Born To Run? Not so much.

Some are born to run (and not in a Bruce Springsteen sort of way.  I mean the jogging type).  Some are born to sit on the couch, wrapped up in a cozy blanket with a tray full of snacks and a stack of movies next to them.  That would be me.  I can see people run by my house from my front window.  I give them a mental high-5.  You go!  Just leave me out of it!

I work with some young, pretty, energetic teachers who get together and run after school.  There are days when I think "I could do that!" and then reality hits me (usually in the lower back or the knees) and says "Yeah, RIGHT!!".  Maybe I could drive next to them and chat, but I'm a distracted driver.  I'd probably end up running them over.  I do envy my co-workers.  They run to stay fit, to be able to eat what they want, to challenge themselves.  I admire their strength and endurance.  I just don't have the energy or the stamina for it.  As they get ready to go for their run, I'm doing my best to get the heck out of the building and get home to my couch!  We use to have a teacher who was a marathon runner...BIG time serious physical fitness person.  She moved like there was no effort involved at all.  I heard of a Cherry Blossom race that she ran with some other teachers, only she ran it while taking pictures, running backwards, and about 7 months pregnant.  Wow!

My act of kindness to all runners everywhere is that I will stay home and out of your way.  You go run.  Whether it be 19 degrees and icy or 108 in the shade, I will tip my hat to you.  I don't understand you at all, but damn it....YOU GO!!!  :o)

Kindergarten IS important!!

I've been thinking about the importance of kindergarten.  There are a lot of people out there who think "Why bother?  All they do is play?"  Ok...here's the thing...these kids are ONLY 5 AND 6 YEARS OLD.  They have only been alive for that long.  In that short amount of time think of all they have had to learn!  Rolling over, sitting up, crawling, standing, walking, running, using the toilet, feeding themselves, getting dressed, talking!  They are learning all the time!  Then kindergarten comes...BIG school...."But all they do is play".  NOT true!  They are learning how to write, starting to read, learning to cooperate and make friends.  They are learning how to take turns, raise their hands when they want to say something, sit in a chair to do their work.  They are learning how to tie shoes, zip coats, button buttons.  They are learning that not everyone is going to be nice, and that saying sorry doesn't always make it better.  They DO play a bit...and they learn to work together to make that awesome castle out of blocks, or how to fold the paper to make the perfect snowflake.  When they DO play they are using their imaginations...something that most kids don't know how to do anymore.  In kindergarten they learn how to handle disappointment, how to comfort a friend who is sad, how to make up when they have hurt someone's feelings.  I'm sorry, but to me these seem like important life skills.  Aren't these things that everyone needs to know?  And the sooner the better?  Sticking a kid into first grade before they are mentally and physically mature enough to be with kids a year older than they are is a MISTAKE!  Parents need to stop pushing their kids!  Maybe their child IS reading and writing.  That's awesome!  But how are they in social situations?  Do they burst into tears every time they don't get their way?  Why can't parents just let their kids be kids while they are young?  Do they push for the kid, or do they push for themselves?  I have found that most of the time the parent of the "child who is not challenged enough" is usually the parent who is spoon feeding the kid at lunch time in the cafeteria.  Kindergarten is for those all-important basic life skills.  Everyone needs them.  Maybe there should be refresher courses for adults.

Remember When...

Do you remember when you were a kid and you actually played with toys.  These days I think most of the toys play by themselves and the kids just watch.  They whistle and beep and light up and move and talk and flash and pee, poop and throw up all by themselves.  Just add batteries.  I remember the smell of a box of brand new crayons.  The really big one with the sharpener on the back!  Awesome!  And puzzles!  We'd go to the beach and just have a puzzle going all the time.  You could walk by on your way out, pop in a piece and be on your way, happy and satisfied that you had done your part.
Remember being bored?  Maybe your best friend wasn't home, or it was raining out, and you just thought you were gonna DIE from boredom.  You always found something to do eventually.  Maybe not what you wanted to do, but I never heard of anyone really dying from being bored.  My mom would always say "Are you bored? I can find something for you to do" which meant either vacuuming, dusting, cleaning your room, folding laundry, washing the dishes, mowing the lawn or any other not-fun things that involved some sort of work.  I'd shut myself in my room.  You must be busy if you are shut in your room.  Maybe doing homework....HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!  No, I'd be going through my book shelves or my closet, or I'd rearrange my bedroom furniture.  Or I'd draw.  NEVER homework.  You just don't do that when you are bored.
I remember when we were really young, when we'd get something like a new refrigerator...some sort of large appliance.  We (the kids) would get the box.  It was always HUGE!!!  We would play with that box for hours until it fell apart.  Now THAT was fun!
I also remember me and my friend Pam packing a lunch (bologna and mustard sandwich and chips) and going up on the hill to eat.  We lived in up state NY and "up on the hill" was probably some one's enormous backyard.  They never knew we were there.  If they did they never said anything.  We'd eat apples right off the apple trees.  I don't think kids are allowed to do much of that kind of wandering anymore.  That's sad.

