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Produce Wash Can Do That?

April 30, 2012 in Gotcha Moments, Raising these kids, The Small People Know Me as "Mommy"

5pm, Friday playing the home version of What’s That: this time What’s That Sticky Spot on the Floor. A Friday already full of bizarrely frustrating events that seem innocuous when examined separately, but when grouped together? Parenting laughter– the knee-hugging, rocking back and forth in padded room kind. Parenting. Spending more time exploring Life’s Really Important Questions, such as “What’s That Smell” and “What Made This Sticky Spot” JB leans in and sniffs, categorizes it [...]

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Tantrums: You Can’t Legislate This Birth Control

March 20, 2012 in Gotcha Moments, Raising these kids, Raising these Parents, The Small People Know Me as "Mommy"

The public tantrum. That moment when an adult feels one of several reactions depending on their own life experience. I worked retail for a decade– I’ve seen my fair of epic tantrums. Excellent birth control reminders, all of them. I often judged those parents as pushovers being led by the nose like obedient cattle. In retrospect, many of those judgments were likely unfair, and more —-> because I was stupid. because I was stupid. because [...]

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Rewarding the Good Stuff

March 9, 2012 in Gotcha Moments, Just Life, Pinterest, Crafts, and Home Decor Projects, Raising these kids, Raising these Parents

Listen, I’m a consistency pro when it comes to punishment/consequences. Should you ever hear me say “if you do X, then we are leaving”, followed by one of them doing X right in my face, you can be assured your next view will be of our departing backsides. Note: I’m not saying I’m perfect at this, but I trend toward follow through far more often than not. I usually have enough self control to warn [...]

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Stuttering, this is new.

October 12, 2011 in Adult ADHD Isn't a Bad Thing, Gotcha Moments, Just Life, Life Lessons, Raising these kids, Things that Make Me Twitchy

See, just as soon as I decide there is nothing to worry about growth wise with Elliot, he develops a stutter. And I don’t mean a simple st-st-stutter. Nope, it’s more of a s-s-s-s-st-st-st-st-st-stutter. He’ll be 3 in November and his language abilities were already advanced, so that his stuttering may be the result of a forthcoming language explosion (a common reason for stuttering in the 2-5 year age range) is a little terrifying. What [...]

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American Gender Roles, a Preschooler, and Me

September 26, 2011 in Gotcha Moments, Just Life, Life Lessons, Politics, Raising these kids, Staying Home Didn't Kill the Feminist, The Small People Know Me as "Mommy"

Sigh. Rubs Forehead. I’ve written about this before– not that I can find it since I don’t, apparently, have a search feature. How did I miss not having a search option? D’oh. Boys don’t wear pink dresses! Let me be crystal clear about this: I could give a rat’s ass if either of my sons want to dress up in frilly pink lace, high heels, pearls, while wearing purple eye shadow and magenta lipstick. No. [...]

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The Bonecrushing Guilt

August 23, 2011 in Gotcha Moments, Just Life, Life Lessons, Raising these kids, Raising these Parents, The Small People Know Me as "Mommy"

Once, in a retail galaxy far, far away, I attended a management seminar on reactive versus proactive planning. Oh, I start out with a plan to be proactive, and someone (either someone under 46 inches tall and/or with a penis) doesn’t follow instructions, or “forgets”, and I go a nuclear reactive. In my head. Usually my external reaction is more controlled– even when it doesn’t seem that way with my people. Really, between the PTSD-suffering-, [...]

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An Unfortunate Side Effect

April 29, 2011 in Adult ADHD Isn't a Bad Thing, Gotcha Moments, Just Life, Raising these kids

I realize that I’ve spent too much time lately complaining about Zach’s complaining. Yes, I recognize the irony–thanksomuch. I can’t talk about this stuff with anyone when he’s awake, because he’s an eavesdropper. And every time I forget that he’s always listening, I pay for it later. Like a few days ago when he heard me mention that our plumber was cute– only to loudly repeat“THAT’S THE CUTE PLUMBER, RIGHT MOM?” when the man returned [...]

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RIP Santa, Part II

March 27, 2011 in Gotcha Moments, Just Life, Life Lessons, Raising these kids, Thoughts from a SAHM

I sat and thought about what I was going to say to him. I didn’t feel betrayed when I busted my parents in the Santa myth. I remember feeling smug about my spying skills. But I’ve not ever outright lied to him, either. I remembered his awe of Santa the year he was 2. After the disappointing reality of a new baby brother, meeting Santa was the starter version of meeting a rock-n-roll superstar… Like [...]

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RIP Santa

March 26, 2011 in Gotcha Moments, Just Life, Life Lessons, Raising these kids, The Small People Know Me as "Mommy", Thoughts from a SAHM

Ah. March. The time of spring, birthdays and BASKETBALL. Basketball with a divided house, no less (GO TARHEELS!). Which is how my nephews ended up hanging out over here last weekend, with very little (almost no) adult supervision. It’s also when the younger of the two older nephews–and the one most idolized by Z–mentioned that Baby Jesus killed Santa Claus. Of course, when I say mentioned, I mean that he ripped out the heart of [...]

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