Relationships
Handling Stupidity
If your child does something that you think is incredibly stupid, how do you respond? Do you get angry? Scream? Lecture? Give the silent treatment? Or let it go? What do you do?…
Lessons On 'Tween-Age Swearing
Figuring out the rules about swearing can be really confusing for ‘tweens. Up until about middle school, most parents teach their children not to use “bad words,” or at least try to discourage the use of profanity. But suddenly, around the end of 5th grade, kids start trying out their new understanding of these “naughty” words and begin to throw around a little language designed to shock peers and parents….
Lessons in Losing It: The Sequel
Last week, something happened to my stupid iPhone which resulted in the voice activation feature to accidentally turn on. I don’t have a clue as to what series of keys I may have pressed, and I’d like to know so I never do it again, because suddenly this computer generated female voice – let’s call her iJill – is shouting all kinds of commands at me in her terrible and very unstoppable voice: “Settings. General. Settings. Settings. Settings. On. Settings. iPod. Email. Settings…”
I fiddled with my phone, which made iJill furious and the screen locked up on me. I tried turning the phone off and doing a soft return. It was all for naught, when the phone turned on again, iJill was still shouting at me, my screen would not move and, I started to lose it. …
Kids Throwing Money Away at the Mall
Once, when I was about 10 years old, I made the mistake of tossing out a few pennies while emptying out a junk drawer, and my father gave me a lecture that I would never forget. It started generally – with how people come to this country with big dreams and nothing in their pockets – and moved to the specific at which point he explained that he worked his ass off every day to make sure that our family had everything that we needed, and he’d be damned if I was going to be so ungrateful and selfish (*insert in a few million more shameful terms here*) as to throw away money, even a penny, when there were people starving all over the world, people who would love to have my pennies. Let’s just say, the speech made a major impression….
To Read or To Unplug?
Do you let your kids completely unplug over the summer, or do you keep them reading?
If so, what books are your kids enjoying? Please include the age and gender of your child.
And for even more fun, tell me what books you enjoyed reading as a kid and what you remember liking about them….
Let 'Em Quit or Make 'Em Play?
When I was in the third grade, I totally wanted to play the drums. But back in the 1970s, girls were not encouraged to play percussion instruments. Nay, the “banging” instruments” were reserved for the boys. I was, however, presented with a shiny, slim flute and told that if I was ever good enough that, one day, I would be able to play the piccolo. Whoop dee doo.
Years went by, and while I may have played well enough, I just never felt anything for the flute. In fact, at one point, we were robbed and I actually prayed that the robbers had taken my flute. They did not. In middle school, on band days, I used to look back at our strawberry-blond haired drummer, Kevin Eastman, with a kind of longing and wish I was the one be doing the boom-tap, boom-boom tap thing. …
Kids and Guns
With which are you more comfortable and why?
Your 11-year old child having a Facebook account? (Note: According to Facebook policy: “In order to be eligible to sign up for Facebook, users must be thirteen (13) years of age or older.) Or that same 11-year old owning and using an air-soft gun?
Do you find the question ridiculous? Do these things concern you at all?…
Big Bucks, No Whammies: Lessons on Gambling
When my boy was very young – maybe four or five years old – we had just completed our grocery shopping when he noticed a man in a green coat feeding dollar bills into a machine that then shot out shiny tickets. He asked me what the man was doing and what the machines were for and I thought, Aha! Now this is a teachable moment if I have ever seen one! I licked my lips, certain that this would be, without a doubt, the lesson on gambling that my son would never forget.
I explained to my littlun that the man in the green coat was buying scrach-off tickets. That each ticket had a different price, and that the man had a chance of winning a little money (as in the same amount as the cost of the ticket), a lot of money (in this case, up to $500 smackers) or he could lose everything….
Breaking Up With A Friend
One day, I’m not exactly sure when it happened, but I realized our friendship was unraveling. Once, we had once joked that we were Frog and Toad, the infamous amphibian duo created in a series of children’s books by Arnold Lobel, but suddenly, it just didn’t feel good anyone. Actually, that isn’t quite true. It wasn’t sudden at all. There had been a series of transgressions on both sides. Years of hurt feelings that had never been addressed. What makes relationships end?…
Lessons in Losing Things
I said to my boy: “And just so you know, assuming you live a long time – and I hope you do – you are going to lose stuff. A lot. It happens. I lose things all the time. I write notes to myself on slips of paper and they disappear. I don’t know where they go. I lose bills and receipts. Bottom line is, you have to know that you are going to lose shit, and you have to know it’s not worth losing your shit when you lose something.”
He giggled.
“What?” I asked.
“You said the ‘s-word’ a lot.”
He’s 10….