I was just taking a short stroll down memory lane.  Thanks for coming with me!

When will it be spring

Ok...Sing this to the tune of When Will I be Loved by Linda Ronstat (yes...it's an old tune)
And feel free to add your own verse.  I only came up with a couple.

When Will It be Spring?

I am freezing,
And I'm sneezing.
When will it be spring?

I'm all bundled up,
And I'm fed up.
When will it be spring?

When I wake in the morning,
and it's 15 degrees,
It almost breaks
my heart in two.
I'm missing my bees!!    (Lame, I know, but it rhymes with degrees)

My lips are blue,
And my toes too!
When will it be spring????


...and that's all I have.  SOOO please add more!  :o)

The world is a scary place

What has happened to human beings??  How did we become so cruel and angry and mean and spiteful?  A woman is laying in a hospital with a gunshot wound to her head.  A 9 year old girl is dead.  Crazy people are picketing funerals of the soldiers who died protecting the freedoms of the crazy people.  You can't drive down the road without worrying some road-raging nut is going to shoot you on your way to or from work.  All I can say is WTF???  It seems like over the past few years life has gotten quite a bit more frightening.  All you hear about on the news are horror stories about the way we treat each other.  Bombings, fires, shootings, stabbings, abductions, rapes...it just goes on and on and on.  What happened?  I know there have always been wars, and there have always been crazy people, but doesn't it feel like things are spiraling out of control?  People being shot execution style on the side of the road.  Children watching TV in their houses being killed by bullets coming through the windows.  You hear more and more about minors committing horrendous crimes.  Everyone owns a gun.  Why is that?  They say it's to protect themselves.  Hmmm....maybe if NO ONE except the police had guns, we wouldn't HAVE to protect ourselves so intensely.  My opinion, and it doesn't matter to anyone but me, is that our freedoms are out of control.  So-and-so wants to be able to stand on a street corner and talk about how he loves the devil.  He can because it's freedom of speech.  Crazy church people can picket funerals because it's freedom of speech.  The right to bear arms tells us that any whacked out drug dealer or pimp can own a handgun legally as long as it's registered.  And clarify this for me...outside of a war zone, why do we need automatic weapons???  We are majorly messed up, people.  Sure, there are good people out there.  But they are starting to be outnumbered by those who don't really care about life, their fellow man, or anything else except for themselves.  It makes me so sad.  It makes me ashamed of what we've become.  And it makes me wish for simpler times when there were rules and laws and when you did something wrong you were punished for it.
To those of you who are the crazy-funeral-picketting-church-people...I hope there is a special place in Hell for you.

A day in the life

Actually it's more along the lines of about 2 hours.  THIS is what I go through just about each and every day now, and may I just say...DON'T ever give your kid a game that he can only play on YOUR Wii!!  So here it is.  I get home and Danny wants to play his DBZ Wii game.  I told him he has to wait for me to get home because I don't want him breaking MY Wii.  He's waiting for me at the front door, controllers in his hands.  "How do you turn it on?!"  All I can think of is I need to pee.  I get him set up, ask if he's good, then go about taking off my coat.  "Mom, watch me!"  *sigh*  So I bring in some pictures that need sorting and I sit there and watch him get the crap beat out of him by another character.  After a while I get up to get a drink.  "MOM!  Aren't you going to watch me?!?"  "Danny, I'll be there in a minute!"  I sit and watch for another 10 minutes, then tell him I'm going to take a shower.  "Are you good?  Do you need help with anything before I go?"  "Nope"  Great!  So I start running the water for the shower when I hear "MOM!"  I come rushing out of the bathroom to hear "Watch this!"  JEEEEEEZ!!!!!  "No Danny.  I'm going to take a shower.  You're on your own for a bit".  I'm in the shower, shampoo on my head when >knock knock< and the door busts open (this is pretty typical.  He knows he HAS to knock, but we're still working on waiting for an answer before opening the door).  "Mom!  Come see this!"  "......Danny, did you notice that I am in the shower?"  "You need to see this Mom!  It's cool!"  "It'll still be just as cool in about 5 minutes"  "MOM, I want you to see this!"  "Danny!  I'm in the freaking shower!!  It'll have to wait!"  SLAM goes the bathroom door.  2 minutes later >knock knock<  "Mom can you come see now?"  "No!  I'll be out when I'm out"  About 3 minutes later I turn off the water.  Not 2 seconds go by before >THUD< (we've moved beyond mere knocking)  "Can you come see now?"  "Danny, I am standing here soaking wet.  Give me 5 minutes!"  I grab a towel and I hear from the living room "I'm waiting for you!".  Oh    my    gosh!!!!  I'm going to have to kill him.  I dry off, get my pj's on and still with a towel on my head, go into the living room.  What he needed me to see was him getting the crap beat out of him by a different character.  Fascinating.  I watch this for about 5 minutes and very casually get up to go dry my hair.  "Mom, you're gonna miss it!"  "Miss what???  You're getting beat to hell!  Is that what you want me to see??"  "No Mom!  I'm gonna win and you'll miss it!"  ARRRGGG!!!  I sit for a few more minutes, the just get up and walk away.  My hair by now is a frizzy mess and I'm freezing and grumpy.  FINALLY Jim comes home.  Just in time...Danny turns the game off and goes in the basement!  Talk about good timing!!  Later on Dan comes up and says "Mom I'm getting good at that game right?"  "Yes Danny.  You are getting fantastic at that game."  "Can I play again tomorrow?"
*sigh*

