Parenting
-
Why?
Why did my beautiful daughter have to inherit my mouth, so that she had to go through the pain and torture of braces? Ted has PERFECT teeth, not a cavity, straight and pretty and perfect (except for the few he knocked out in a motorcycle accident). And why did she have to inherit my eyes, so that she now needs to have glasses? Ted has pretty darned good eyes, no glasses until his mid 20s. Still way better than mine in the prescription department. Me? Full on braces, headgear, whole shebang. I swear, they were (ALMOST) worse than childbirth, because I had to keep going back and having pain again…
-
Fostering Resiliency
The Center for Human Development in our area offers a “Healthy Choices” program, called “PEP” (Parent Educators Program), which the parents bring to some of the schools. Maya’s school is fairly small (under 200 students) and fairly new (this is their 6th year), and we are working to implement the PEP program in the school. Back when I was on the school board, when we realized this charter school experiment of bringing Montessori Education to the public schools might actually ‘take’, and we were probably going to stay open, we started looking past the immediate needs of getting a permanent location, running water, a principal, and funding to pay the…
-
Thirteen Thursday Tidbits
1. I had a dream the other night that I died. The good news is that there is an afterlife, and everyone I know and love was there. The bad news is that apparently we still have to work, pay bills, and buy groceries. WTF? 2. Maya and I have been fighting lately about her getting out of bed in the morning. Meaning, I go in and try to wake her up with kisses, then words, and finally I give up and yell. Don’t tell me, because I know, she should use her alarm clock. She turns it off and goes back to sleep. It takes her about 1/2 hour…
-
Parenting Landmines
The other day I wrote a post about Maya saying she hated her face. She has since read the post, and told me that she doesn’t USUALLY hate her face, she really only hated her face that day because it had mosquito bites on it, and they were ugly. That’s a relief, and really, who wants to walk around with mosquito bites on their face? Thinking about all of this brought up another issue to me….the issue of our intentions vs. their effects. How we try our best to be supportive, loving, encouraging parents, and sometimes, we just can’t quite get it right. Sometimes I think that’s because the advice…
-
My Horse Picture
When I was maybe 7 or 8 years old, my mom worked as both a Montessori school teacher, and because we all know how well teaching pays (esp a private school), she also worked at a local restaurant. The restaurant, as I remember it, was next door to a small art gallery, where they sold paintings by local artists. I’m not sure how we ended up going inside the gallery, but we did, and I fell in love with one of the paintings. It was of two horses, running in a field, and it was painted on a piece of wood. My love of horses knew no bounds, and this…
-
Jupterian*
Did you know that Maya was born on Jupiter? Perhaps that would explain why she’s so darned smart and beautiful and yummy as well. I love this picture. She’s just so pretty. 🙂 When she was a baby, she had a birthmark on the back of her head. It was a large red hemangioma (sometimes called a ‘strawberry‘), which looked remarkably like the big red spot on Jupiter. So we decided that she was FROM Jupiter, and thus, a Jupterian. When she was little, and asked where babies came from, we gave her a couple of answers. We sometimes told her the truth, and we sometimes told her that she…
-
More Later…
Why 8 year old daughters are superior to 8 year old dogs: My then 8 year old daughter, at 4:50am about a year and a half ago: “Mama, I threw up.” “Where?” “In the toilet.” My NOW 8 year old dog, at 4:50am this morning: “barf” Right.by.my.bed. Oh, you have to know, the carpet cleaner died awhile ago, and the vacuum cleaner died on Sunday, and I’ve had 4 days off from work, so really don’t have time to go shopping for new ones right now. But you will have to wait for my regularly scheduled post, because I kind of have to deal with the barf this morning. I’m…
-
Sunday Morning Thoughts…
I just got up, looking at a few blogs, and the first two I came to had some interesting coincidences… 1st, my mom’s blog talked about the sexualization of children, about how dressing young girls in adult’s clothing, and visa versa, is dangerous because it sends very confusing messages to the world. This reminded me of when I was a girl, and I wanted to get my ears pierced…I wasn’t allowed, because my mom said that earrings were a symbol of being a certain age and maturity, and so I didn’t get them done until I was 16. I’ve put a lot of thought into when to allow Maya to…
-
Uh Oh…
I just saw this article. If signed, children under 8 need to ride in a booster seat, and children under 12 need to ride in the back seat. What’s the big deal? Well, Maya’s been riding in the front seat for a little while now…the Volvo doesn’t have any airbags (too old), and on the Camry, we have the passenger seat pushed all of the way back. Ted reasoned that many small adults are in the front seat, so she would be OK. I read some reports that said that there is no proof that kids who have been harmed by passenger side airbags in the front seat were ‘properly…
-
Do Your Kids Eat Only Crap?
