I suppose it beats the textile factory.

The two oldest girls are starting school today. They are both very excited. It's a perfect real world example of the "ignorance is bliss" principle. Did you ever watch Firefly? Remember the Reavers? In my experience, kids in school are just like that, but without the cannibalism and psychotic murder. The teachers were at least attentive enough to disallow those. Of course, the kids I went to middle school with were notorious for being the biggest bunch of proto-felons to ever walk the halls. The teacher's were actually afraid of many of them. So were the students, and presumably their parents. I suspect that today their parole officers are a bit nervous around them too. I think the oldest will be fine. She's a lot like my brother, who never had trouble making friends. The younger one takes after me, however. People tended to raise one eyebrow at me, as a sort of standard greeting. I used to talk to my hand. My younger oldest daughter walks around in a cocoon of her own imagination, just like I did, and it is certainly not conducive to making friends. Or listening to teachers. I shall cross my fingers and hope that her experience is better than mine. Or at least that she's good at building character.