I've been reading alot of mom blogs lately and I'm always amazed by the way parents (mothers especially) think. Sometimes we give ourselves way too much credit and other times not enough. One lady lamenting about spanking her son and the message it sends. Does she really believe that her swatting her son on his behind is teaching him how to hit? He didn't know how to hit before then? I doubt that. Maybe what she's teaching him is that there's a line he might not want to cross again. And that's okay. I don't advocate giving your child a beat down every time they step out of line, but I don't see anything wrong with a quick swat. Nanny 911 be darn, I'm not wasting my time trying to reason with a 2 year old.
A breastfeeding site praised Mayor Bloomberg for cutting out the free samples women receive in hospitals after giving birth. What? And that's a good thing because? That's all good for women that do breastfeed (and it is the healthiest option for mommy and baby and I really encourage it), but what about the women that can't? When it became clear that I couldn't nurse my daughter and son, that free sample really helped out, especially with my daughter when I didn't have the money to buy the formula. It held me over until I was able to get to the WIC office. Even with my daughter now, whom I'm currently nursing. AJ, my 3 year old, split his head open and I had to rush him to the ER, I was able to grab that sample can of formula to leave with my neighbor.
One forum was discussing whether or not celebrities (specifically Amy Winehouse with her recent Grammy wins) were a bad influence on children. Here's an idea: Why don't you be an influence on your children and not worry about those celebrities. I don't shield my kids from much of anything. My mother didn't shield us, and my sister at 20 was the youngest one of us (my siblings and cousins) to have a baby. I grew up watching anything I wanted on TV and at the movies (I remember going to see rated R movies at the drive-in with my family when I was still in elementary school). My mother's message was very clear, "I don't care what you see other people doing, this is what does and does not go down in my house. When you get grown, you can make your own rules, but as long as my money put food on your plate, this is what you're going to do." End of story. When my kids start to buck the system, I go to my desk and hand them a bill. They already know that means that if they plans on changing my rules, they have to pay a bill. Every situation is a learning opportunity. Everything you say sticks with them. It's
when you go to college, not if. My daughter asked me once if I knew that some people don't go to college. I told her that yes, I did know this; however, "some people" don't live in my house. When we heard about Jamie Lynn Spears getting pregnant, Lady Day (who just turned 11 and is already a little sage) said that she's crazy because "First of all, she don't have no husband and that's just wrong, and no matter how much money you got, it sucks having to take care of a baby all the time. I hate watching my brothers and sisters." Mind you, she only has to watch them while I'm taking a shower, or using the bathroom, or whatever, but that little bit has taught her a little about the responsibilities involved with having a baby. She ain't having it, no matter what she sees others doing.
Then I read about women who get all bent out of shape because they can't do something that they really wanted to do. Well, they just piss me off. So what if you had to have C-Section? I understand about doctors performing C-Section's to save their butts and all that jazz, but when something is truly wrong and it's imperative that a C-Section is performed, why do they get all upset? Isn't the goal a healthy baby after all? Trust me, I've gone the natural route, it ain't all it's cracked up to be. It hurt and I lay there wanting it to be over, not bonding with the baby.
Other women who tick me off are the one's who talk about how difficult parenting is. No, it's not really. It's pretty much what you should expect. Of course it sucks not sleeping through the night (The Poet has sleep through the night for the past 2 nights-yea!), potty training is a headache, sometimes breastfeeding hurts (The Poet is obviously thinking her 2 new teeth are cool, me, not so much), my house is always in various states of needing a good scrubbing (long gone are the days of putting down a book and expecting it to still be there when I return 5 minutes later), and running to the store for a gallon of milk, now takes a hour when it used to take 20 minutes, but you know what? I expected all that. Some days I want to pull my fro out. I expected that. Some days I'm thisclose to calling the Salvation Army to ask if they accept children as donations, I expected that too. Some days I get a whole lot more than I ever knew was possible. You know what? I expected that too. A lot of these women have husbands, family near by, etc. I'm a single mother of 5 kids ages 11, 5, 3, 2 and 7 months. My husband is an alcoholic, so I get a whole lot of stress, but no support from him. My sister (my closest relative) lives in Arizonia, I'm in Ohio, from her I get an ear to listen and that's it. I know how hard it is to raise children. It's not the end of the world if your boobs start leaking in the grocery store.
I also hate mommy bloggers whose blogs are nothing but pictures of their kids. It's okay if the pictures are accompanied by a story, or a funny joke, then I like the pictures, but believe me when I tell you that no one cares about Little Sally playing with Toto the dog. She's your kid, you're supposed to think she's cute, the rest of us aren't so easily impressed. So either include witty comments with your pictures, or, well, there is no "or". Write something interesting to accompany the pictures.
Labels: Random, Rants
