the year.

I really don't understand why you think the pool can't be used the majority of the year. In the link you posted, it clearly shows that temperatures from March to November have highs in the 70s which where I grew up, upstate NY, was swimming weather. Even if someone was a nervous nelly, April to October in Houston has daily high temps above 80. The weather is such that the pool can be used 8 to 9 months out of the year (year round if its heated but I don't think we know that)

And I admit I don't know about Houston but here in Phoenix, of similar if not hotter weather, a lot of youth sport programs are run in the winter so that the kids aren't out in the brutal summer sun. Houston may be similar since more people these days are concerned about running kids in sporting drills in the heat.

[Foghorn Leghorn]

12 minutes ago, ZoloftBlob said:

I really don't understand why you think the pool can't be used the majority of the year. In the link you posted, it clearly shows that temperatures from March to November have highs in the 70s which where I grew up, upstate NY, was swimming weather. Even if someone was a nervous nelly, April to October in Houston has daily high temps above 80. The weather is such that the pool can be used 8 to 9 months out of the year (year round if its heated but I don't think we know that)

And I admit I don't know about Houston but here in Phoenix, of similar if not hotter weather, a lot of youth sport programs are run in the winter so that the kids aren't out in the brutal summer sun. Houston may be similar since more people these days are concerned about running kids in sporting drills in the heat.

I am sure most people who have a pool use it more than the one season that is the hottest, I know we do!  

[ZoloftBlob]

Right, that's why I didn't understand your complaint about how the pool could be only used for one season. Which is it, they can use the pool 8-9 months out of the year if not year round, or they were wrong to give up the backyard for a pool they can only use ONE season of the year?

[Foghorn Leghorn]

3 minutes ago, ZoloftBlob said:

Right, that's why I didn't understand your complaint about how the pool could be only used for one season. Which is it, they can use the pool 8-9 months out of the year if not year round, or they were wrong to give up the backyard for a pool they can only use ONE season of the year?

You misunderstood.  I did not say it could only be used for one season.  And the pics of the kids with the soccer ball prove they did not give up their backyard for a pool.  They in fact have additional space and therefore opportunity to be outdoors at any time of year if they choose to.  

[ZoloftBlob]

So when you said this "Thankfully their yard is not made of concrete and all kids are short. The pool or the indoors is for the ONE season when the majority (not all) days are too hot for human comfort but we still have the majority of the year." - I foolishly misunderstood you and you really meant to say the pool could be used for the majority of the year and not ONE season? Because I think that was my error, thank you for so clearly defining that yes the pool can be used for the majority of the year and not one season.

[Wellfleet]

On June 8, 2016 at 8:51 AM, ZoloftBlob said:

Wellfleet - to a point, it's not the AC, its a change in parenting and how certain actions or lack of actions are perceived by other parents. Nowadays, I hate to say it but if a parent doesn't have constant eyes on their child while they are playing, they are deemed bad parents if ANYTHING goes wrong. Honestly, I see this on Judge Judy all the time. A 5-10 year old is riding their bike/playing with friends/doing whatever outdoors and something happens and the first thing said? Why was this young child alone in the street playing ball or riding a bike or in any way not under constant parental view? So since parents generally have other things to do than constantly watch their kids, kids tend to be encouraged to play inside where they can be more easily monitored.

It's like we want it both ways - open the door and let the kids runs free and play.... but you're a monster parent if anything happens.

Yes, completely agree Zoloft. Having AC everywhere now has undoubtedly been a factor, but you're probably right in stating that Baby Boomer parents [my generation] haven't been nearly as "hands off" as our own parents were able to be. Parents don't simply "parent" any longer; they're expected to be security details too. Whether this is something they feel pressured to do by society - or within themselves - isn't really clear. And I honestly don't know whether this is good or bad. I hope some enterprising sociologists are busy researching this. We'll probably find out in 10-20 years that we did it all wrong too, just like our own parents did. Wry grin... 

[Steff]

1 hour ago, auntl said:

I am a baby boomer. Our parents didn't know that there were child predators out there. Today's parents live with that fact every day.

Just this week, I watched a man try to take a little girl out of a store on the news. How can any responsible parent just let their kid's run free. It's very sad. There are just too many crazies out there.

If it's the video I saw, her mother was literally right there trying to save her.  So not really a great example. 

[Fostersmom]

I spend every day amazed at the things I used to do as a kid and it was completely normal. I was born in 1976, so there was certainly an awareness that bad things could happen to kids. We all heard about Adam Walsh growing up. We all saw the missing kids on the milk cartons. And yet, we ran free around  town. Not only did we run free, we also grew up literally on the shore of Lake Erie and probably from the age of maybe 9 or 10, we would walk to the lake, climb over and down some boulders, and play in the completely unsupervised lake. Every parent would yell out the door at us to stay in front of the concrete breakers, which at that time were maybe 15 feet out and the water was maybe 4 feet deep by the time we got to them. We would climb up on top of them and let the waves hit us. Even better, I don't know a single kid who was allowed to swim in an actual pool, even the little 3, 4 feet deep above ground pools without a parent home and most often literally watching from the yard or by actual lifeguards. Pool, no, giant wide open lake, have at it kids. Safety first!

[abstractstuff]

The monsters who want to hurt your kids are probably already involved in your life. 

Kids can still roam the streets and should be allowed to do as such once they reach a certain age. 

Fear and seclusion will make your child want to rebel and get into some serious shit.

Teach your kids to know what is up. This what a world we live in stereotype is wrong. Treating your children like the are snowflakes and shielding them is doing them more harm than good.  Things are much more out in the open now. Much better than back in the "good ole days" when stuff was expected to be swept under the rug, and the neighborhood pedo was just an "avoid his house" situation.