My Posse

Food For Thought

With great apologies and thanks to Tampa Mom (and her friends), these pearls of wisdom got me thinking today:

Why do we enable our children to mediocrity and/or coddle them into becoming emotional cripples? Our children are so smart and amazing, but so many times we’re caught up in our own emotions and make their challenges all about us instead of just handing them back and saying, “How are you going to handle this?”

We’d have a lot more motivated, capable young adults in this world if we didn’t solve our kids’ problems for them and instead gave them guidance to help them solve their own. That’s what I’m working on and it’s just awesome seeing exactly how capable and smart my kids are.

If you guide your children and allow them the freedom to make the choices, they learn from the good and the bad and are far more capable, decisive, sympathetic, and empathetic. Keeping them safe is one thing, keeping them smothered is something else entirely!

I completely agree with allowing children to fail and to learn to make decisions for themselves … and suffer the consequences. A big bone of contention between me and WineGuy currently is how far do you let a child fall and/or when do you step in and start running things again. What do you do if you see your child is not handling his responsibilities as you’ve tried to give them back to him?

Doctors as Patients

Day 2 of NaBloPoMo and already I am stumped for a topic.

About 3 weeks ago, Snooty School sent around an email notifying parents of the availability of the H1N1 vaccine on campus. I got the forms and forwarded the email to WineGuy asking him what he wanted to do. He never replied to me. This past weekend, WG asks me when “we” are vaccinating the boys against H1N1. I replied, “We’re not. We didn’t sign up at school because you never told me that’s what you want. The permission slips were due 2 weeks ago. It may be too late.” WG, unfazed, instructed me to check with the school nurse today.

This morning, I dropped Wild Thing and Moose at school and went in to speak with the nurse. She was already busy with three other things, but she listened to me for a few minutes. Basically, we are too late; our only option is to put WT and Moose on the waiting list at school and hope two spots open up. So, I filled out the forms and put them on the nurse’s waiting list. Her consolation was that the county has started vaccinating people, and we could go that route. Riiiiiiiiiiiight. I really want to wait in line with my 2 wild children for 4-5 hours for a shot. Not. The school nurse will call me on Friday to let me know if there are spots and vaccines available for WT and Moose. The one positive thing that came of this was that Wizard’s Middle School is just starting the process. I have already filled out his form, so I am ahead of that game. I’m wondering whether I can take the younger two there if they can’t get the vaccine at the Snooty School.

Meanwhile, WineGuy has been sick with a nasty cough for at least three weeks. Instead of going to his internist — or his buddy that plays one in real life — he chose to medicate himself. Like usual. I’m pissed because he’s taking such poor care of himself. He still won’t go to the doctor. He promised me last summer that he would make appointments to see the eye doctor and the dentist. He still hasn’t done that either. And, by the way, WG, the gastroenterologist, is over 50 and hasn’t had his screening colonoscopy done yet.

Doctors make the worst patients. Physician, heal thyself!

20/20 Hindsight

Yesterday was WineGuy’s and my 17th wedding anniversary. It was quite unmemorable. WG wanted to get away for the weekend but failed to tell me until yesterday afternoon. Wild Thing and Moose were being completely wild before trick-or-treating. Wizard has been combative for days. All of that is par for the course. What really hurt my feelings was that no one — not one family member or friend — called to wish us a Happy Anniversary. My mother and BIL in Fort Lauderdale sent us cards. That’s the first time this has ever happened, and I know why.

Hall-ow-ween

I got suckered into volunteering this entire day at school. The day began with the Storybook Parade, which I had planned to attend. Moose and the Lower School students marched around campus dressed in all sorts of wonderful costumes representing their favorite storybook characters. Moose was Percy Jackson from The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan. I made his “costume”:  a custom-designed, orange “Camp Half-Blood” t-shirt with an original Centaur logo on the front and a Poseidon logo on the back; Moose supplied the jeans and a silver pen for “Riptide”. Afterwards, I met a friend for breakfast (which lasted all morning). I picked up  Applebee’s chicken tenders (peanut-free) and delivered them to Moose’s classroom for lunch.

My Day Off

Sometimes procrastination is a good thing. After my walk this morning, I intended to write about how stimulating it is to walk to the music of Gloria Estefan. I listened to “90 Millas” and had to restrain myself from rumba-ing around the track; the music was so infectious. My brain got a similarly good workout translating the lyrics into English.

Drenched in the sweat of a humid Florida morning, I raced home to quickly shower and change. I jumped back in the car and sped downtown to a lovely breakfast for the mothers of Wild Thing’s homeroom. The women chatted, comparing stories about school, and enjoyed a leisurely brunch. It was such a relaxing morning that I decided to extend my day. I opted to lounge at the bookstore for the afternoon. Barnes and Noble — in fact, any bookstore — is like “crack”:  seductive and irresistably addictive. (Not that I’ve ever smoked crack, thankyouverymuch.) I found a few books to peruse and idly spent a couple of hours reading in a comfortable chair. An unexpected phone call from Calvin disturbed my reverie and impelled me back to reality.

After I picked up WT and Moose at school, I returned home to a clean, quiet house. I made Moose’s costume for the Storybook Day (ersatz Halloween) parade tomorrow and found a few minutes to write.

Tell me something good!

Put On A Happy Face

Belle convened The Breakfast Club this morning, and Calvin and I got to talking about our blogs. Calvin was trying to explain to our friend, Nan, about blogging and how certain posts still generate lots of interest months — or even years — after publication. As I tried to show Nan one of my rants about G.E. appliances, I was stunned at the tone of my (quite infrequent) posts over the last few months:  negative, whining, complaining. I didn’t want to read my own blog let alone show it off. Calvin asked why I wasn’t writing anymore, and I realized I was boring myself and everyone else with all the negativity. Calvin’s reply? “Write about something good!”

In no particular order, here’s what’s good in The Zone these days:

• My great friend from Chicago just moved here. [Calvin, what's her pseudonym?] She’s a brilliant lawyer and a funny, passionate woman. She’s trying to start a new chapter of her life, and I am so happy she’s back in The Zone.
• Calvin and another friend invited me to walk with them on the school’s track a couple of mornings a week. We started about six weeks ago (mid-September 2009), and I have been diligently walking ever since. After a scare with Belle’s health two weeks ago, I decided I needed to move my body daily. Since then, I’ve either been walking or biking or Wii-ing at least 30 minutes a day. I have lost 8 pounds in six weeks by dint of exercise alone. I find that I crave the exercise now, and my body craves healthier foods. Yay me!
• Calvin and Sprite tell me they miss my blog. Sprite insists that I must try to write something daily. Thanks for the props, girls!
• I love my new car. It gets great mileage.
• Book Club has a new system for choosing the monthly book and restaurant, a system which does not involve Alto2 running to the bookstore and scrambling for restaurant reservations every month. Now I can enjoy the books without feeling responsible for an unpopular choice.
• My children are actually keeping their rooms clean, but only because I am hounding them every afternoon to do so.

That’s a pretty good start, don’t you think? Let Little Stevie tell you all about it: