Mamatography – Week Seven and Eight

To our hostess and those participating weekly in the Mamatography Challenge, I apologize for falling so far behind. I am pretty sure I have (close to) a picture a day for all of the weeks I have fallen behind and will do my best to catch up in the next week or so.

Welcome to the third and fourth week of February! This is a leap year so this month will include an extra day – how exciting is that? Because I have fallen so far behind I will be closing out February in one post, so as to save us all a bit of time. I appreciate your patience with us and thank you for fluttering over to share of our year via:

February 12, 2012 This is my “I forgot to take a picture, picture”! (Hangs head in shame!)

February 13, 2012 This photo may seem to be nothing more than a Little Prince holding a “banana”, but the truth is this is the first time Riley has both said the word “banana-na” and peeled one himself. It is a very proud moment for him, as you can tell by the expression on his face. (Or perhaps it is a proud moment for me, as is evident by all of the photos taken?)

February 14, 2012 and it is music time in our home. As you can see, Farmer Riley Jabe is belting one out as I prepare dinner. I really do love this time of day when it is just the two of us enjoying each other’s company, singing and talking about what is cooking on the stove. It is Valentines Day, of which I am not a big participant – but I did take the time to prepare a special meal for my two men. If memory serves me correctly we had Parmesan Crusted Tilapia, asparagus and a beautiful Italian Cream Cake.  My wonderful Hubby Man has finally learned the Valentines Day Law around these parts – pick me out something special on this day and you are sleeping in the dog house.  Now any-other-day is a different story and if he wants to surprise me with a gift I will be happy to take it.  Personally I find Valentines Day a glorified waste our money day brought to you by the greed machine, but that’s just me.

February 15, 2012 and this is Riley’s left over Italian Cream Cake Face! Cute, yes?

February 16, 2012 Riley Jabe loves a good salad!  This one has chicken, strawberries, grapes, yellow squash and zucchini with raspberry vinaigrette as our salad dressing of choice. Nothing is too good for our Lil Man – everything in this dish is organic. Can you say, “Yummy”?

February 17, 2012 and Riley Jabe has moved the stool from the kitchen counter to the living room so he could climb up to stand on the seat. This is the only clear picture from the set, so it is the one we have. I had been telling him, “No, please do not stand up on the seat.” I guess he thought if he moved it to the other room – clearly still in my view – I would not mind so much.

BOYS!

February 18, 2012 and here I am with my favorite Little Man. I had several pictures I was going to share with you today, but I have fallen so far behind I have decided to only share one. Given the fact I do not have many with the two of us together, this one wins!

February 19, 2012 and here is Prince Riley and his two biggest fans enjoying a bite to eat (and some kisses) following our morning at church.

February 20, 2012 and Riley Jabe and Poppa have gone for a walk and a bit of rock collecting. Yes Sir, Riley loves his rocks!

February 21, 2012 and Poppa and Riley are sharing their end of the day tales.

February 22, 2012 and I have found the Prince sleeping in his big boy bed upstairs. In an attempt to get him to migrate up north to the third floor, Poppa and I have dropped the bed down from the frame and though I laid Riley in his toddler bed on the first floor, he has apparently decided he wants to try out sleeping in the Tree House. This is a short lived self imposed adventure which only lasts a few days and then he is back to refusing to sleep upstairs -truth be known we have suddenly become co-sleepers and all beds in the Castle are empty except for ours.

February 23, 2012 and this will be Riley’s nap for the day. Of course he has only been asleep for four minutes, but this will not matter to him once I remove him from the car. Nope, this is it – enjoy it while you can because when the Prince falls asleep in the car he truly believes nap time is over when we get home. SIGH…..

February 24, 2012 and Riley Jabe is stringing beads during music time. I honestly love this time of day, when it is just the two of us – me in the kitchen cooking and he at the counter exploring our world. I really am blessed to share in this hour of the day with him, as I watch him learn and grow.

February 25, 2012 and Riley is exploring his crafts box during music hour. I realize there are a lot of pictures taken during these hours of the day after his nap and before dinner, but as I have already stated it really is my favorite time of day and to be honest, some of the simplest moments of happiness I have ever had.

Thank you so much for taking the journey with us through weeks seven and eight of the year 2012. I realize I am still a bit behind and I promise to catch up as quickly as possible. It seems between vacation and real life the powers that be are against me doing so, but I will refuse to give in! I look forward to catching up with you and yours via Mamatography very soon!

Are you up for a challenge? One which will take something from you every day, but give a whole lot back too? How about joining me for the Mamatography Challenge of 2012? If you would like to join us, you can start at any time. Please sign up here and our host will email you with further details.

Our hostess has just given birth to her second child, so if she does not get right back with you it is because she is still enjoying her Baby-Moon. Please know she will get with you as soon as possible. Just to give you a time frame to work with, today is March 29, 2012. CONGRATULATIONS MY LOVELY!

And now without further ado, I present you with this years participants of the 2012 Mamatography Challenge!

• Diary of a First Child
• Princess poet’s Life Adventures
• Loving {Almost} Every Moment
• The Artful Mama
• The Family Patch
• Momma Jorje
• Boo Roo and Tigger Too
• Becoming Crunchy
• African Babies Don’t Cry
• Vibrant Wanderings
• Actually Mummy…
• Loving Earth MaMa
• Hannah and Horn

• The Mommy Metamorphosis
• Toddler In Tow
• Attached Mommyhood
• A Living Family
• Fun with Ima (mommy)
• ShariMamatography
• Carrigan’s Joy
• Becoming Three
• Anktangle
• Growing A Life
• Baking Momma of Two
• Adventures in the Land of Oz
• To Motherhood and Beyond

Related articles

• A Mamatography Challenge – Week One (tomotherhoodandbeyond.wordpress.com)
• A Mamatography Challenge – Week Two (tomotherhoodandbeyond.wordpress.com)
• A Mamatography Challenge – Week Three (tomotherhoodandbeyond.wordpress.com)
• A Mamatography Challenge – Week Four (tomotherhoodandbeyond.wordpress.com)
• A Mamatography Challenge – Week Five (tomotherhoodandbeyond.wordpress.com)
• A Mamatography Challenge – Week Six (tomotherhoodandbeyond.wordpress.com)

About the Dangers of Disposable Diapers

Welcome to the first installment of my Did You Know… series, in my “Going Green Express” category.  In this series I will be collecting information from around the web by researching different sites which have already done all of the hard work for me.  I will always include links to all areas of interest so you can read the complete article for yourself if you would like. Though I do trust the blogging community, I also realize a lot of blogs are based on a persons beliefs and perspective of things, so I will be doing my research by visiting reputable sites outside of the blogging world when possible.

