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Strollerderby
Do You Need Your Own Alice?
I often daydream of this scenario. I am here, sitting at my lap top writing words just like these. But my surroundings are different. There isn’t dried PlayDoh on the ground, there aren’t dishes from three evenings of meals in the sink, and the house doesn’t smell like a mixture of dog, microwave popcorn and an overstuffed compost bin. Yes, I think that is a simple dream. But one that has yet to be realized. The reason. Not only do I not have time to clean, but honestly, I’m just not very good at it.
I’m a surface cleaner, impatient to get the task done. I wipe there. I spray here. I throw things under the bed and in the deep recesses of our closets. Spic and span are two words that have never been applied to our home. Enter my fantasy – to hire a housecleaner.
This, sadly, is a luxury I just can’t afford. But one that is so enticing although I think I would have guilt about having a stranger clean up my messes, being a do-it-yourself and independent sort. But if I could get over that? I would be stoked.
Then I started to wonder, if I could afford some household help, what would I do? Would I go for a professional house cleaner or something else. I also started to wonder what would you do?
Here are the choices: Continue reading »
photo credit: stevendepolo on Flickr
Let me make one thing clear: I am not “a cook”, at least not with a capital C. While once in a while I have fun trying out a new dish in the kitchen, most of the time I just want to get something on the table that I know most of my kids will eat. With time and effort I’ve learned to make a handful of dishes that are fresh, healthy, and reasonably tasty, and I save my experimenting for food-preparation tasks I enjoy (like baking and canning.)
So I understand that cooking for fun is not everybody’s cup of tea. Still, I am always a little confused when I hear other parents say they “don’t cook.” I always want to say…so then, what does your family EAT? Continue reading »
Lakshmi Tatma is pretty much like any 4-year-old. She’s a little bossy around new friends, likes to pay games with her brother, is a total daddy’s girl and just recently started school. The difference is Lakshmi was born with two torsos and 8 limbs. Oh, and she’s been worshipped as a God since birth.
With a beer in hand, and possibly a surely attitude, 4-year-old Hayden Wright escaped his home, wandered the streets, then broke into the neighbors house to steal their Christmas presents.
Hayden’s mom, 21-year-old April, says she doesn’t know how the boy got beer and got out but she’s just glad he’s okay and says it won’t happen again.
It gets stranger.
Next time a couple announces divorce and their teary-eyed child looks up at them and whimpers, “Is it my fault?” the parents can look them plain in the face and say, “Why yes, yes it is.” And it’s all thanks to science (yay science?)
An eight year study funded by a grant to the University of Denver from the National Institutes of Health showed 90% of couples expressed marital dissatisfaction once the first child was born.
An unrelated study in 2006 showed parents are generally more depressed than non-parents. Researchers hypothesize this may have to do with parents receiving less support now than in early generations.
Finding a good day care is so hard these days, you have to accept compromises. Maybe your kid’s day care is a little pricey, doesn’t stay open as late as you’d like, or maybe the day care sells cocaine.
An Arkansas couple was arrested for selling cocaine out of the same house where they operate a day care. Husband Timothy Boston got caught in a sting operation by police. Catching a whiff of the jig being up, Boston fled to Texas where he was arrested. His wife, Denise, was arrested at the couple’s home/child care center the same day.
The other day, a coworker, knowing that my kids do not watch scary or violent films and that we eschew excessive competitiveness, said I was raising marshmallows. While I disagree with him for a number of reasons, he is correct in that I am doing my best to raise kids who don’t find violence amusing or acceptable. That’s why, when I came across an article about the recent gang rape of a 15-year-old Richmond, California girl, I found it especially interesting.
Continue reading »
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