Tuesday, June 30, 2009

You Tube'n

Somehow I have ended up with several different circles of online friends. I have local friends, high school friends, family friends, and a few blogger friends I have never actually met in person. From time to time someone from one of these groups will send me a video from You Tube that is hyesterical, but then I quickly forget which circle of friends has seen it and which hasn't so I end up not posting it at all. So, today, I will be posting some of the videos I have been sent that are too good not to pass along. If you have seen one, or were the one who sent them, enjoy this little trip down memory lane.
From the blogging friends: Interestingly enough, I found this one on the recommendation of a group of women who were all Asian.(watch to find out why that is funny) Click here for direct link


From family: This one comes thanks to my sister-in-law after spending some time around college kids. It is an actual music video from India with subtitles of the words it sounds like they are saying. This one is not good to watch with children who can read. If the player isn't working click here


From high school friends: My hip hop rap loving friend who also happens to be a short (very) white woman who lives in South Florida now with her husband and son.
I'm sorry to say, it won't let me embed this one so you'll have to follow the link. It is the Soulja Boy set to clips of Winnie the Pooh.
click here

From my local friend Mendy (and especially for my friends from WBBJ who worked on many a local commercial with me): Here is the link for this one

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The Uncle Theory

My mother and her sister both married men named Bill. This means that regardless of which of the three siblings you are an offspring of, you have at least 1 Uncle Bill, which prompted my brother Matt to declare one day that, "everyone has an Uncle Bill". I got curious and began asking around. As it turns out, most people I know of my generation have either an Uncle Bill (or William) and/or an Uncle Bob (Robert, Bobby etc.). Rocky had one of each, as did I, if you count great uncles in this. Most of the exceptions I have found are people that either do not have uncles, or their family is of a nationality that does not traditionally use names like William or Robert.
Recently I was scrolling through pictures on facebook and noticed a trend. It seems that several of my children's friends have an Uncle Matt. Even if it isn't an uncle, we know a lot of people with a Matt as a close family member. This has brought me to the conclusion that Matt is the new Bob/Bill.
I really don't think this cycle will be able to continue for my grandchildren. We are in that odd group of people who took to naming their children random surnames, a whole new breed of unisex names like Peyton, and trying to be creative with spellings. However, there are a lot of Jacobs out there, so maybe there is hope for the uncles of tomorrow. Oddly enough, according to the Social Security Administration, William and Matthew are both still in the top 10 baby names. Maybe that means that children will go on having Uncle Bills and Uncle Matts for generations to come. I know we have been blessed by ours and hope the trend continues.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Open Book Policy

I am trying really hard not to force my parenting style on others and I am having a hard time keeping my mouth shut about something. This is why having a blog is so awesome. I can post what I'm thinking, get it out of my system, and hopefully not blurt out personal opinions at the wrong moment.
When Nix was 8 she asked a question about something that lead into "the talk". Mostly I let her ask questions and answered them as honestly as possible, but we covered a lot of ground that day. Since then she has had other questions that she has brought to me and I have answered all of them. I've encouraged her to ask anything that comes to mind. I want her to be ready for the changes she will go through and the things that life will throw her way. What I didn't realize is that this is not what every mom does. To me, waiting on talking with your children about adult issues is like not teaching a kid to swing a bat until they have already been hit in the head with a baseball. If your children feel like you are shutting them out now, then when the time comes for them to share with you, they will shut you out.
This year in school they divided up the boys and girls for the nurse to talk to them about "health issues" in regards to puberty. Nix asked to be excused from the class because, as she put it, "I'd rather learn about these things from my mom than a school nurse in a room full of other girls. I trust my mom to tell me the truth." Yes, I did burst with pride that day. I may have even teared up a little.
To date Nix and I have covered some about sex, drugs, pregnancy, STDs, alcohol, smoking, swearing, modesty, puberty and all it's ugliness, self respect, molestation, and even a few topics about boys. In fact, just today we had talk about long term consequences for short term enjoyment. It was mostly about why huffing and the like are idiotic, but the lesson applies to a lot. My goal is to train her to ask me questions when she becomes curious about something. It helped me skip that dangerous experimental teenage phase, and I am hoping it will do the same for her.
Okay, it's out there. That is my parenting style. Others may differ and that's okay. They can be wrong. It's a free country :)

Friday, June 05, 2009

Pratice Make Perfect

Yesterday my children were being unusually good. They were playing quietly together. There was no yelling, or screaming, or noticeable fighting of any kind. Naturally this made me suspicious. They had to have been plotting something. So, I stop what I am doing and listen. They appeared to be doing nothing wrong, but that couldn't be right. Finally, I stopped them and asked what they were up to. "Nothing." Isn't that always the standard answer for trouble? I continued to pry. This is when Nix "confesses". She explained that they were just practicing being nice to each other. Her theory was that if they could try to be nice to each other a couple of days a week then maybe it would stick. I encouraged them and praised them for their efforts and waited until I was all the way out of the room before laughing. I don't know how they came up with this plan, but the past two days have been down right peaceful at my house.