Thursday, April 25, 2013

Lesson #15,140-Types of Parents

Okay, so there are 101 types of parents out there but I'm gonna tell you about my favorites.
chopper
Helicopter Parents:  Helicopter parents are those who hover over their children.  They want to know everything that is going on in their children's lives.  They want to be a part of everything in their children's lives.  They want to fight their children's battles.  They want their child to be number one at everything.  These parents are really not doing their child any favors.  If we are a part of everything that our children do then they never learn how to cope with situations without our help.  Life doesn't work that way!!  Do I want to go and smack some kid that is mean to my child?  Sure, but I have to let my child learn to take care of himself.
absent
Absentee Parents:  These are parents who think they are doing their children a favor by not being there for them when they do need them.  Sure, they may turn out to be independent adults but they need us for guidance and love while they are children.  Our children do need to be children and need to be able to have open dialogue with us when it comes to some subjects.  If you aren't talking to your child about sex, someone else is.  If you aren't giving your child love and affection, someone else will.  It may be from someone who doesn't care one bit about them either!!  The backseat of some guy's car isn't the place for love to be given.
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"My Child is Perfect" Parents:  These are the parents who can "one up" your child's A+, your child's hole in one, your child's 3 point shot, your child's awesome soccer goal, your child's national championship wrestling medal, your child's triple back tuck!!  We all know them.  These parent's have the most perfect children that ever lived.  They make the best grades.  They are the best in sports. They are the most well behaved children.  They are the best looking or most beautiful children that were ever born.  I mean, we all think our child is the best looking and most beautiful children that we have ever seen but that's because they are ours!!  We just don't say it out loud!!!  These parents do!! UGH!! These are the most annoying parents EVER!!
Lucifer Demon Satan Adult Devil Halloween
"My Kid is The Worst" Parents:  These are the parents who never have anything positive to say about their children even when they are awesome kids!  Most kids have at least one redeeming quality but to these parents, it's never enough.  "So what if you scored 25 points in the basketball game?  You should have scored 30."  I think these are the most damaging parents.  I know what they are trying to do and that is living vicariously through their children but never telling your child that you are proud of them is damaging.
Shows that sometimes people mask their sadness by using anger.  Very interesting & accurate.
Angry Parents:  These parents are the ones who stir up more drama than a middle school girl could ever start!  Nothing is ever right with their children's teachers, their friends, their school, their dance instructor, their soccer coach and on and on and on.  These parents just need some Xanax!!  I can't even talk to these people!
that dad is super cool
Cool Parents:  These are the parents who want to be their children's best friend.  They let their kids talk any ole way to them.  They let their kids do anything they want to do.  The kids tell the parents what they are going to do instead of the other way around.  That is the tail wagging the dog!! I tell my son, all the time, that he has plenty of friends but only 2 parents.  I don't want to be his friend.  I want to be his mom!! That is a hard enough job!  He isn't going to tell me what to do, where we will go and how we should do things.  I drive this bus, Bubby, not you!  Don't get me wrong, I will talk to my son about anything that he wants to talk about but I am going to give him advice from a parent's perspective, not his friends.  No, he will not be allowed to drink in my home.  No, I won't be buying him cigarettes.  No, he will not be having girls up in his room.  When he goes away to college, I can't watch what he does but while he is in my home he will respect my rules.
Overprotective parent
Over-Protective Parent:  These are the parents that never let their child out of their sight except for school.  They won't let their children go to other people's houses EVER!  They won't let their child ride their bike down the street.  They won't let their children do anything.  This, to me, tells their child that they don't trust them at all and never will.  Kids have to have boundaries, I understand that, but we have to give them a little breathing room and a little privacy.

Okay, so what's a happy medium?  Every child is different.  We all have different parenting styles and philosophies.  I think we just need to give our children love, affection, attention, teach them right from wrong and be good examples for them as adults.  We weren't perfect when we were children so why expect our children to be? (Except for y'all "My Child is Perfect Parents". Y'all already have perfect kids!)  They will make mistakes and bad grades and fail to make a team and not score 30 points but we have to love them and guide them to do their best.  My son studied for a test, not too long ago, and failed the test.  He was afraid to tell me what grade he got.  When he finally told me, I asked if that was the test that he had studied for and he said it was so I told him that if that was the best he could do then that was the best he could do.  I told him that he needed to work harder for the next test and pull up his grade.  He got the highest grade in the class on the next test because he had to work harder and pull up his grade.  I am, by far, not perfect so why expect him to be?  Parenting is a hard job.  Do your best to raise good adults!


Monday, April 22, 2013

Lesson #15,139-Who Could Use a Laugh Right About Now?