To all of the new parents out there

I know quite a few people who have recently had babies.  I would like to give you a gift.  The gift of my experience as a mom, teacher and observer.  I have been working with young children from infants up to 3rd grade for most of my life, and I graduated from the college of experience.  If you do the same thing for years and years, you pick up a few things along the way.
My first gift....the gift of a mess.  Children learn through "doing".  Let them.  Give them crayons and markers and paint and play dough.  Put news paper or an old shower curtain down if you are worried about the mess, but please let them make it.  I have been totally amazed by the number of kids who go to school and have never used a marker or paint because "Mom doesn't want a mess".  How sad!!

Next I give you the gift of noise.  Yes, noise.  It's awful and gets on your nerves like nothing else, but let them be noisy every now and then.  Give them toy instruments to play, drums or pots to bang on.  Let them sing at the top of their lungs (this gets REALLY old when they are in their 20's!!  Trust me on this one).  Let them go outside and scream for no reason at all.  Most kids keep a lot of energy bottled up and it has to come out or they will explode.  The think of THAT mess you will have to clean up!

Speaking of cleaning up, let them clean up their mess.  Little brooms and dust pans, clean sponges...little kids love this stuff!  Fill the sink up with water and bubbles and let them wash their lunch dishes (that shower curtain on the floor will come in VERY handy now).  Let them mop up the water on the floor afterwards.  Let them clean while they are little because once they get older and realize it isn't really a fun thing, they won't want to do it any more!
Teach your children how to respect others.  Particularly when you are out to dinner for example.  Don't sit your kids at a different table and ignore them, thinking that the waitress will baby sit them.  They won't.  This is something I see all the time and it is just rude!  That waitress is not making enough money to be running around taking care of people and baby sitting your kids as well.  Teach your children that these waiters and waitresses are working and it is not their job to clean up the salt and pepper your kid has dumped all over the table.  Respect.  If they do make a horrible mess, have your kids make an attempt at cleaning it up.  And have them apologize.  To the wait person AND to the customers around you who have had to deal with the chaos you all have created.  If you can't tell, this is a MAJOR pet peeve of mine.
Another gift I give to you is boredom.  Let you kids mope around and be bored once in a while.  They might actually have to use their imagination to come up with something to do.  Make them turn off the TV and the video games and entertain themselves every now and again.  Boot their butts outside to play.  Please do not give your children toys that do everything...beep, drive, speak, walk, spell, color, etc.  A few of these are fine, but where does the imagination get used with these?  It doesn't.  These toys do everything....there isn't anything left for the kid to do but watch.  Keep a healthy stock of picture books, coloring books and crayons, blank paper, scissors, glue (yes GLUE!), glitter....things to create with that they can use when they are bored.  You might just be surprised what they create!

Please know that I am FAR from the perfect parent, and my kids is FAR from the perfect kid.  Once Danny hit 7 years old, I was out of familiar territory.  From then on I had no idea what I was doing.  But those early years I actually felt comfortable.  These are just suggestions.  Don't be afraid....of messes and tantrums, of boredom and back talk.  They are all learning experiences for you AND your child.
Enjoy your children when they are young.  They really do grow up SO fast.  Get in there with them and help them make a mess!