Category: kids

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A good article on Mommy Blogs

I don’t think Stormy’s Corner is a 100% mommy blog but sometimes it’s more mommy blog than other times.  The Denver Post has a good article today about mommy blogs (and how much money they are making for some women.)  The opening paragraph had me laughing.  I definitely had that "nasty case of whiplash!"

Julie Marsh started blogging as she
recovered from a nasty case of the type of whiplash women often
experience after shifting at warp speed into motherhood.

A move to southeast-suburban Parker only a few weeks
before had compounded her malady. Her husband wanted to pursue a great
job opportunity. Her kids – a toddler and an infant – would love their
new fenced-in backyard.

Bye-bye, awesome job at a New York City music company,
Marsh thought. Hello, stay-at-home mommydom. Bye-bye bustling
neighborhood filled with friends, boutiques and coffee shops. Hello
chain restaurants, strip malls and driving, driving and more driving.

Fortunately, my blog didn’t make enough money for us to live off of.  I say fortunately because I don’t think sitting at home writing all day would be my favorite career … now if they write a blog post a day and make it … well, then, I need to work on my writing!

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Is homework good for kids?

 

Photo by Cayusa
Photo by Cayusa

The Truth about Homework clearly argues that homework is not good for kids – or at least that the cons of homework outway the pros.  I think I definitely learned more in the classroom than I did from any homework but I learned two things from homework:

  1. How to write papers.  We never wrote a whole research paper in school.  I can remember writing my first papers in sixth grade.  (I can also remember my mom telling me I could do much better – something the teacher never would have told me as I got A’s on them!  Mom was right of course.  The question was, did it matter?)
  2. How not to procrastinate.  When we moved to Spain when I was in 7th grade it would take me several hours a night to do my homework – mostly because I was struggling with the Spanish.  Carmen, our next door neighbor who watched us after school, would feed us a snack right after school and then we would all sit at the dining room table working on school work until we were done.  To this day, I am not a big procrastinator.  Just sit down and do it.  (And this is why I got to play pool and go out in college while my roommates slaved away!  Come home, go to your room where it’s quiet, do your homework, come out, say hi to everyone and then go to the pub while they sit around talking and doing homework.  I think we all did the same amount of socializing and homework but I think I felt less stressed.)

I also enjoyed doing my math homework and doing a lot of math problems probably cemented the how-to that I learned in school.  Other than that, I can’t remember getting a lot out of my homework but maybe my parents would have a different opinion …

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Best infant costume

If Caleb was still crawling, this is what he’d be for Halloween. Since he’s walking, I have something else in mind and you will have to wait and see!

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Getting Caleb into the Attic: “That’s what pillows are for!”

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Our seven year old likes to play in the garage attic.  To get into the attic, you have to climb a yellow rope and not everyone can do that, so it’s a secret hideout.  Turns out he’s been working on how to get his one year old brother up there!  Last night he said "I think maybe we could put Caleb in a bucket and pull him up into the attic.  But he might be too heavy."  When I mentioned that Caleb might fall out of the attic, he said, "That’s what pillows are for!"

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Being a step-parent

I’ve heard from at least three different people in the last week that being a step-parent is hard. 

I think being a parent is hard.  I think being a kid with four parents and two homes is hard.  I really don’t think being a stepmom is that much harder than being a mom.  (Once in a while it’s a bit frustrating when someone listens to dad when they wouldn’t listen to you but most of the time there’s no difference.)  The difference is it’s just a bit harder communicating among four parents and keeping consistent rules than it is between two, but I don’t think I have it any harder than any of the other three parents! 

Now if someone would just show me where that Magic Guidebook to Parenting is …

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3 things you never knew before you had kids

Here’s three things I never knew before I had kids:

  1. You have to practice bookmarking.  Not the computer bookmarks, the old fashioned kind.  You do this by crawling around the house and pulling the bookmark out of every book you find.  You then try to insert the bookmark back in the book.  Pull out and repeat.  If someone is holding you and a book at the same time … well, that’s the perfect opportunity to practice your bookmarking skills.  (As a side benefit, you get to watch them yell too!)
  2. Corn kernels can go in your mouth and come out the other end without
    changing at all.  You can eat a whole cup and a whole cup comes out in
    the diaper.  What a diet plan!
  3. You will go to the doctor more in the first year of life than all of the next 30 combined.  Even if you only go for the regular, suggested appointments.

Got any others?

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Does your doctor take your concerns seriously?

As I said in my last post about choosing a new doctor, we’ve seen a lot – like really a lot – of medical people this year.  I’ve really come to appreciate medical people that take my concerns seriously (all of those visits but one were very necessary) and I’ve become really annoyed at people who don’t take me seriously or don’t believe me.

Today, before the doctor even looked at Caleb she was already trying to tell me there was not much chance of him having an ear infection because he didn’t have a fever and he wasn’t fussing with his ears.  I felt myself getting defensive – and a bit worried that she might not even look at his ears!  I think I stayed civil and calm.  The minute she peeked in his ear, she said, "Oh, that’s definitely infected!" and I didn’t even say "I told you so!" 

In contrast, I took Caleb to the ER a couple of weeks ago and they made me feel believed, trusted, knowledgeable, …  When all of Caleb’s terrible choking sounds stopped when we got there,  I was so worried they wouldn’t believe me!  But they went out of their way to listen to me and to check him.  They even took xrays!  (Turns out he had a throat infection and his throat was swollen so much that when he cried his vocal cords would hit the sides of his throat and it sounded terrible!  It got Frank and I out of bed faster than I think we’ve ever moved before!)

Does your doctor believe you?  Or do they take a "I’ll be the judge of that" attitude with you?

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When do you need a new doctor?

When do you decide you need a new doctor?  In the past year we’ve been to the hospital once, the ER three times, urgent care twice and the doctor’s office countless times!  That’s a lot of medical care – and all of the visits except one justified some type of medical treatment.  So today when I called the doctor’s office to ask a nurse a question – to see if we needed to see a doctor – and she told me there were no doctors or nurses on staff and I should go to urgent care … well, I decided we needed a new plan.  So I called a pediatrician who works in an office of pediatricians.  Because of their large staff of doctors they were able to fit Caleb in right away.  We had to jump in the car to make it in time.  (Instead of half a mile away, they are 15 miles away.)

So while I really liked Caleb’s small town family doctor – he always took the time to sit down and answer all my questions and he had a very matter of fact, no worrying way of looking at things – I really needed a doctor we could see on short notice.  One that wouldn’t constantly refer me to urgent care and the emergency room.  When your kid has an ear infection, you can’t wait till next Tuesday.