All Hail the Perfect Mother

January 22, 2008

The other day, I heard someone say this:

“I have never, ever raised my voice to my children. I have never, ever looked at them with anything but a smile and love in my eyes. . . I let them know every day how much I treasure them. I adore them. They are my reason for being on this earth. I would never raise my voice to them. I would never tell them anything but that they are the precious young men that I’ve had the privilege of being their mother.”

Is she friggin‘ kidding? Two boys and you’ve never raised your voice in anger? Never given them the evil eye when they start telling fart jokes in front of company? Never had a bad day and said something you regret?

Attention please! I would like to nominate Dr. Phil’s wife for sainthood in mothering! Or, are there more of you out there? I must know how you’ve found your zen.

When people hear I homeschool my kids, the first thing out of their mouths is often, “Oh, you must be so patient”. And, I have to stifle a laugh, because of all the qualities I have, patience is one that I could use in spades.

Lately, my mothering has been less-than-stellar. I’m not sure if it is the ‘post holiday’ doldrums, but I can’t shake that desire to crawl back into bed and pull the covers over my head. I raise my voice too often (although more in a ‘military officer‘ tone versus the ‘crazy-lady screech’ heard on the show that prompted Robin—aka Mrs. Dr. Phil—to make the above statement). I say things like, “Hurray Up!”, “Stop Playing with Water!”, “Give me that!” and “Will you just Listen!”.

Ugh.

I know I’m a work in progress. I know I should count to ten a little more often, should lighten up, should go with the flow of mothering.

I also know that one person I would not want to be is the pregnant daughter-in-law to Mother Robin. I couldn’t handle trying to live up to that.

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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Kids, Fairly Odd Me, The Outside World 21 Comments

Walk, Walk, As Fast As You Can, You Can’t Catch Me. . .

January 19, 2008

FINALLY, I got to 10,000 steps! And, it was not even thanks to any “real” exercise (although, “thank you” to Wendy for recommending Leslie Sansone’s DVDs which have been fun so far).

Now, how does one get to 10,000 steps in one day? Follow this program:

  • Walk up and down stairs of two-story home at least 50 times to retrieve a sock, answer the phone (which has always been left on the other floor), use the bathroom (our two upstairs toilets were out-of-commission—don’t ask), and break up petty arguments.
  • Take kids to gymnastics and, while girls are having their class, run around with three-year-old son playing catch and tag.
  • Shovel front and back walkways and porches of rapidly melting snow.
  • Drop oldest at Brownies and take two younger kids to the giant “SUPER”market in town. Walk from one end to the other picking up ten things.
  • Vacuum first floor while kids have ‘movie night’. Stop to eat popcorn in between rooms.

If you, too, follow this plan, you can reach 10,114 steps as I did. Now, how in the world do I do this again without collapsing from exhaustion?

———————–
Got more time? I have a post on New England Mamas about trying to protect my kids in this big, bad world of ours.

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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Me, New England Mamas 8 Comments

To Save A Buck (or two)

January 18, 2008

Before the holidays, there was a lot written about the safety of China’s exports; namely, toys. Many shoppers were on high-alert, looking for toys that were not manufactured in China, or, at the very least, were not at the top of any recall lists.

And then today I read a story in the Wall Street Journal that began like this:

“Over the holidays, millions of American children received Chinese-made toys powered by cadmium batteries.

Cadmium batteries are safe to use. They are also cheap, saving American parents about $1.50 on the average toy, compared with pricier batteries.”

The article then goes on to say that the cheap price of these batteries does not reveal the heavy price the Chinese workers making them must pay for inhaling the toxic red cadmium dust. Problems such as kidney failure, lung cancer and bone disease can be the result of breathing in this toxic metal.

You can read the entire article here. And note this: “In America, five years after Hasbro stopped using nickel-cadmium batteries, Mattel and Toys “R” Us are yet to follow suit, but say they are exploring alternatives. Wal-Mart no longer purchases cadmium batteries from GP but declined to comment on whether it still uses them in its products.”

It is bone-chilling to think about how many people may be now suffering or even dead so that we can save $1.50 on the ‘average toy’.

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Filed Under: The Outside World 6 Comments
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