I was informed today by my 10 year old, that the kids as a whole would like to stay in American and live here for a while.

(sound of my heart being crushed)

After I successfully controlled my initial reaction, I asked for reasons why this place is better to live in and here's what I was told:

a) the kids don't have to go to school here
b) there are toy and lots of other stores here
c) all the family members they've visited so far have all bought them stuff from said stores
d) they have good stuff on TV here and not "programs you sometimes have to watch in Spanish"
e) there are movie theaters here and Sea World and Six Flags etc that they get to visit

I think the "this is a Summer vacation" part was mostly lost on him and I don't think they understand that their stomach aches (most of the kids and all of the adults have them whenever we visit the US) have to do with the food here.  The sneezing and constant freezing in any air conditioned building is apparently also not something that is rating on their chart. 

Since we got here the kids have been arguing much more than they do in Anguilla where they are forced to make up games (due to our lack of toys) and work on chores together.  They've said the words "but I want ____ " (fill in the blank toy or event) more in the past month than they did in the past year and I've said "hurry" more than I would like and all that just about makes it official...

...it's time to go back to boring, rush-hour free, toy store free, fast food free, crime free Anguilla!