I don't proofread my posts before I publish them... cause I keep my thoughts au naturale.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Anyone Know Where There's a Local Nunnery?

I can only imagine how hard it is to raise a teenaged daughter.  I was one and I know that it was no easy task for my parents!  Granted, I think there were things that could have been done to make those years go a little smoother, but that's water under the bridge.

Well, my daughter is only 6 and the idea of her getting to be a tween and then teen has me already worried I may have to send her to a convent to keep her from getting corrupted by her peers!  For instance, there are a couple neighbor girls that come over on a regular basis to play and they are only a year older than A.  First of all, here I am hunting at all the stores for a one-piece bathing suit that covers her appropriately and these girls stroll over in bikinis!  Yesterday David kept having to ask one of them to pull the bottoms up because she had the plumber crack going on.  They just wander the neighborhood in these swimsuits and my poor granny heart worries for them and they aren't even my kids!

So then yesterday, while the girls were playing in the backyard, David & I were sitting in lawn chairs watching all the kids play and we overheard A use the phrases, "classic fail" and "I know, right?"  Although I'm familiar with both of these euphemisms, I do not use them.  I've heard David use IKR before, and I glared at him because I hate when people say that.  WHAT DOES IT EVEN MEAN???  After hearing that, we proceeded to have a conversation about how he's going to have to guard the door with a shotgun when A becomes a teenager and the thought of having another girl terrifies him for the same reasons.

Maybe I'm a prude who grew up in the stone ages, but I really don't think I am!  Then one of the girls suggested truth or dare and started talking about her boyfriend and they wanted to dare each other to "kiss the wall" or "kiss the tree" and of course, I had to step in and say that we don't talk about boyfriends, girlfriends or kissing at our house.  I know parents who think it's cute for their young children to have a boyfriend/girlfriend and tease them about it, but I'd like to instill in my kids that there are MANY MANY other important aspects to life than having a significant other.

What do you think?  Any moms of girls (any age) have these same conflicts?  How do you deal with it?

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mother's Day Musings

The first thing I always think about when it comes to Mother's Day is that I would think that the mothers of small children would actually want a BREAK for Mother's Day.  Of course, the hugs, kisses, attempts at helping with breakfast are super adorable, but really... I see these kids every day.  So for Mother's Day, wouldn't it be nice for someone to offer to babysit for three hours so you can drink a margarita and watch Golden Girls reruns?  And it never fails that the kids will at some point have a bad attitude or fight with each other- why would you get your hopes up thinking that they wouldn't just because it's Mother's Day?

But here's my other thought: my kids are young, so I don't know what it's like to be a mother of adult children.  What are the expectations?  What are the disappointments?  Do mothers of adult children have secret wishes for what they want to happen on Mother's Day or are they over it because it's not a "significant holiday" in their minds?  I'd be curious to know.  I know many mothers like to compare with coworkers and friends about all the "wonderful" things that their children did for them on Mother's Day.  The funny thing, though, is that these mothers probably get cussed out on the phone, belittled or yelled at by their children on a regular basis.  I feel like as an adult with a mother that whether I send flowers, give candy, some generic gift basket, it would seem moot.  I can't give my mom a break from being a mom because she doesn't have small children anymore.  I can make a point not to be rude or tell her anything that might upset her.  But it just seems like there's not a lot that an adult child can do... but like I said, I don't know what it's like, so I can't say what she wants.  I moved out 10 years ago, never moved back and gave her peace, does that count?

But anyway, these are just a couple of my thoughts I'm having this morning as Thoughtful David has taken my children out of the house to go get me a gift and stuff to make breakfast.  It's funny because in his mind, buying things makes the best gift, but really, it's the peace and quiet I enjoy while they are out running errands!

And lastly, a thought on my own mother:  I know there have been a good many times when I have been a horrible daughter.  Of course there were the teenage years when my total lack of respect probably made her rethink the 40 weeks (plus 16 days of being overdue) she spent carrying me.  I like to think that at least I can try to play the "I'm bipolar" card and hope that makes up for it, but I know that it was a culmination of teenage stupidity AND being mentally defective.  But luckily, my mom forgave me for all (and there were many) my stupid mistakes.

I used to joke with people when they asked me to keep a secret and I'd say, "the only people I will tell are my mom and my husband."  Of course, I'm not married anymore, so I tell my current SO.  Although I don't feel like I can tell her EVERYTHING, it's nice that when I'm upset I can shoot my mom an email and vent about it or call her and "gossip" about people and their stupid actions.  I can't remember where I heard this, but I once heard, "a mother can only be as happy as her most unhappy child."  So, I'm sure when I call her with my personal miseries if I have them, it's not good on her sanity.  And she doesn't usually give advice, but it's nice to have someone intelligent to bounce things off of.  So, hopefully my siblings are more unhappy than I so I don't have to feel guilty, haha.  (I'm not unhappy though, so she shouldn't stress about me.)

Anyway, long story short, my mom may not have been the biggest fan of children when I was little and she was a hard-working mom.  But I know quite a few women who were stay at home moms and their adult children can't stand them.  So, whatever kind of mom she chose to be as we were young, it worked because I have yet to meet anyone else's mom that I would rather have.  She's the best role model a girl could have and if one day I had even a tenth of the respect from my peers that she has, and if I raise a daughter who turns out half as awesome as I have, then I'd feel like I had accomplished a lot.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Childhood Memories: Rocks Edition

My memory to share today involves rocks and imaginative play.  My kids were playing store the other day and it made me remember something that I've remembered from time to time over the years.  I'm pretty sure my brother would be the only one to verify the factualness of these events.

I remember when I was young my brother and I would play store with rocks outside.  We would take crayons out and find big rocks and write what type of merchandise they were.  For instance, one might say microwave, one might say radio, etc.  Then we would use smaller rocks as money (not sure if we wrote amounts on them or not.)  We would take turns using our "money" and deciding what we wanted to buy.

It sounds incredibly dorky, but we lived out in the country and weren't inundated with useless toys, so we kind of had to make our own fun where we could.  Much different than these days when you can buy play money at the dollar tree.  When my kids were playing store, I was going to tell them they could use rocks as money and one of them held up these big fake play coins they had and said, "but we have money to play with."  Ah, yes... hard times our kids live in.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Childhood Memories

Oftentimes I find myself thinking back about things I remember from when I was young.  The funny thing is that nine times out of ten if I run the memories by my parents or siblings, they don't think it happened or that it was a figment of my imagination.  But if that were the case, why would we remember them so vividly, especially if they were just mundane experiences?

Well, here's my theory.  Each of us is impacted differently by our experiences in life.  Perhaps something that I held onto was more important to me than one of my siblings who doesn't remember the event happening.  Likewise, my parents have four kids worth of memories plus all the years of memories that they didn't have children.  So, it would make perfect sense that they wouldn't remember every little detail and event that their children do.

I'm not a big fan of being wrong, and these are memories that I've had for YEARS, not just some random thing that popped into my head and I was like, "oh, yeah, I think I remember something like that happening."  No, these feel like genuine memories.  So, in that line of thinking, I've decided to start sharing some of these memories with my readers.  But, my point in all this is that they may or may not be disputed by the other parties involved.  Of course I think they are valid, but chances are, I'm the only one.  They will hereto be referred to as "Childhood Memories: ***** Edition."

Happy Monday!!!