PregnancyFamilyEducation Blogs
November 1, 2009
Then and now
Back when I was a kid, sick days seemed a little golden, somehow, tinged with a magic to them, spun from something out-of-the-ordinary. It was never fun to be sick, but getting to stay home was like being given a chance to step back into those perfect days of very early childhood, when you could lie cocooned in bed, drifting in and out of sleep to the steady hum of household rhythms, or the comforting background of the television or radio noise rising and falling around you in waves and you waited. [more]
- Tags: Parenting, Moms, Health, Growing Up Is Hard to Do, Children
October 28, 2009
Note from the trenches
You might feel the need to Lysol your computer monitor after all the H1N1 posts I've been putting up this week...
It must be some type of cosmic joke that after spending so much time wrestling with the H1N1 vaccine question and writing about it yesterday, I would come down with the flu.
THE flu. [more]
October 27, 2009
Irony and indecision
Irony
pronunciation: \ˈī-rə-nē also ˈī(-ə)r-nē\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural iro·nies
Etymology: Latin ironia, from Greek eirōnia, from eirōn dissembler
Date: 1502
the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning
OR
Spending weeks and weeks debating whether or not you should get the H1N1 vaccine for your children, making the decision to go ahead and do it, then finding out that you can't get the vaccine anywhere, even if you beg and plead, and wring your hands.
************ [more]
October 22, 2009
Paper dreams
One thing that's really struck me as different now that T. has a couple months of kindergarten under her belt, is what effect school has had on her assertiveness. She's a pleaser by nature and sometimes asserting herself takes a back seat to my big-hearted girl's desire to please. But we've noticed at home that she's holding her own with L. They are squabbling and fighting more because of this, but I imagine that once both of them adapt to this shift things will settle down--at least I hope so (please oh please). [more]
- Tags: Parenting, Moms, Kindergarten, Early Learning, Children, Arts & Crafts
October 21, 2009
Time out
Yesterday I finally did what I had put off for two years--I skipped out of my office hours early (grouching all the way to myself about the work I needed to do) and headed to my OB/Gyn for that exam--you know the one--the one that's supposed to happen annually but the one we moms often put off because, well, we're awfully good about taking care of other people, but sometimes not so good about taking care of ourselves.
While I was there I learned two unexpected things:
1) My driver's license expired in August
and [more]
October 14, 2009
Me Day
Yesterday morning my office-mate/friend and I joked that we weren't the only ones who benefited from the two-days off for Fall Break. We left our clunky, prehistoric printer in a non-working state on Thursday--whirring endlessly to itself, and a couple of error lights flashing on and off.
Tuesday morning it was, miraculously, back-to-life again, doing what it was supposed to do--no help from anyone.
***************** [more]
- Tags: Work, Social & Emotional Issues, Parenting, Moms
October 13, 2009
Declaration of independence
When I teach the first semester of Freshman Composition, I usually assign a particular reading to my students--one dealing with the question of public space, what it is, how it can be altered, and who alters it. [more]
October 6, 2009
Family-friendly?
If you are a working parent, is your company family-friendly? Take a minute to think about what you think family-friendly really means--in your ideal world (we're not talking reality, here). You can make a list, as I make my students often do in class, whenever I want to challenge them to think about a topic. Some things I would put on my list would be:
1. Good affordable health care benefits for families (including dental and vision)
2. Flexible work time
3. Extended leave for pregnancy/illness
4. Ability to bring children to work on school breaks [more]
October 5, 2009
10 ways you can tell you're a parent (even at a rock concert)
1. You feel smug because your cool low-slung Levis with the hole in one knee still fit and your daughter looks at you and says, "Oh no, Mama! You need to sew that hole!"
2. The only binoculars you can find to take to the concert are your nine-year old son's night vision ones.
3. You bring them anyway.
4. You empty your pockets for security at the concert entrance and find: a kleenex, chapstick, one acorn, and a rock shaped like a light saber.
5. The only chapstick you could find to grab out of the car before the concert was your daughter's cherry-berry lipsmackers. [more]
