"About Our Children" a townhall with Bill Cosby at Howard University will be re-airing on Sunday. I think it is something that every parent should see, it is a call for revolution in the way our school systems are handled and the way that our children our educated. Set your DVR!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32676326/
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Motherhood Guilt and Devisiveness...
Ever noticed how there are a million ways to inflict guilt upon yourself as a mother? I was reading Facebook the other day and one of my friends posted about how she didn't understand why some parents will pick up a package of cookies in the grocery store and give it to their children to quiet them without paying for the product until they get to the checkstand, those that do that sort of thing defended, those that don't insisted that it's stealing and a bad example to your kids.
I belong to several mommy webgroups, I have seen contentious discussion between moms on every subject you can imagine. All out virtual wars about carseats, vacinations, breast vs. bottle feeding, down to whether a c-section makes you a non-believer in God (because if God is in control and you have a medical intervention then you are thwarting his plan for you and/or your child to die).
I don't understand the need to fight about everything. I honestly believe that MOST mothers love their children and they really are making the decisions that they believe are best for their children. We all have opinions. I breast feed...I love nursing my little Pumpkin and I have loved it since the begining (that didn't make it any easier when he split my nipple at 3 weeks old, but it did make me stick with it), I think that extended rear facing in the carseat is a good idea (but my kid HATES to be rear facing and does much better forward facing, so we are in the process of turning him at just 14 months, when I really wanted to go to at least 18 months rear facing), we are on a delayed vax schedule because that is what makes me comfortable and I'm his mommy! I have what I believe, I have done the best I can do, but I don't begrudge anyone else their choices either. As long as a parent is doing the best they can and their child is being fed, clothed and loved, I just don't understand why we can't be respectful of choices that are different than our own. The devisiveness in motherhood just makes me sad...I mean if it takes a village shouldn't we all be trying our best to help each other instead of tearing each other down? There is enough guilt in motherhood...do we have to pass it on?
I often think of a Michael McLean song I knew and loved growing up called Gentle (you can hear it here: http://www.ilike.com/artist/Michael+McLean):
Like the friend who gently builds us up when we're down,
Life can be hard but we need not be so hard on ourselves,
Like the Shepherd leads his flock with gentle commands.
I belong to several mommy webgroups, I have seen contentious discussion between moms on every subject you can imagine. All out virtual wars about carseats, vacinations, breast vs. bottle feeding, down to whether a c-section makes you a non-believer in God (because if God is in control and you have a medical intervention then you are thwarting his plan for you and/or your child to die).
I don't understand the need to fight about everything. I honestly believe that MOST mothers love their children and they really are making the decisions that they believe are best for their children. We all have opinions. I breast feed...I love nursing my little Pumpkin and I have loved it since the begining (that didn't make it any easier when he split my nipple at 3 weeks old, but it did make me stick with it), I think that extended rear facing in the carseat is a good idea (but my kid HATES to be rear facing and does much better forward facing, so we are in the process of turning him at just 14 months, when I really wanted to go to at least 18 months rear facing), we are on a delayed vax schedule because that is what makes me comfortable and I'm his mommy! I have what I believe, I have done the best I can do, but I don't begrudge anyone else their choices either. As long as a parent is doing the best they can and their child is being fed, clothed and loved, I just don't understand why we can't be respectful of choices that are different than our own. The devisiveness in motherhood just makes me sad...I mean if it takes a village shouldn't we all be trying our best to help each other instead of tearing each other down? There is enough guilt in motherhood...do we have to pass it on?
I often think of a Michael McLean song I knew and loved growing up called Gentle (you can hear it here: http://www.ilike.com/artist/Michael+McLean):
Like a gentle wind can blow the clouds from the sky,
Like a gentle touch can ease the pain of goodbye,
Like a gentle smile embraces empty souls in lonely places,
We should be more gentle with ourselves.
Like the friend who gently builds us up when we're down,
Like a gentle kiss can turn our world all around,
We've been hurt by others often,
We've forgiven and forgotten,
We should be more gentle with ourselves.
We should be more gentle with ourselves.
Life can be hard but we need not be so hard on ourselves,
If we will see
Like the Shepherd leads his flock with gentle commands.
With his gentle voice that only hearts understand.
One thing we can know for certain,
He has borne the awful burdens so we can be more gentle with ourselves.