I have issues with this stuff. Not for the maybe 2% of children who really need it…I know of some families with children who simply WILL NOT EAT, and they must resort to drastic measures to get nutrients into their children. Believe me, if your child is this way, I feel your pain, and I’m NOT talking about you here. Nor am I talking about the children with health conditions that mean they must go on a temporary liquid diet while they recover. This stuff is probably perfect for that. But the way this stuff is marketed, and the way I suspect it is most often used, it’s a supplement…
-
Post Waste
If you’re going to let your beautiful 16 year old daughter, who for some reason only LOOKS 10, get married…you may want to make sure you meet the groom before the big day. Otherwise, he may turn out to be only 6, and you’ve spent all of this money on something really weird and creepy. That’s what I learned from my dream this morning. Hope it helps you out in YOUR real life situations. Actually, no, I hope you NEVER need this advice. 😉
-
Children Who Feel Empty…
I found this article in my SF Chronicle Magazine, from Sunday’s newspaper. It’s pretty long, but worth a look if you have some time. Really, there’s nothing here that I haven’t thought before…too many kids today are overscheduled, over-pressured, and very unhappy because of it. One thought that came to me, though, is that this story is about upper-middle to upper-class kids…what about the lower-middle and lower-class kids. When their parents push them and push them, isn’t it supposed to be a sign of caring? And conversely, if they DON’T push them, isn’t that a sign of failure? Where’s the happy medium? The article, which is really exerpts from the…
-
Ode to Vegan Lunchbox
Inspired by ‘Jennifershmoo” and her Vegan Lunchbox, and requested by Cherry, here is yesterday’s lunch. Maya takes her lunch every day to Girl Scout Camp, and I ordered one of the cool Bento Lunchboxes that Jennifershmoo turned me on to. We’re not vegan, so there’s dairy in here. Lunch is a homemade bean and cheese burrito, rolled like a wrap (with pineapple/mango salsa in case she wants it), apple/apricot sauce, grapes and cherries, and a Costco brownie bite that came with the lunch Cherry and I had at a new Japanese place near Kohls. Who ever heard of brownie bites at Japanese restaurants? Not me, but Maya will be glad,…
-
Happy Father’s Day, Dado
I thought that maybe I could have a guest blogger today, to wish her father a very happy Father’s Day. She’s not as verbose as I am, but she loves him VERY MUCH. So, with no further delay, here’s Maya. Happy Fathers Day, Dado! I love you! You are the best! Love, Monkey
-
No More GUILT
The worst, worst, WORST part of parenting, at least of mothering, is the guilt that society tries to push upon us. L at Homesick Home wrote a wonderful post the other day about her feelings after reading a New York Times article titled “Breast Feed Or Else“. I read L’s post, and I was horrified…horrified that people are actually equating not breastfeeding your children with smoking while pregnant. With going to a bar, riding a mechanical bull, and smoking while pregnant. Give me a fucking break. (Sorry, I tried not to swear there, but no other word worked for me. Get over it.) The current culture has really made a…