Worth the Read

As a follow up to yesterday' s post on kids growing up too quickly, my friend Kristin sent this link. Click here to read a great article regarding this. It's a long one, but worth the read. Roy and I decided a long time ago that our children will never have a television or a computer in their bedrooms. The family computer will ALWAYS be in the kitchen...in an open area. Thanks, Kristin!

Enough Already!

Yesterday, I was at the Dollar Tree finding Easter basket stuff for the kids' baskets. Caroline is really into puzzles lately, so as I was browsing the puzzle endcap, I came across this sweet thing:

Huh?! Sweet in the City??? Is that supposed to be cute? This puzzle was targeted at girls age 5+. What would make the people who designed that puzzle think, "Hey! I've got an idea!!! Let's make a Strawberry Shortcake puzzle for little girls and play off the movie, Sex in the City!"?? This made me realize that there is such a big push out there to make little girls grow up way too quickly.

We've all seen the clothes marketed at young girls (ages 3-10). I really hope I don't offend anyone who reads my blog, but I cannot stand it when the clothes for little girls in this age group are so grown-up-looking and just not age-appropriate. One of my pet-peeves are the shorts that say "Princess" or "Cutie" on the back, or High School Musical clothes that start in size 3T! I saw a pair of wedge heeled, open toed shoes in Caroline's size at Nordstrom a few months back and it made me laugh!

And take this for example. When I was a little girl, I was ob-SESSED with Barbies. Seriously, they were my life from as early as I can remember until (I'm embarrassed to admit) age 11. I had names and story lines for each Barbie and Ken doll. It was my private soap opera, and yes...it got ugly sometimes for certain dolls. But back to the point, when I was little, Barbies were so pretty and glamorous. My favorite Barbie I ever owned was this one:

Peaches and Cream Barbie! She was so beautiful. I still have her in my closet at my parent's house but her hair has been cut and the dress has definitely been played with. When I was little, all the accessories you could buy for your Barbies were beautiful evening gowns, pretty dresses, hats and high heels. Today's Barbie looks more like this:

Why can't Mattel bring the old Barbie back?! Now don't get me wrong. I LOVE Barbies and the creativity they bring and I cannot wait for Caroline to play with them one day, but I think I'm going to wait until she's a little bit older. I'm going to hold out hope that she loves the baby doll/make-believe stage she's in for a lot longer:)

I guess now that I'm a mom, I see everything so differently--especially as a mom of a little girl. With all the pain and sorrow in the world and all the cattiness that comes with being a girl, I just want to shelter Caroline and keep her little for as long as I can! I owe a major apology to my sisters, Dayna and Denise. When they both had their first children (girls), I was 18 and let's just say that I was one proud Auntie. I bought my nieces Barbies as young ages, painted their nails--at really young ages!!!-- put make-up on them, etc., without asking their moms first. And Dolly and I even taught Maddie the first few lines of Britney Spears' "Baby Baby". What were we thinking?! We thought it was so cute and funny to see a two year old singing "Oh, Baby, baby. How was I supposed to know..."Oops! Sorry, girls! We were so wrong and I know better now. I used to get so annoyed when you'd both say "Donna, I can't wait until you have your children. You'll understand then!" Girls, I get it now. A girl cannot fully understand the enormous responsibility of children/parenting until she has her own. Hopefully Maddie and Grayson aren't scared in any way:)

Again, please don't think that I'm going to be a legalistic parent who never allows her daughter to have or do anything fun whatsoever. I will and Caroline won't be a nerd who thinks that everything out there is bad or shameful. I can't wait to do big girl stuff with her in the future, but for now, I'm going to keep Caroline in her smocks, hair bows and mary janes....innocent!

What marketing schemes out there aimed at little girls drives you crazy?

24/7 Mom.

Before you read, please know that I am not whining about being a mom. I love it. It's truly a privilege and a blessing. I am also not bashing my husband. He is a blessing, too--and a wonderful husband and daddy!! Look at this as a journal entry into this blog book I'm going to make!!

A few weeks ago when Roy was out of the country, I came down with some severe flu-like symptoms. Again, please don't think I am pregnant, because I am not. Within a few hours, I felt like I had been hit by a Mack truck, I was freezing but my body was on fire, I had a massive headache, my throat felt like a cheese grater was taken to it and all I wanted to do was hand in my Mom Badge, close the curtains, crawl into bed and sleep for two days. Mom was in Florida and Jane was in Alaska. I didn't want to call my friends because they all have toddlers of their own and I didn't want them to think the kids were sick, too. I had NOBODY to help me and I HAD to still go on with life...making dinner, playing, giving baths, putting rowdy kids to bed. Oh, it was an absolutely miserable few days, but I went on. All I wanted was to be allowed to be sick! The only funny thing I could think of was that all of those years of "pretending to be sick" to get out of school was coming back to bite me:)

Fast forward to last week. Roy had salmonella poisoning and he had stomach pains all week. Each night he'd come home, lay on the couch for a bit, take a hot bath and then he'd be in bed by 8:30. I have to admit that I envied him as I watched his nightly routine. He was able to just come home and do what I wanted to do a few weeks ago. So, this past Saturday afternoon, he sat in the chair on the porch while I hurried along making lunch for 2 hungry and cranky children. I zipped around the kitchen making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, peeling apple sauce tops off the containers, pouring juice. I hurried and fed Roy Austin and then ran upstairs to change his diaper and put him down for a nap. While Caroline was outside finishing her lunch, I started to make my own lunch and then joined her and Roy outside. As I sat down to enjoy my first bite of pasta salad, I heard, "Mommy, swing me!". UGH! This was the final straw. I replied (but I replied to Roy, who was sitting in his chair enjoying the sunlight), "can I do ANYTHING by myself?" His reply: "Whoa, are you okay?". My reply? "I can't go potty by myself, I can't take a shower without someone watching me. I CAN'T EVEN BE SICK!". When I said the last sentence, I think he "got it". He sweetly got up and went to push Caroline while I sat in the sunlight enjoying my lunch....by myself.

Like I said in the first paragraph, I am not bashing Roy. It just dawned on me this weekend, that God made moms to be the caregivers for a season. While parents are definitely a team when it comes to raising children, He made the mothers to be the ones to physically take care of the children. I keep reminding myself of the statement a total stranger made to me the other week: "These are the happiest days of my life and I don't even realize it". I need to remember that daily:) The season we are now living is the one I will want back badly.

So, to mothers like my mom, my mother-in-law, my sisters Dayna and Denise and Kristi W....I don't know how you did/do it with 4, 5 and 7 kids! You are all inspirations. I know if you did/do it (and made/make it look easy), then I can, too!