I Left My Kids. . .

July 27, 2009


I left my kids, and they are so glad I did.

If I hadn’t left, they wouldn’t have gone on an hour-long hike to the top of the world.

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If I hadn’t left, he would still be on four wheels versus two.

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If I hadn’t left, she wouldn’t have been able to save the free world. . . .

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. .with their help.

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With me out of the picture, they got to spend much-needed time with their dad alone. Which is a good thing.

But, that doesn’t mean I stayed away forever. Just four days.

Enough time to do stuff like this, which was good for me too.

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(many thanks to Dove Clinical Protection for the hilarious photo booth at Sparklecorn! Bonus points if you can ID my hot, sexy date)

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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Husband, Fairly Odd Kids, Fairly Odd Me 30 Comments

When My Virtual World Becomes Real

July 23, 2009

My online life started in the mid 90’s with Firefly‘s music site. I gave myself the user name “Bar Name: Kitty” and started to post my music preferences. I made friends with a guy named Jaime who lived on the west coast. He made me a mix tape; it was totally platonic (he was married) and cool. When Firefly went under, that casual friendship went with it.

A few years later, while planning my honeymoon to Costa Rica via AOL’s Travel site, I started to exchange emails with a woman who was getting married there a few months before our trip. We compared our trip notes, and she later shared her beautiful photos with me. The month after Fairly Odd Father and I moved into our home, she came to our open house with her husband. She is a lovely person, and we are now Facebook friends.

And, then, when pregnant with Belly, I met up with a bunch of moms-to-be on Baby Center. We eventually migrated to our own private Yahoo Group. For the past nine years, we have cheered each other’s good news and cried over the sad. One of those little babies is with the angels and some of the moms have disappeared from the group, but many of us remain, using Facebook now to keep in touch. I’ve met some of these women in person and know I’d try to see others if I was in their part of the country.

And now, tomorrow, I will hop onto a plane, leaving behind my three kids and my husband on my birthday to meet even more people I only know through the internet. The occasion is the two-day conference known as BlogHer where a whole lotta women (and some brave men) will descend upon Chicago. There are speakers, break-out sessions and a chance for me to meet people I’ve befriended through my computer screen.

There will also be enough parties to wipe out the 20-year-old me—we’ll see how the newly 42-year-old me does.

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(and if you were wondering when I’d tell you how mean a mama I am, check out the original post which I’ve updated to include my comments)

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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Me 16 Comments

Am I a Mean Mama? Your Thoughts, Please?

July 20, 2009

Jilly, my 6 year old, did not like dinner tonight. I admit that a sandwich was not exactly the most inventive thing I’ve ever made, but there were hot sides (roasted carrots! breaded zucchini! tater tots!) and cold salads (potato salad, marinated chick peas and cole slaw).

So, not a totally crappy dinner.

But, she didn’t like her sandwich, the sandwich she ordered specifically in Chez Mama’s kitchen, and so she took the pickle juice left in the jar and poured it all over her sandwich roll (I should point out that 2/3rd’s of the sandwich was remaining; also, I was already in the kitchen washing dishes when she did this, so I had a moment to collect myself before I spoke to her).

How would you have reacted?

1. You would have sat her butt at that table and told her she was to eat every last bite of the pickle-flavored sandwich because food is not to be wasted like that.

2. Lectured her about wasting food needlessly and made her eat a bite of the sandwich so she would know how nasty it tasted. Also, no fruit for dessert.

3. Shook your head in a “kids are kids” moment, blamed yourself for making a half-assed dinner and proceeded with the night as usual (dessert and bed).

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments. I’ll tell you what I did later.

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Update: I did #2.

Now some explanation:

The only reason I didn’t yell was because my oldest had tattled, I mean alerted me to what had happened to the sandwich while I washed dishes in the kitchen. This gave me a moment to calm myself (I agree that I shouldn’t yell at all, but, um, yeah, ain’t going to happen without loads of therapy).

The reason I posted this as a question/discussion is because, normally, I would never have made her take a bite of the sandwich, and I wondered if I was being abnormally cruel. I did it because 1) I had specifically told her we could wrap the sandwich up and save it for later; 2) she poured bread-n-butter pickle juice on the top of the roll which I thought would be less nasty to taste then dill juice.

It was a small bite. But, I told her there were plenty of families that would’ve made her eat the entire thing. She then proceeded to pitch a fit when I told her “no dessert; go to bed!”

Also, I think I blocked this out after going through this once before, but aren’t 6-7 year old girls crazy hormonal? I will never survive 13 with her if this is how she’s serving up 6 1/2.

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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Kids, Fairly Odd Me 66 Comments
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