Category : parenting
I try hard not to be a snob. Really, I do. But there are some moments when the act of snobbery is like breathing for me; I just can’t help it. The moment I saw Ronald Cummings and Misty Croslin all over each other, canoodling like teenagers (Oh, wait… she IS a teenager) during a press conference announcing the disappearance of his child, Haleigh Cummings, waves of judgment washed over me.
So, when it was announced that he proposed to her at a Chili’s restaurant a few weeks ago and that the pair exchanged vows on March 12th (while his child is still missing), you can imagine that my judgment meter flew off the charts.
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My son is a fifth grader who covers his eyes and blushes any time we walk through the bra department at a store. He also shies away from his father anytime my husband tries to have “the talk” with him.
He’s a sharp contrast from my daughter who, when she was four, asked me where babies came from after watching a Rugrats episode on Nickelodeon. In it, Angelica asked her parents the same question and the adults panicked and stammered and rushed into the kitchen to “help each other with the beets.” I think the reason why my daughter asked about babies wasn’t out of genuine curiosity, but to see how I’d react. I calmly told her about how mommies have tiny eggs, not big eggs like chickens, and daddy’s have something called sperm, and when those two things get together, it makes a baby which grows inside the mommy. I didn’t get into how those two things get together. I figured we’d save that for another time when she’s older.
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You maybe reading this title and think that I am going to blog about the flawed policy of tying school funding to test results. While that would be interesting this is not what I am here to discuss today. I am talking about no child being left behind when it comes to ruining the perfect life you had before the child came to be. No child is left behind from this experience, they all do it and nothing you can say or do will convince me otherwise.
I know at some point my life as a dual income no kids life will come to an end. I do not know when and I am not sure how, but I know it will. Much like young Princes Leia when she was standing on the Death Star looking out on to her home planet of Alderan, at some point the governor is going to give the order, the guns are going to power up and the planet will be blown to smithereens. That is what having children is like, watching your home planet get blown to smithereens.
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Over the past few decades, spanking as a method of training and discipline has fluctuated in popularity among American parents. Dr. Spock's book was a major influence upon the methodology of my parents' generation. That generation also raised children responsible for the most dramatic increase in divorce, crime, and teen suicide in American History (not counting the Great Depression). We're not laying the responsibility of the country at one man's feet, but new trends affect societies. It's an unavoidable truth. And Dr. Spock said we shouldn't spank our children.
The American Academy of Pediatrics' official policy says:
"Despite its common acceptance, spanking is a less effective strategy than timeout or removal of privileges for reducing undesired behavior in children. Although spanking may immediately reduce or stop an undesired behavior, its effectiveness decreases with subsequent use. The only way to maintain the initial effect of spanking is to systematically increase the intensity with which it is delivered, which can quickly escalate into abuse. Thus, at best, spanking is only effective when used in selective infrequent situations."
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It has been discovered that pedophiles and other sex offenders are driving neighborhood ice cream trucks in suburban America. That's right. The guy in your neighborhood playing the childhood siren song may not be the safest person to entrust with your children.
Whether the appearance of a few sex offenders in ice cream trucks is a sign of deceitful strategy or simple gainful employment remains to be seen. But let's be honest. Shouldn't a sex offender be building houses or cleaning office buildings instead of befriending our kids on the street? (more…)
Man, kids are fat these days. This is the thought that flitted through my head as I dropped off my daughter at school the other day.
Now before you send me hate comments and tell me it’s all the fast-food industry’s fault for injecting saturated and deadly trans fats into their products, or that nutrition is just too murky and complex of a subject for common folks to wrap their minds around, let me explain. (more…)
I am not calling myself an expert on the topic of colic. I am merely one woman with a small family that survived it. You may be thinking, “Surviving colic, what the heck is this woman talking about. Colic isn’t a fatal disease!” True, it isn’t a fatal disease or condition. However, it is heart-breaking, mind-blowing, exhausting and depressing, among many other descriptions that I could use.
Let me draw a picture of the circumstances around which I experienced colic. During my last month of pregnancy with my second child, I was pressing certain stressful issues with my first child that was going turn two years old, ten days after the baby was due. (more…)