Okay, so the past week has been pretty crappy with all of the sadness happening in America.  I think everyone wants to break away from the Boston Marathon murders by those low life thugs.  The horrible explosion in West, Texas.  What is going on in this world?  We all need a laugh.  Well, there was another horrible thing that happened over the weekend.  Did y'all know that Reese Witherspoon (America's Sweetheart) was arrested for disorderly conduct?  What is this world coming to?  She even got out of the car and asked the police officer if he knew who she was.  What the heck?  Seriously?  This made me laugh...He said "No"!  That made my day!  These Hollywood people think they are God's Gift to us all!!  That police officer said that he didn't know who she was!! Hahahaha!!  I bet that knocked her drunk self down a few notches!!

I have a friend who was in a restaurant bar many years ago and an NFL quarterback was in there partying with his friends.  He asked a couple of my friends to come over and sit with them.  She had no idea who he was.  She was just there to have fun.  So they are sitting there talking and having fun and this guy was very arrogant but he was buying drinks so they sat there for a little while.  He finally said to her "You have no idea who I am, do you?" and she said "No".  He said, "I'm Kerry Collins" and she said "Well, I'm Nicolle Allen!!" and he was floored!! He said, "I am the quarterback for the Carolina Panthers" and she said to him "Well maybe if you were Troy Aikman I would have known who you were"!!  Everyone at that table just roared!!! I am sure he had women fawning all over him all the time but not my friend!! She was not impressed!  He went to his car and pouted.  Of course, sitting in a Ferrari probably made soothed his bruised little ego just a little!

This is a funny story about me.  In my former life, before becoming a mom and wife and mommy taxi driver and living this glamorous life of laundry and dishes, I was a medical assistant and worked for a doctors office.  We had many, many hilarious things that happened and usually I was around to see most of them!  One day a man came in the office and had stepped on a nail.  He needed a Tetanus shot.  Well, this man only had one arm.  I always asked which arm a patiend wanted a shot in, so I kept thinking to myself "Don't ask him which arm, Don't ask him which arm, Don't ask him which arm"!  I drew up the Tetanus and walked in the treatment room and he and I were talking and laughing.  He had a great dry sense of humor so he was cracking me up.  After about a minute of talking and getting the alcohol pad, gauze and bandaid ready, I turned right around and asked "Which arm do you want it in?" and he shook his little stump at me and said "Well, what the Hell do you think?"!! Oh my gosh!!! I was mortified!! He just shook his head and laughed at me!!  Can you say cringe worthy moment???

Okay, so now that you have had a laugh at my expense and Kerry Collins' expense.  Have a great day!!

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Lesson #15,138-Boston & Talking To Our Children

Okay, so by now we all have heard about what happened in Boston.  How do we explain this tragedy to our children? Some things are hard to explain or unexplainable.  This is one of them.  Our children are asking questions like "Who would do that?" and "Why would anyone do that?".  Our children do not understand hate.  They know that they "hate" broccoli or timeouts.  They know that they "hate" homework. They "hate" cleaning their rooms.  They certainly "hate" being sick.  They simply do not understand hating another person because they don't believe in the same things that they do.  That is a learned behavior.  Parents have to teach their children not to hate someone or a group of people for any reason.  We all have to teach Love!!  We have to teach our children that just because other people do not believe in the same things that we can exist together in this world.  But how do we explain what happened in Boston when a child was a victim?  This is my take on it:

1.  We have to sit our children down and tell them what happened if they are old enough to know what happened.  We tell them that something bad has happened and give them only details that they "NEED" to know.  I mean, we don't need to tell a 2-year old about the tragedy.  My son was almost 2-years old when 9/11 happened and he wouldn't have understood what I was trying to tell him.  He learned about it when he got older.

2.  Try not to dwell on it too much so we don't scare them into believing that it could happen to them, even though nobody is truly 100% safe from an attack  We had the news on and were listening to what had happened and after about an hour, my 13-year old son said "I've seen enough.  I need to watch something else".  He is old enough to verbalize his feelings but a 6-year old may not be able to say that they have had enough. 

3.  If your child is old enough for this to bother them, ask if they would like to talk about it.  Do this, especially, if you sense that it is on their mind. 

4.  Reassure them that they are safe and that they will be okay.  We have to comfort them even though we know that hate is all around us.  Don't lie to them and say that it could never happen where you live but do try to help them process what happened offering them comfort and keep your emotions in check.  We all were shocked, upset and angry about what happened but we cannot let our emotions be transferred to our children.

5.  If you believe in God, pray together for the injured and for the families and friends of the people who were killed.  If you choose, pray for the people who did this, that God would soften their hearts.  That they would feel love for their fellow man and not hate.

6.  Show them how the people came together and offered their help.  If you watch the video of the events, you will see police, firemen, paramedics, EMTs, National Guard and regular people coming together to help the injured.  They ran toward the blast, not away from it.  Talk about the heroes in this tragedy.  The men and women who were hurt but helped the people who were injured much worse.  The doctors and nurses in the hospitals who worked overtime to make sure that every patient was taken care of because that was the right thing to do.  Nobody asked the victims if they were democrats or republicans, gay or straight, black or white, young or old.  They simply helped.  During times of tragedy, we come together as Americans and Human Beings.  Compassion was shown and that is an important trait of Americans and Human Beings.  There are more good than evil people in this world, even though we may think otherwise sometimes.  This is a good time to talk about empathy for their fellow man.

