Lucky #13

 

I got into my car the other day to find that what was once my favorite station on SiriusXM radio had changed. I listened to Faction pretty religiously because they played punk rock. For a few weeks it changed to a Guns N Roses takeover which wasn’t all that terrible because there was still some decent music and that band always makes me think of my husband. But when I backed out of my driveway the other day the new format was in full effect. What I heard was the DJ talking about how he likes hanging around bars when the women come out drunk wearing one shoe because it is like “shooting fish in a barrel.” My favorite punk rock station is now on some channel I can only get at home, but I can tune in to the date rape station anytime with my six year old daughter in the car. Awesome! (more…)

Higher Ground

If anyone can tame a wolf – it is this child.

If you ever feel like you need a pat on the back for your parenting skills, spend a few days at a water park. I just spent the last hour telling my six year old how kind and sweet and polite she is after spending seventy two hours surrounded by a few hundred partially supervised, overly sweetened little monsters. Their parents were mostly encouraging the bad behavior by looking the other way when their kid cut in line and sprayed another kid in the face with a water gun. They are just kids being kids, learning how to be mean and get their way, learning how to look out for number one. The parents just leaned back with their beers and watched their little minis pouring buckets of water on unsuspecting parents, laughing right along. (more…)

Unity

Heather Heyer – killed by hate.

My heart has been heavy for the last few days after seeing all of the violence in North Carolina. But today I awoke feeling a lot of hope. I have been watching people around me online and people in my community who have come together to spread love. This is what we do as human beings. This is what we are built to do, to rally together and comfort one another. We are compelled to see evil in our midst and to either run from it or stand up to it. Racism is nothing new to the human race. It comes about because of fear, because of feelings of inadequacy, because of hopelessness. Racists are not born with hate in their heart, they develop it over time. Hate is an easy way to blame someone or something else for feeling less than. Hate comes from fear. (more…)

FEAR

She might fall, but she might fly.

My daughter and I attended a birthday party the other day at a gymnastics center. I watched as the kids climbed up a giant wooden pirate ship built into the wall and jumped into a pit filled with little foam blocks. Some of the kids went to the very top drawbridge, while others would only jump from the drawbridge in the middle of the boat. Some kids didn’t jump at all, opting to explore other caverns. I thought about what I would have done as a child. I would have been the first one up to the top drawbridge, possibly even looking for a higher spot to jump from. I was a daredevil for sure. I see that in my daughter and it scares me because I know the kind of trouble we daredevils can find. (more…)

Baby Talk

My six year old has a pretty large vocabulary. She uses words like “persistent” and “stupendous” in normal conversation. So when she started baby talking last week I knew something was amiss. I have read all of the parenting books and blogs I can get my hands on. I have been informed by Drs. Sears, Ferber and Spock that she is going through an event that she is not psychologically ready to face so she is reverting to her infant language as a coping mechanism. This would all make perfect sense if we were moving, or if there had been a death in the family. But there isn’t any big change happening. There is summer camp and afternoons in her grandparents’ pool.  (more…)

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