Our Children Are Our Garden
Our children are our garden. They absorb our stress, just as they absorb our peace. They absorb our negativity just as they absorb our joy. And we have the power to control what they absorb, but first, we must tend to ourselves – Rachel Macy Stafford August 2020: This hits home so hard for me right now. I can imagine I am not in this boat alone either. I am not doing a great job of tending to me… I feel like I have been under water since March of last year and slowly drowning. I thought going back to work and having Coop at school would normalize things again,…
Why I Won’t Have A Conversation About Race With My 3 Year Old
The other morning I was curious if my three year old would even understand the color of skin. I asked him what color are you? He responded blue. I asked him what color is Miss Karen? He said pink. I then asked him what color is Miss Betty? He said purple. One person in the mix is black and after asking him again the color of skin and pointing out that one was black, he said no she isn’t she is purple and was very adamant about it. I asked him again later in the day the same question and he responded with the exact colors as earlier. I pulled…
Terrible Two’s Or Unrealistic Expectations?
Ahh Terrible Two’s what every parent dreads. Just kidding that is when they are teenagers right? I personally don’t believe in terrible two’s. I believe that adults have unrealistic expectations how they think a child should act and the adult’s response is what magnifies the child’s terrible behavior. I read a piece recently by Dr. Laura Markham recently on discipline vs. teaching and it was a real eye opener for me. I am a soft one on disciplining Cooper and I may or may not let him get away with more than he should. He is two however and I am realistic in his understanding of how things should and…
The Fragile Generation
My generation was the last that learned to play in the street. We were the first to play video games, the last to record songs off the radio onto a cassette tape. We had the first VCR, cordless phone, microwave, CD’s, Atari, TV remote control, MTV when it actually played music videos, and so much more. This generation will experience newer models of the items our generation had first. We didn’t have cars with airbags, rode bikes without a helmet and knee pads, and were allowed to be kids and get hurt. We were allowed to play in the mud and not regulated sand that is safe. We drank from…
Being a Mama Past & Present
This weekend we had dinner with friends of ours that are expecting. During our conversation the topic of being a mom now vs. 50 years ago came up. It got me thinking of my own childhood (I am 41) vs. the life that our son will have/grow up in now. My mom was able to stay home and sell Avon with me and while I would like to be a stay at home mom it isn’t feasible. Women now are expected to be career driven as well as a wife and a mom. In turn we are more financially secure than my parents were. I don’t remember ever having play-dates.…