As parents, we have a hard job.  Events such as this makes our jobs even harder.  Be patient with your children as they come to you with questions.  Be patient with their emotions.  Remember that we, as parents, do not understand this so our children, certainly, do not. 




Friday, April 12, 2013

Lesson #15,137-Is Target The Happiest Place On Earth?

Okay, so as a Mom I've seen a lot of stuff.  I've seen real stuff.  I've seen gross stuff and I have seen great stuff.  I have seen happy stuff and I have seen sad stuff.  I have decided that Target really is the happiest place on earth.  Some people say that Disneyland is the happiest place on earth but I don't think that's true.  I saw kids crying and screaming, red-faced and having full on meltdowns at Disneyland.  Clearly, they were coming off sugar rushes and were in desperate need of a nap.  But when you can see the kids back teeth and tonsils, that is a full on tantrum!!!
Meltdowns vs. Temper Tantrums: Best article Ive ever read on truly explaining the difference. I send to my sons teachers. These meltdowns are seen in kids with: #ADHD #Autism #ASD #SPD #SID #Anxiety Pinned by http://MosaicWeightedBlankets.com
Some people think that the beach is the happiest place on earth.  Again, not if you're a kid!!  Most of the time kids have sand in every "crack" of their bodies, up their noses and in their eyes.  Then there is sunburn.  The first day at the beach a kid walks away critically injured.  Second degree sunburn on the first day of a week trip to the beach makes for a long week not only for the kid but also for mom!  The sand rash that happens when you play in the sandy, salty water makes for painful urination and bathing for the rest of the week too.  So, the first day of being on the beach may be happy but not the second through sixth day.
Nate Berkus for Target Collection
I happen to think that the happiest place on earth is, in fact, Target.  I have never seen anyone crying in Target unless they were leaving!!  And those were housewives.  Children walk out happy with their new crap!  Even the 3-year old kids are walking out saying, "I can't wait to wear my new sandals to preschool tomorrow and show that bitch, Emily Margaret.  Imma strut up to her and slap my foot on the ground like a BOSS!!"  Umm Hmm.  Mamas walk out with our new body soap and all kinds of cool stuff from the dollar bins at the door. (Ya know?  Those dollar bins used to all be $1 when they first showed up at the front door but now some have $3 on them but I don't care.  I'm getting that $3 aluminum bucket and gardening gloves and a pack of sports ball erasers and some stars-n-stripes plastic cups!!  Yes, I needed all that crap! And, yes, I know that I only came in here for bandaids.  Who the heck can go in Target for one thing?  I mean, you walk right past the dollar bins for goodness sake!!  You know you NEED those cool cookie cutters!!  One of them has a seal balancing a ball on his nose!!  A SEAL!!! So anyway, I went in for bandaids and came out with a cart full of stuff and $200 poorer.  Still a great day though!! I WENT TO TARGET!!!
Target
Don't you agree that Target is the happiest place on earth?  Well, it is!!

Monday, April 8, 2013

Leson #15,136-Spring Break 2013!!!! Wooooo! Hooooo!

Okay, so Spring Break 2013 is but a memory now. And just like every other "break" that the school offers, it was not a "break" for any Mama that I know!!  It was nice to sleep until 8am but trying to entertain children when they are out of school for one week is not easy.  They want to go and do this and that.  They want to eat every 30 minutes.  They want to play ping pong, use the big TV in the living room, get on the computer or go outside whenever they want to.  This means that Mama is gonna have to get off of her usual schedule.  If Mama watches Jerry Springer at 11am and the kid wants to watch SpongeBob, the kid will win this battle.  If the Mama usually blogs at noon and the kid wants the laptop and a PB&J, the kid will win this battle also.  If Mama usually naps at 2pm and the kid wants to play ping pong, the kid will win this battle!! 
Blue Ridge, Georgia so serene and one of my fav places!  Make sure you stroll around the antique and quilt shops and take a train ride.
Okay, so our Spring Break consisted of driving 6 hours to the Georgia mountains.  Did you know that there were mountains in Georgia?  Well, there are mountains there!!  Cute little mountain towns with cute little stores everywhere. And, of course, those few strange mountain people who you are sure are in the Witness Protection Program or that they escaped from the crazy farm.  Yep.  They were there too. Problem is...the boys we were there with have no volume button and have no filter and just cannot resist saying whatever comes to mind.  Yes.  We were stared at but who cares??  We were Moms on Spring Break with boys!!! We didn't care who saw us, what they heard, when they saw us or how loud they were.
Photo: Blue Ridge, Georgia
Thank goodness that we had alcohol in the fridge every night!!  Frozen margaritas were on the menu daily!!  A break just isn't ever going to be a break for Mamas.  I see that now!!  So, Mamas, Get ready for summer break!! It's a comin'!!
Retro style sunbather. Ties in relaxing mom with hawaiian/tiki vibe.