Perfection
Let’s be honest, most of us are really wishing for perfect children, whether we admit it or not. Kids who make us look good. Rock the Nice List. Obey their teachers. Get good grades. Make the team. Have solos in the concert. In reality though we may spend hours in homework assistance, helping the child who doesn’t learn as quickly as his sister, disciplining the child who struggles to comprehend what self-control is, re-directing the child with ADHD, or consoling the child who did not...
Read MoreHoly Song Wars
We have 6 children so driving anywhere is interesting: “Mom, So-in-so is touching me.” “Okay, well move over.” “Mom, So-in-so is annoying.” “Honey, we are all annoying in some way, deal with it.” “Mom, So-in-so is LOOKING at me.” “Okay, well look away.” My children think that driving our giant conversion van (that we refer to as Relaxi-taxi) isn’t much of a job. I’m apparently bored and would love to referee the back seats. One topic that has come up more than once is singing. Some in my...
Read MoreToo Safe to Live Free
Too Safe to Live Free To fully understand where I am going on this issue you may want to read my previous blog “Living Free”. I admit I’ve never been much of a rule follower. It’s gotten me into my fair share of trouble through the years. Now that I am raising children of my own, I try to do my best to be a law abiding citizen; however some of the recent laws being forced upon us are stirring up my rebellious nature. Ronald Reagan said it well, “Man is not free unless government is limited.”...
Read MoreLiving Free
Americans seem to pride themselves in two things: freedom and independence. However, I see my generation of parents, willingly handing over these cherished rights in the name of fear. We are afraid of all sorts of things including getting sued, not being liked, lack of financial stability, and feeding our children the wrong foods (though we are not sure what they actually are). The core of our fears revolved around our children; we are afraid our kids will get hurt, sick, abducted or the...
Read MoreUnderstanding Introverts
I am an extrovert, my husband, not so much! Up until the past few weeks I have seen this as a personality flaw, which needed to be fixed. My personality was clearly better and the more he could conform to me, the better we would be. Such maturity, I know. I believe our culture is biased towards outgoing, extroverted people. The educational philosophies that dictate our schools mandate cooperative learning and group projects. In my graduate program, not one class went by without...
Read MoreYoung at Heart
I have always had an adventurous spirit. It got me into a great deal of trouble when I was young. The trouble is, I still think of myself as young but my husband keeps telling me that we are old. Though I refuse to believe him, there are growing signs that indicate he might be on to something. When you are young if you fall down the stairs (not that that has ever happened to my children who are always under my very careful, watchful eye), you literally bounce right back. Cry for a minute or...
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