One thing that I know for certain:
One thing that I know for certain:
He will bear my every burden,
So I can be gentle with myself.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could just be more gentle with each other and with ourselves? Our Heavenly Father knows that parenting is hard, there are a lot of choices that just don't have a right answer for everyone, when we can learn to respect that we can have differences in parenting and still all be good parents, when we can be more gentle with each other and with ourselves, then maybe we can start to assuage some of the guilt that comes with being Mommy.
Friday, September 18, 2009
So excited...
Last year a mid-season replacement made a big splash in my heart. If you haven't seen ABC's Castle, you should check out the season two premier on Monday September 21 (that's tomorrow people)! Then, because you WILL be hooked, you should pick up season one on Tuesday when it is released on DVD! If you liked the short lived (but much loved cult favorite) Fox series Firefly and/or the movie Serenity, you will love Castle too, Nathan Fillion brings the same dry wonderful sense of humor that he brought to Mal to Castle (and the cute little sly smile too)!
Check it out, I will just be too sad if this show doesn't make it.
Check it out, I will just be too sad if this show doesn't make it.
ETC(SW) Robert Eastman...yummy.
Okay, maybe just yummy for me. It's been a long road. I'm sad I missed the ceremony (the ship is currently underway), but I am so glad that it is over and my Bobby is now officially a Chief...those of you that are not military would be surprised how excited I am to see him in that silly khaki uniform, those of you that know me well will not be surprised at how excited I am to get him out of it ;-p
I should really do this more often...
So, I apparently suck at keeping up with a blog...I think it might be the microblogging on FB and Twitter (incidentally, I have put some recipes up in the past few weeks on FB because it's easier to put them up there than it is here)...
Bobby and I have lived through the induction season and he is officially a Chief now. I haven't seen him in his uniform yet (for those that don't know the uniforms change in the Navy when you make Chief, and it's kind of a big deal), they did the pinning ceremony underway and will not be home for a few days...I can't wait to see him.
I have a lot of things rolling around in my head that I want to blog about...some of them are just things I need to rant about, some of them are controversial...so I'm torn, can't decide if I want to put my thoughts out there or not. I think maybe I just need to let myself go and put it all out there...we'll see.
Been working on sleep training with Punk. All is going amazingly well at this point (it took a few weeks), he still fights naptime a bit, but he now goes to bed at night without so much as a whimper. I can tell that Punk is getting closer to weaning. He still enjoys nursing and LOVES his morning nurse, but during the rest of the day he is typically just too busy to be bothered. He does still nurse it's just struggle sometimes. He is growing SO fast, it makes me sad everyday to see my precious little baby slip away, but I have joy that comes with seeing my precocious little toddler emerging.
Bobby and I are preparing to go to the Temple this fall to be sealed together as a family. We had a date set and had everything scheduled, but it looks like the Navy may have stepped in the way of that plan, so we are trying to move it up to make it still happen this fall as opposed to having to put it off until next year. More details to come as we firm up plans.
Bobby and I have lived through the induction season and he is officially a Chief now. I haven't seen him in his uniform yet (for those that don't know the uniforms change in the Navy when you make Chief, and it's kind of a big deal), they did the pinning ceremony underway and will not be home for a few days...I can't wait to see him.
I have a lot of things rolling around in my head that I want to blog about...some of them are just things I need to rant about, some of them are controversial...so I'm torn, can't decide if I want to put my thoughts out there or not. I think maybe I just need to let myself go and put it all out there...we'll see.
Been working on sleep training with Punk. All is going amazingly well at this point (it took a few weeks), he still fights naptime a bit, but he now goes to bed at night without so much as a whimper. I can tell that Punk is getting closer to weaning. He still enjoys nursing and LOVES his morning nurse, but during the rest of the day he is typically just too busy to be bothered. He does still nurse it's just struggle sometimes. He is growing SO fast, it makes me sad everyday to see my precious little baby slip away, but I have joy that comes with seeing my precocious little toddler emerging.
Bobby and I are preparing to go to the Temple this fall to be sealed together as a family. We had a date set and had everything scheduled, but it looks like the Navy may have stepped in the way of that plan, so we are trying to move it up to make it still happen this fall as opposed to having to put it off until next year. More details to come as we firm up plans.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)