We have always heard, “knowledge is power” and I do believe this is true. Of course I also have come to realize over the years, sometimes it would be best if we could un-learn knowledge we have obtained. Today’s post is no exception, as we will be discussing the dangers of disposable diapers. Those are the exact words I used in GOOGLE SEARCH when I began my research for this article – try it if you would like, but be warned the information you will find is quite alarming.

I am going to start with disposable diapers because I have just made the switch to cloth – a bit late in my toddlers life I might add.  I have been chasing a diaper rash for quite some time now; it will clear up almost completely and then the next morning his little bottom will be beet- red again.  I have cut out using wipes, to using natural, scent- free soaps and water on a soft cloth.  I have changed bathing soaps, shampoos, laundry detergents and lotions. I have switched out diaper rash creams more times than I can count.  I have borrowed breast milk, purchased all natural products and as stated above changed to cloth diapers from disposable.  I have bathed him daily, let him run naked and cried with joy thinking something has finally worked, only to scream in anger internally the next day when his little bottom became inflamed again. I have tried everything under the sun, except for the steroid cream the doctors gave me which “can cause sterilization, stunt growth and/or cause thinning of the blood vessels”. (WHAT??) I am working on potty training him, but he still shows no interest in going on his own and at times will cry uncontrollably when I put him on his tiny commode. If I hear the words, “He should already be potty trained at his age” one more time, I may scream!  After researching disposable diapers, (I had already made the change to cloth before this), I have to wonder why I had not done so earlier and therefore would have made the switch to cloth sooner. To all of you new and expecting Momma’s out there – trust this old dog who has just learned a new trick, cloth diapers are the only way to go. If this article does not convince you, nothing will.

DISTURBING FACTS ABOUT DISPOSABLE DIAPERS

• In 2009, Americans dumped nearly 4 million tons of disposable diapers into landfills.
• Diaper companies are self-regulated. This simply means diaper companies are responsible for ensuring their products are safe.
• Because diaper companies are self-regulated, they are not required to list all of the ingredients, chemicals, glues, etc. which are used in developing their products.
  

  Image via Wikipedia

• Andersen Laboratories published in the Archives of Environmental Health in 1999 showed diaper emissions were found to include several chemicals with documented respiratory toxicity. (These emissions did NOT come from dirty diapers mind you – just the diaper themselves.) It was also noted that xylene and ethyl benzene were emitted by the diapers, chemicals that are suspected endocrine, neurological and respiratory toxins. Styrene, a chemical linked to cancer and isopropylene, a neurotoxin were also visible in emissions.
• Diapers contain a variety of plastics, adhesives, glues, elastics and lubricants. Some of these ingredients can cause irritation.
• Most disposable diapers contain sodium polyacrylate, which is a super-absorbant gelling material. The safety data sheet for sodium polyacrylate indicates that “the respirable dust is a potential respiratory tract irritant.” The dust “may cause burning, drying, itching and other discomfort, resulting in reddening of the eyes.”
• When the papers used to make diapers are bleached, they can contain cancer-causing dioxin.
• Diapers also contain polyurethane, adhesives, inks and lotions.
• The lotions used to coat the diaper linings contains the same substance found in Vaseline, which has the potential to be contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAH‘s.
• PAH’s are cancer causing chemicals found in crude oil.
• The fragrance agents used in many diapers to hide the smell of fecal order contains phthalates, which is a class of chemicals known to disrupt the endocrine system.
• It takes five hundred and fifty years for a disposable diaper to decompose!

Now I do not know about you, but I find it quite alarming to learn diaper companies do not have a babysitter ensuring their products are not harmful to our Little Angels, not to mention the fact they are not required by law to list the chemicals and materials used in making them. Cancer-causing dioxins? PAH’s found in crude oil are also present in diapers? Sodium polyacrylate, a respiratory tract irritant? And let us not forget the potential damage to the endocrine system. The endocrine system is instrumental in regulating mood, growth and development, tissue function, and metabolism, as well as sexual function and reproductive processes. With all of these potential health risks I am genuinely surprised disposable diapers are even legal. I am unsure how they can state these diapers take five hundred and fifty years to decompose, given the fact they have yet to be around for this long. However, it still leaves me shocked knowing the diapers I put on my daughters bottom some twenty years ago are still sitting in a landfill somewhere in Houston, Texas. Can you say, “DISTURBING”?

Information for this article was found while researching the following sites.

• Baby Center’s Infant Potty Training; What Is It and How Do You Do It?
• CBC NEWS
• No More Trash

Related articles

• Greener Than I Used to Be (tomotherhoodandbeyond.wordpress.com)

A Mamatography Challenge – Week Six

Thank you for fluttering over to share the second week of February with us! It is always wonderful to see you here and I look forward to sharing in your week as well. With all of the complaining you have heard from me in regard to our lack of snow this year, you would think I had jumped on my camera the moment it started this past Saturday. I was sitting on the couch when I heard something get blown over on the porch and when I gazed out the window, it looked like a blizzard out there! My husband had gone to a friends house to pic a few strings in his garage, so I sent him a text telling him to keep an eye on the blizzard and to be safe. By the time I was finished sending the text, the clouds were clearing and blue skies were up ahead. I swear the mini blizzard lasted for about three minutes and it was gone; needless to say, I did not get any pictures. Anyway, I am sure you would rather see what did happen this week rather than hear about the snow storm which DID NOT happen, so without further ado please join me for week six in the year 2012 via:

February 05, 2012 and here Riley Jabe is all decked out in his Sunday best. We picked up this cute little suit last year when a friend of ours daughter was getting married. He was a star then and he is still our star today!

February 06, 2012 and this is my head hanging in shame, “forgot to take a picture picture”. However, everything on this shelf is important to me and I will tell you why. The picture is from the day DH and I were married on January 31, 2004, the plant was a gift from my chosen (step) Mom when I had my sixth open heart surgery in March of 2005, the “Mother” plaque was a gift from my eldest daughter in July of 2009 and the picture snow globe is a gift from my youngest daughter for Christmas of 2004.

February 07, 2012 and I have to be honest; this is the second day this week I have forgotten to take a picture. However, this shot of my kitchen counter is right in tune with a point I made in a recent blog. Plastics. YUCK! Do you dislike them as much as I do? I grow to dislike them more all of the time, yet admittedly they fill our home. This turtle is a prime example of why I dislike them so much. Can you guess how old this turtle is by looking at it? It is nice and clean, not a scratch one mars its shell. It is twenty years old. This was my eldest daughters when she was one year old; she will be twenty one in March of 2012. She played with this piece of plastic and now our Little Prince plays with this piece of plastic. Do not ask me why out of all the baby toys my mother held on to, this is the one – but it is. However, for today it suits our purpose. Imagine if it looks this good having been played with by my daughter, cast aside, packed away and unpacked again so my Little Man can enjoy it – what would it look like simply dumped somewhere. Now before you go thinking it would decompose, just let me tell you – it would not – it would however look very dirty. Of course some will argue it is a good thing, but if this turtle were in a landfill somewhere instead of in my home being used, it would just be there – NOT DECOMPOSING.

February 08, 2012 and it is music time in our home. Everyday when Riley Jabe wakes from his nap we turn on the music and he sits at the bar while I begin to prepare our dinner. Here he is mid baby garble telling me what I am sure is the most amazing story. See his little fingers? He is such a delicate Little Man; he also feeds himself his snacks with this same little finger popping thing going on – I think it is just adorable. And how could I pass up sharing this photo of him playing Peep Eye behind his Melissa and Doug wooden musical instruments?

It is still February 08, 2012 in our home so we will call these bonus shots. DH took these pictures of Riley and I making cornbread to go along with our meal for the evening. It is rare that we actually get pictures of me, as I am usually the one holding the camera. (Secretly I like it this way, but these shots came out well enough to share.) Riley cracked that egg and popped it open with one hand on the first try – without getting any of the the shell in the mix. We were so impressed! Perhaps we have a mini-chef on our hands?

February 09, 2012 and we are out having lunch with our friend, Aunt Brittany. She just loves Riley and spends too much time spoiling him rotten. She drops by periodically to say hello, to drop off a gift for our Little Man or to bring me flowers. Today she went to Gym with us and then out for a bite to eat. Here she is playing musical eating utensils with her favorite man.

February 10, 2012 and it is spaghetti night at our house so we have to start dinner first thing in morning. (Yes, those are Christmas PJ’s Riley is wearing but they still fit, they are warm and as cute as all get out – soooo.) Today I shared my secret vegetarian sauce recipe with my Little Man, so he can carry it down to the next generation. I think it is pretty safe with him, especially for now given the fact he still speaks baby garble. I ended up turning this into goulash instead of spaghetti which probably would have been better with a different noodle type, but the sauce was way tasty as always. It’s not really a secret and it is so simple to make. Look at the bottom of this page for the recipe.



February 11, 2012 and Riley and Poppa are taking a walk through our neighborhood. It is freezing cold outside, but we are not calling for snow. After they return from their walk Poppa will go pic some strings over at a friends house and Riley and I will take our Saturday afternoon snuggle nap. But before our nap what does appear outside of my window so nice and clear? A three minute blizzard, which leaves just as quickly as it showed up. WEIRD and sadly I did not bother to get up and grab my camera. Who could of guessed blizzard like snow would only last for three minutes?  Surely not I!

Well, this closes out week six of the year 2012!  Thanks so much for joining us today; we look forward to seeing you again next week.  Until then, remember to hug those you love – they may not even realize they need one until you wrap your arms around them.

Riley Jabe says, “Check out Momma’s Recipe – it is YUMMY for your tummy!”.

5-9 Tomatoes (depending on their size and amount of people you are serving) (quartered)
1 Yellow Pepper, red or orange – your choice. I use them all at different times and sometimes I use two different types at once just to shake things up. (sliced)
1 Large Yellow Squash (sliced)
1 Large Zucchini (sliced)
1 Medium Onion (sliced)
2 Garlic Cloves (chopped)
8 oz Baby Bella Mushrooms (sliced)
Italian Seasoning to taste. (I cheat here and use the Italian Seasoning No Salt Added pre-mix, but you can use fresh if you would like.)
I do not cook with salt, realizing He put enough salt in everything He created for our bodies to survive. Again, it is your choice; salt to taste.

Place all ingredients except for the mushrooms into a crockpot on its lowest setting and cook throughout the day for at least seven hours.  You can cook at a higher temperature for less hours, but it is really best the longer it cooks – not to mention it makes your home smell great. I always take a little taste each time I stir and add more seasonings if I feel it needs more.  Sometimes I get it right the first time and sometimes I have to add seasonings all day long to get it right.  About an hour before you are ready to eat, add the mushrooms.  Prepare noodles of choice according to directions. Enjoy!

My favorite way to eat my homemade sauce is to have a spaghetti boat – if would like to try i t this way, you will need one spaghetti squash per two people.
When you add the mushrooms to your sauce, cut spaghetti squash length-wise in half and bring to boil, lower heat and cook until tender. Using an ice-cream scoop, spoon out enough of the spaghetti squash meat to make a boat – add meat to sauce and stir. Fill boats with sauce, cover with your favorite cheese, and place it in the oven at 350 degrees until cheese is melted. (We do not add noodles when having Spaghetti Boats.) Enjoy!

Are you up for a challenge? One which will take something from you every day, but give a whole lot back too? How about joining me for the Mamatography Challenge of 2012? If you would like to join us, you can start at any time. Please sign up here and our host will email you with further details.

She is expecting her second child any day now so if you do not hear from her for a few days, this is why. Please know she will get with you as soon as possible. Just to give you a time frame on the expected arrival, today is February 17th, 2012.

Without further ado, here are the current participants for Mamatography 2012!

• Diary of a First Child
• Woman of the Willows and Wetlands
• From Cristin To Mommy
• Princess poet’s Life Adventures
• Loving {Almost} Every Moment
• The Artful Mama
• The Family Patch
• Momma Jorje
• Boo Roo and Tigger Too
• Becoming Crunchy
• African Babies Don’t Cry
• Vibrant Wanderings
• Actually Mummy…
• Boho Mama
• Casyfamily
• Loving Earth Mama
• Baby Dust Diaries

• The Mommy Metamorphosis
• Boobie Time
• Toddler In Tow
• Mama Unfurling
• Attached Mommyhood
• Adventures of the Raanan family
• Mommy and Little I
• A Living Family
• Fun with Ima (mommy)
• ShariMamatography
• Carrigan’s Joy
• Becoming Three
• take more pictures
• Girls Can Do Anything
• Anktangle
• Growing A Life
• To Motherhood and Beyond

He Will Not Carry Guilt

I suppose all stories are different. Yours is not the same as mine, and mine is not the same as hers. I grew up in a home where guilt trips were the family vacation of choice. This continued well into my adulthood as my mother pounded the guilt she must have felt into me, making it mine to carry. Nothing was ever good enough. I did not clean my house good enough. I did not visit her often enough. I did not put my life on hold enough. I did not close the door to my father, because she decided she didn’t love him anymore. I will not even get into the guilt she made me feel for being born with heart problems, or the ensuing five open heart surgeries I would have and the care she would give as she took time off from her job to tend to me. I repeated I am sorry so many times, it became the basis of our conversations.

Was this a reflection of her mirror? Was she casting  her own guilt on us for the times she left us home alone while she went out on dates, to parties, dabbled with her drug of choice, off to play soft-ball or to bowl? And yes, she was entitled to those things, entitled to a life outside of her children. What she was not entitled to was the physical and mental abuse she dished out to my brother and me. What she was not entitled to was to make us live our lives with an overwhelming amount of guilt which she dumped on our shoulders for her own misgivings.

I try very hard with my daughters not to take them along on these guilt trips, though I realize at times I fail. Because she lived with her for eight years, my eldest daughter is very much like my mother, in the fact that she is both mentally abusive and loves to pack a big ole sack of guilt and pull me along for yet another trip. And admittedly so, I join her for the ride and I retaliate throwing it back her way and then – and then I feel more guilty than I did before because I have allowed her my power, given in to the trip and carried the guilt of others actions which have caused our relationship so much damage. And then I say the mandatory, “I am sorry” so we can move beyond the latest scuffle.

A few days ago I read an article on a news blog in which the author was stating she wished there were a way for all Momma’s to unite, without the judging of how we raise our children, without the criticism when we do not see eye to eye. In the end she decided this was impossible because of the “Mean Mommies” in the mix. The ones who turn their nose up at other parents, the ones who mock another’s parenting style, the ones who are obviously so much better at parenting than we are. In reading this article I was reminded of a day in the park with my Little Man a few weeks ago. I was reminded of the Momma who decided I was not raising my son right, because I had yet to teach him to say he was sorry. I was reminded of the fact that she returned to the park bench where her friend sat waiting, pointed at my son and went on to talk about how he must have learning disabilities because he could not say, “I am sorry”. I commented on this article with a reflection of this particular incident in the park. Before I tell you about the assault on my character which followed, you will probably want to know what transpired at the park that day.

There is a little park in our town behind a museum which is normally empty when Riley and I visit there for a play date. I like it this way; I am a long time sufferer of agoraphobia and though I have been able to overcome the most difficult symptoms of this mental affliction, I still prefer less crowded places. On the day in question there were two women along with their four kids and a couple with their three children already playing at the park. Though this did make me a bit uneasy, Riley had already seen the slide and was running straight for it. He was obviously younger than everyone there and because he is more accustomed to singular play I stayed right on top of him. (Well, that and I have an unnatural fear of people and their intentions.)

There is a three-year old at the top of the slide who continues to sit there as Riley Jabe climbs the stairs, of which I am standing next to. I am telling Riley to be careful while he waits three-quarters of the way up on the ladder. He moves up two more steps and he touches the boy on the shoulder. I remind him he needs to wait his turn, just as the other kid starts to scream and cry. I move my Little Man down a few steps, the other mother comes to the bottom of the slide, encourages her son down and begins to check him for any signs of injury. There are none, Riley really only touched the little boys shoulder. He did not push him, he did not hit him and he did not grab him. Of course I realize he may have done any one of these things, had I not been standing there to remind him to wait his turn and to physically move him down a few steps – he is two years old and though close to it, he is not perfect. As the other mother consoles her son she says to him, “It’s okay, ask for an apology. I am sure the little boy didn’t mean to hurt you”, or something along those lines. I am thinking to myself, I am not sure if Riley has ever said I am sorry before, when the other mother looks up at me and says, “We will expect an apology” in a most indignant tone.

All I could think to say was, “I am sure he is sorry he touched your son, but I highly doubt he will say he is sorry”. I was turning towards Riley with the intention of asking him to say he was sorry, when she asks me why he wasn’t going to apologize. I sort of chuckled when I replied, “Well he’s never said those words before”. Before I could get another word out of my mouth, to her or to Riley, she looks up the slide at him and asks me with condemnation dripping off of her tongue, “Why hasn’t he said those words before? How old is he anyway?” I answered her honestly, “Well he’s two, but he has never been asked to say he was sorry”. Before I was able to finish my thoughts she was walking away, back to the park bench next to her friend, literally pointing at my Little Sugar Man and loudly stating he must have a learning disability since he is two years old and cannot say he is sorry. And of course the underlying insinuation being, what kind of mother am I anyway, that I have yet to teach my son to apologize?

Had she waited for the rest of my answer, she may have learned the following. He is a late talker and we are lucky when we can understand one thought he is trying to convey. Yes he has words; yes he says please and thank you – they apply to his life and being from the south, I am a stickler for manners. However he has never done anything to warrant, “I am sorry” and is too young to understand the difference between “I am sorry I hurt you” and “I am sorry you feel that way”. Of course it may not have mattered if she would have let me finish because I was able to convey these things on the news blog repeatedly as my character and parenting skills were attacked, insulted and criticized for three days by yet another stranger. Apparently because I have not enforced, made, taught my son how to say I am sorry I am raising a child lacking in empathy and as a result he will grow up to have an antisocial personality disorder.

I am so glad to know this. I am so glad this stranger has so much insight into my life, in how I interact with my son, the depth of respect I have already instilled into my two older children, to know I am doing it all wrong. She must be able to see into the future, to know my Little Man will grow up to be antisocial. (And you know he just may. I mean, I am – but it has more to do with my fear of people and their intentions, than it does with my inability to empathize with someone’s emotions.)  I wonder if she even realizes she has proven the authors point that we cannot band together in unity as women, as mother’s, simply because we are too busy judging and criticizing how others raise their children?

Now I realize you may think I am crazy because I do not think Riley has done anything which warrants an apology, as all children do things which are wrong. He is no exception, but he is not a mean child; he is sweet and gentle by nature. Saying you’re sorry implies you have done something intentionally and/or with malice, it implies you know what you have done is against the rules; it implies GUILT. Given the fact I am not sure how much Riley actually understands given his limited vocabulary, it is unrealistic for me to expect him to carry guilt or feel regret when he makes a mistake, not to mention I do not want him to. At this point in his life anything he does wrong is an innocent mistake, it is not intentional. He is still learning; he is learning what his words mean, he is learning that for every action there is a reaction. He does not purposefully head butt me, but when he does he gets a sad look on his face and hugs me. He shows empathy for my pain and his little pats on my back as he sweetly hugs me, convey what the words, “I am sorry” never could. And my guess is, when the time is right and when I am certain he understands everything he needs to in order to feel a healthy amount of regret, I will instill in him the importance of a genuine apology. There are plenty of mistakes for him to make and feel guilt over in the future and you can bet, I will be the first one to put him in his place and remind him of how important it is to respect and be respected.

But for today, he will not carry guilt.

©KLynn Miller
February 17, 2012

A Mamatography Challenge – Week Five

Thank you so much for fluttering by to join us as we close out January and welcome in February 2012!  I have a difficult time believing it is actually February as I type this, given the fact we are still experiencing fall/spring like weather.  What happened to winter?  Where is my snow?  Oh well, I guess we still have a bit of time left before spring actually shows up.  For now, let us see what Riley Jabe has been up to this week via:

January 29, 2012 found us going to Church for the first time since Riley was born.  There was a time in my past life, when I lived at the Church – so much so, it was no longer about God by the time I walked away.  I am hoping for a different relationship with both God and the Church this time around – I guess we will have to see how it works out.   Poppa and I have been talking lately of how important we think it is for a child-hood to have some knowledge of God and the moral upbringing He can offer if/when His Teachings are accompanied by a reasonable amount of religion. I am a firm believer in all things in moderation and I do believe He meant religion as well.  It will of course be Riley’s choice in the end, whether or not he is a follower – but for now we feel it is our responsibility to open the door for him.  So here are my two Princes’ all decked out in their Sunday best!

 

 

 

January 30, 2010 and Riley is playing building blocks – with books? He really is too much fun and I love to watch him entertain himself (and us) with his vivid imagination. When he wakes from his nap we have music time while I begin preparations for dinner. It is during this, my most favorite time of our day, when Riley Jabe seems to shine the most and his imagination runs rampant. Yeah, I love this time of day with My Little Man.

January 31, 2010 and it is our eight year anniversary! I should have taken pictures of the beautiful tulips Poppa sent me, but instead I decided on a flash back shot of us on our wedding day and little true story time. When Poppa first asked me to marry him, it was solely for insurance purposes – I was in need my sixth open heart surgery but because I did not have insurance they kept telling me it was not time. Having had heart problems my whole life, I knew better – hey what do I really know? Him: “Look Princess, I do not make the rules, but I do have excellent health insurance. We should get married so you can have your surgery and we will just keep living as we are now”. At this time we had only been dating for three months and though it was a very generous offer, this was my reply: “That is really sweet, but I have been married for the wrong reasons before and not believing in divorce to begin with, I just cannot do it again.” Fast forward two months and I had traveled down to Texas and was away for two weeks. Upon my return My Prince and I went to dinner, where he proposed like this: “Princess, I really think we should get married.” Me: “We have already talked about this and I just cannot….” Him: “I think you are misunderstanding me Princess. I just do not ever want you gone for so long and me not know whether or not you are coming home to me”. Well, how could I pass up something so sweet? We decided on July 06, 2004 as our wedding date, which would have been one year since our first date. The next week it snowed and the federal government (that’s where My Prince works) was shut down for the day and so he said, “Hey, let’s just do this – let’s get married today”! Me: “Okay”. Well we did not get married that day, we got married the next day, which was January 31, 2004. Our dads, his best friend, the pastor and the pastors grandson were the only ones present as we said our vows in the living room of my Princes’ apartment. The grandson was on our computer playing a game – apparently a war game – because in the background throughout our whole service he repeated, “Violence! Violence!” And that is the romantic story of how I came to be married to a man I had only dated for six months. I do not suggest this for most people, but in all honesty it has been the very best eight years of my life.

February 01, 2012 and can you believe we are at the park and there is no snow on the ground? Personally I am disappointed, though I am sure it makes things a bit more fun for Riley Jabe and well, we do so love to see him smile. We started our day going to Abby’s Lane and then we took a little jaunt over to the park. We live in an area wrought with Civil War History, thus the cannon Riley is climbing on. My Uncle in Law Ben Miller owns the blueprints for building Civil War Cannons so I thought this shot of Riley would be perfect for him.

February 02, 2012 and Riley Jabe is busy at play with his Chuck Trucks! He just loves those little cars and though I am not to fond of the plastic garage, he can entertain himself for quite some time while allowing his imagination to run wild and well – I guess that is more important than my dislike of the abundance of plastic toys in our world.  (It is also Poppa’s Birthday – so, Happy Birthday Poppa!)

February 03, 2012 and it is a time for rediscovering things. Our next door neighbors have a little girl who is about a year younger than our Riley, so when he outgrew some of his toys we passed them on to her. Well it seems she has outgrown them as well so they have found their way back to our front porch. It is deep cleaning day at our house, given how it feels like spring outside, so we opened up the windows and doors to let some fresh air in. This gave Riley Jabe the perfect opportunity to go exploring in the front yard and to rediscover old favorites. Here he is calling for me, “Momma – I tuck, I tuck”! I suppose I should have just helped him out, but then what would I have for today’s picture?

 

 

 

 

February 04, 2012 and we are getting ready to go out to lunch. Riley is on the front porch again playing with last years toys. This is his, “But I am not ready to leave quite yet” pout. Isn’t he just the cutest, even when he’s pouting?

Well this closes out week five of the year 2012.  I really do appreciate your stopping by to share of our days and I look forward to fluttering in to your world  as we share via Mamatography.  We will see you again next week – same bat time, same bat channel – but until then remember to keep a smile on!  It always keeps them guessing.

©KLynn Miller

Related articles

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• A Mamatography Challenge – Week Two (tomotherhoodandbeyond.wordpress.com)
• A Mamatography Challenge – Week Three (tomotherhoodandbeyond.wordpress.com)
• A Mamatography Challenge – Week Four (tomotherhoodandbeyond.wordpress.com)

Greener Than I Used to Be

Over the past five years I have made very small changes in our lives, slow changes so as not to upset the apple cart. First I started with recycling our bottles and slowly it has grown to the point where we have more recyclables than we do garbage come trash-day. The only bad thing I can find in this scenario is, the recycle truck only comes through our neighborhood once a week. I am sure I miss things which could be recycled so maybe I should find a bigger recycle bin.

Recently I have become more aware of many things we use around our home, wasteful choices we make and habits formed over a lifetime which will affect the world forever. That’s right – I said it. Choices I made even yesterday in the midst of my new awakening, will affect the world forever. What does this say about the years of choices I made while being unaware, or perhaps in denial, of my actions? Just like with all regrets, I will put this one behind me and move beyond it. In order to do so I will have to implement changes in our lives which will make a difference for future generations. How do I get everyone in my home on-board the Going Green Express? *Well, lucky for me I have a wonderfully understanding husband and if I can show him a reason why this is better for our family, make a flowchart and a list of easily followed instructions he will gladly follow suit. Our son is merely twenty-seven months old; he will become the man we raise him to be.

You can pick up any cleaning supply and read the label for yourselves; the ingredient list is long and filled with chemicals we have never heard of, much less can we pronounce many of them. We leave lights on around the house, TV’s blaring and radios playing in the background. We smoke our cigarettes and throw butts out the window while we drive down the road. They catch afire, flames burning out of control as they engulf trash along our highways. Diapers overflow from pails dumped into landfills, rotting with urine and feces, causing toxic gasses and disease. I suppose this list could grow on forever, but I think you understand where I am coming from.

So what changes have I made in our household and how far will I take the Going Green Express? I can honestly admit I do not know how far I will go. Sometimes I grab hold of something and I do not let go until everything is in line. I do need to be honest with myself; I am spoiled. I love air-conditioning. I love my SUV. I love packing my Prince up in his car-seat and taking a road trip. I love soft, fuzzy, clean clothes. On the other hand, I dislike so many things which have overflowed inside our home. I dislike plastic toys – but they are everywhere. When I look at replacing some of them with more natural materials, I am appalled at the cost. Disposable diapers – what a nasty, wasteful, unhealthy choice so many of us have made for generations. Household cleaners make my asthma kick in, making it difficult for me to breathe.   My hands are left dry and my skin cracks. I worry about Riley Jabe crawling, walking, running across the floor – bending over to pick up a piece of his fallen snack and plopping it in his mouth after it has laid on a floor cleaned with chemicals I cannot pronounce.

Is it enough to find a happy medium and will this suit our family better than a full on assault of “going green”? These are questions I will have to answer in time, as we learn a new way to live. To date these are the changes I have made (slowly) over the past five years and I do plan on maintaining within our home.

• Recycling
• Lights off, TV’s off, music off.
• Energy Starr light bulbs
• Energy Starr appliances
• Quit smoking
• Cloth diapers
• BabyGanics Household Cleaners
• Cold water wash loads
• Rockin’ Green Laundry Soap
• Wool Dryer Balls

I must be honest here – while the Rockin’ Green does seem to get my laundry clean, it does not offer much in the way of “smelling clean”. Of course this could be the fragrance I picked, or I could simply not be using enough of it so I am going to keep on trying. If you have a “green” detergent you use and are happy with why not leave a little note in the comment section. I have the same issue with the wool dryer balls I am using BUT they do work. My clothes are static and lint free and since this is what we are looking for in dryer balls they find themselves in the keep drawer.

I also have to admit going green is not the least expensive thing I have ever done. However I have made the flowcharts, researched and penciled out the math. I honestly believe that while some things (like laundry detergent) are always going to be more expensive and I will have to purchase them at the same rate as non-green cleaners, purchasing other going green products will in the end save me money and even pay for themselves. For instance, the new light-bulbs claim to last for three to five years. Yes, they do cost me more now – but do you know how many times I had to replace the same lamp bulb two years ago?   This is not even to mention the difference in my electric bill; though it may only save me pennies a day per light socket, it does add up by years end.

I know we still have a long way to go on the Going Green Express,  just as I know the importance in making these changes. Do I believe my family and I can save the world?   No – but I do believe we can change our little corner of it.

 

For more information on recycling, going green and reasons you should, please follow these links:

• Our Earth
• Carbon Footprint
• Benefits of Recycling
• Sustainable Baby Steps

©KLynn Miller

*I have been asked by DH to make a notation, so here it goes. He does not need a flowchart, but what he does need is to know the new products I fill our home with will work, without putting us into bankruptcy. Oh and, “Remember – sometimes you just need to bleach the crude out of things!” I can understand and agree with all of those things, if it gets him aboard the Going Green Express without too much fuss. (Don’t look now, but that bottle of bleach on top of the dryer, has been there for at least four years. The same bottle. Shhh – please do not tell him we are not actually USING the bleach!)

A Mamatography Challenge – Week Four

Though it does not feel like it outside, we are in week four of the year 2012. The weather where you are may normally be warm this time of year but for us it is normally cold – and if I had my way, there would be snow on the ground. None-the-less here we are, so why not join us in pictures via:

January 22, 2012 and it is a lazy day around our house, or at least a lazy morning. Here are my two favorite guys having some snuggle time on the couch.  

January 23, 2012 and it is bedtime, though from this big smiling face you may not be able to tell.  This is Riley Jabe doing his best, “But I am too cute to have a bedtime” smile.  After letting him play peep-eye for a good ten minutes, we finally decided it does not matter how cute he is and we whisked him off to bed.

January 24, 2012 and it is bath time!  As much as Riley loves his bath, he dislikes having lotion slathered all over his body.  I keep telling him I would have to pay good money for someone to put lotion on my body, but this does not seem to help matters at all.  What does help is a good tickling session as I rub the lotion in.  It is the little things, the tricks of the trade one might say, which make exceptional parents.  I would like to think in this instance anyway, we have passed the test.

January 25, 2012 and it is another spring like day out here.  Once a week we go to the next town over and have a walk before grabbing some breakfast, or as today would have it, some lunch.  Riley really loves running around under the pavilion and then playing hide-n-go seek in the bushes around the corner.  We have been doing this for over a year now; I am convinced he thinks they built this place just for him.

January 26, 2012 and it is bedtime for Riley Jabe. I spent twenty minutes today putting his babies back where they live and making his bed, only for him to take twenty minutes finding each one of them and throwing them back into his bed before he would crawl in himself. This is a daily routine so I have been known to hide a baby or two because he seems to enjoy looking for them. He will stand in the middle of his room saying, “Where are you baby?” until he finds the one he is looking for. Please do not hand him the wrong baby, as he will toss it aside and continue on with his quest.

January 27, 2012 and this spring like day is the perfect excuse for walking down to our neighborhood park as we practice our foot eye coordination. Well it is not really a park – more like a big empty field, but it is just what we need to get a little fresh air and time outdoors.

January 28, 2012 and it is another time for transitions. I am going to be honest; I have been thinking of changing Riley over to cloth diapers for months now but was hesitant to do so. I am a Ole Dog and it is sometimes difficult to teach us new tricks – but after months of contemplation we finally made the switch. Oh how I wish I had made this change – oh, I don’t know – when he was born? Had I even imagined the cloth diaper world being so advanced, I would have never stuck with disposable diapers which became so popular some twenty years ago when my daughter was born. To all of those new Momma’s out there, to all of you who are expecting and are on the fence about which diapers to use just let me say, there is NOTHING quite like the cloth diapers of today and though they will cost you a bit more up front, you will be saving thousands of dollars over time, not to mention the difference in the carbon footprint you will be leaving behind.

Well this closes out week four of the year 2012. Join us again next week as we close out January and welcome February via Luschka’s Mamatography Challenge. We look forward to seeing you there and want to remind you, hug your loved ones today – they need it just as much as you do.

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Twenty Years Ago – Fast Forward

Twenty years ago I was twenty-three years old and had just had my fifth open heart surgery.  I was sore and exhausted and having a toddler running around made for an interesting journey.  Oddly enough, it seemed she just knew my chest was no longer her playground and I do not recall a time when she dug her knees into my breastbone in an effort to climb on my head.  She was loving and gentle and kind.

Fast forward and I am forty-three and,  it has been almost seven years since my sixth open heart surgery. Our Little Man climbs on and digs his knees into my chest as often as possible.  The discomfort is psychological really, given the fact I have no feeling left in my chest.  He exhausts me daily, to the point I can be quoted as saying “I do not recall mothering a toddler being so exhausting twenty years ago”.  Of course I am twenty years older, so it could simply be a combination of my failing memory and truly, my age.  Or is it simply because he is a boy?

Twenty years ago I was chasing a twenty-two month old around; she was the sweetest and smartest baby I had ever had the pleasure of knowing.  She was my first and as it turns out, the only child I would ever give birth to.  This is the story of opposites, of how babies are different, yet not and how things change and stay the same no matter how much time goes by.

It is hard looking back and getting facts straight as so many years have passed since my eldest child was a baby.  She will be twenty-one in March and I am still left wondering where all the time went? Would it seem to have gone by so quickly had she always lived with me, had I not missed so many beautiful moments in time?  We will never know – but what I do know is the first eleven years of her life were amazing – she was amazing.

Fast forward and I am now chasing around a twenty-seven month old boy; he is the sweetest boy I have ever had the pleasure to know.  He is identical to my daughter in many ways and in many ways, he is so different.  I can only hope to share in all of his life adventures, to not miss years of his life and to teach him the lessons I believe are important….but for now, I will take each day of watching him laugh, run, jump, sing and play I can get.

My daughter started speaking at six months old.  Her first words were Batman, Panther (our dog), and butterfly.  By the time she was a year she was speaking in full sentences, by sixteen months she knew the alphabet by sight and by the time she was two years old, she would have conversations to rival any I have had with another adult.   And she loved books.  She could sit (and I am not exaggerating) for hours listening to me read to her.  God how I love those memories.

Fast forward and my little man is a late talker; we are lucky when we can understand half of one of his sentences.  Though he does know his alphabet and numbers by sight, he is not bringing me  a stack of books to read him while we sit together on the couch, or snuggled up in my bed.  Unlike my daughter, he loves to jump and climb, he is a pro on the balance beam and loves to hang from the uneven bars with the best of them.  He is the true definition of a “monkey man” and he is oh so much more coordinated than I or my daughter will ever be.

There could be several explanations for their differences, though only one for their similarities.  Genetics explains why our Little Man looks identical to my daughter, minus the differing body parts of course. Had we never cut Riley Jabe’s hair and I put their pictures next to one another with them dressed in the same clothing, we would have a difficult time telling them apart.

Could their differences also be explained away by genetics?  Biologically speaking, they have different fathers and different mothers.  My husband and I have had custody of our grandson since he was seven months old though he has lived with us since birth.  He calls us Momma and Poppa; he is as much our son as she is my daughter.   He is only a quarter of me, where she is half.  We have no idea who his other biological parent is, so there is nothing to compare him to in our search for answers.

Or is it something other than genetics which explain away their differences?   When I was pregnant with my daughter, I read children’s books aloud daily as I was babysitting a toddler during those months.  I read to her every day from the time she was born.  I held her for hours on end talking to her, looking into her eyes, telling her how very loved she was.  She was the center of my universe from the moment I found out I was pregnant  and more than anything, I was proud to be her mother.  I had a rule for myself, I would never tell her no I would not read to her.  I was a mother, a house-wife, she was my one and only priority – she was my job.  Trust me when I say she took full advantage of this rule from the beginning, which was fine with me because this meant I got to hold her, to watch her smile and hear her laughter.

Fast forward to when we found out she was with child.  She was eight-teen years old when she moved home to live with me; she was six and a half months pregnant with a baby she swears she did not know was inside of her and she was clear when she stated she did not want to keep him.  This means she had not been taking care of herself, or the baby.  She had not been reading to her unborn child, or talking to him.  She did not want to be a mother; thank God it was too late for her to make other arrangements to keep him from being born into our world.  My husband and I told her we would adopt the baby to keep him in the family should she change her mind.  I had so hoped she would do just that once he was born – after she held him and looked into his eyes.  I had Prayed for her and for Riley Jabe, so wanting her to feel the bond of motherly love which comes from giving birth.  Sadly for them both, this never happened.

During the first four months of his life I bathed, fed and changed him.  I woke with him in the mornings and in the middle of the night.  I pushed her to breast feed for the first two months, but it was so unbearable for her the stress was evident in our Little Man.  Though I tended to all of his needs, I purposefully did not hold him for hours on end as I had with her. I purposefully waited for her to pick him up to read to him, sing to him, to simply hold him.  It soon became evident not only was the natural bond not taking effect, she had no desire for it to develop.  She begged us to adopt him, she begged us for her freedom and she pulled further and further away from him – and from me.

When he was five months old I realized in my desire for her to bond with him, in my desire for her to be his mother, I too was neglecting the baby I told her I would adopt in order to keep him in the family. This being said I had to change my way of thinking.  I had to realize she was not going to magically decide she wanted to be Riley’s mother and she was not going to seek help to work through her emotions.  She had/has no desire to be his mother and the only way he was going to get the love, attention and maternal nurturing he needed was for me to give it to him.

I don’t want you to misunderstand me – there was never a time I did not love him, never a time when I did not hold him when he cried and never a time when he wasn’t cared for; I simply did not give him the same amount of attention as I had given my daughter when she was born, or the same amount of attention he would have gotten had I given birth to him.  Once I was able to look in from the outside, once I came to terms with the fact she was serious – she did not want him and no matter the amount of encouragement we gave her, she was not going to change her mind, I was able to release the maternal instincts within and open my heart up to being his Momma.

I can never make up for the lost time, for those five months I hoped she would suddenly wake to his cries and look into his eyes feeling the love for him I feel.   I can only hope in my desire for her to do so, I did not cause irreparable damage.  I can only hope my choice not to read to him for hours on end, did not stymie his intellectual growth.  I can only Pray the differences in his vocabulary compared to my daughters at this age are nothing more than the fact, all babies are different and girls learn at a greater rate than boys.

Twenty years ago I could not afford such luxuries as gym lessons for my daughter, or play time with Mommy and Me.  We did plenty of fun things, like going to the zoo and playing at the beach or the park, or simply taking a stroll.  Fast forward twenty years and I am financially able to supply Riley Jabe with the extras which help to build coordination, social skills, and pride from each new thing he has learned.  I know this is what has made a difference in his climbing, his jumping, his balance – because Lord knows genetically speaking, he did not get those skills from either my daughter or me.

Twenty years ago I loved my daughter more than life itself; fast forward twenty years and I still love her just the same.  The difference is, now I love him too.

Twenty years ago I was chasing around a toddler; fast forward and I am once again chasing a toddler.  I do not recall it being so exhausting, though I do recall the many rewards.

©Kesia L. Miller

A Mamatography Challenge – Week Three

They say a habit is formed in twenty one days – if this is true, we must be in for the long haul because here we are at week three of the, “take a picture a day” challenge!  In all honesty I am a bit surprised I have remembered to grab my camera (almost) every day to take a shot. Since you’re here, why not join me as I share our week in pictures via:

January 15, 2012 and this is my, “Oh no, I forgot to take a picture” picture.  I picked up this little bear before Riley Jabe was born.  It plays one of my all time favorite songs, by one of my most favorite artist Ms. Bette Midler titled, Baby Mine.  The snow globe was a gift for our Lil Man from my eldest daughter for Christmas 2010.

January 16, 2012 and I could not resist taking this shot of our Lil Prince sleeping.  I just love the way babies sleep with their bottoms up in the air and I realize this is a short lived sleeping position, as Riley Jabe gets closer and closer to being a little boy instead of our baby.  Of course I took two pictures – how could I pass up his sweet angelic face? I have tried to clear out his bed in an effort to give him more room to roll about, however, each night before we tuck him away he will spend twenty minutes looking for every single Baby I have removed from his bed.

January 17, 2012 and Riley Jabe is practicing his best, “Juke Box Hero” pose!  I do not know what it is about juke boxes, but kids just love them.  This one has oils floating in it like a lava lamp and I would venture to guess this is part of it’s appeal. Of course the groovy tunes make it quite intriguing as well.

January 18, 2012 and it is all about this little train.  Our Little Prince simply loves his train; I do believe it is just about the best gift he has gotten.  He will sit inside those tracks for what seems like forever rolling right along.  I just love to watch him so deep in play as he talks back and forth to himself, his imagination open to full speed ahead.

January 19, 2012 and we are busy potty training. I just do not remember it being this difficult twenty years ago when I was potty training my daughter. Of course I realize it could be my memory, though it could also be one more difference between raising a boy compared to a girl. Okay, back to the picture. He WAS on his little potty when I left the room, but when I came back he was sitting on top of the big potty. As much as I wanted to get on to him – because of my fear of his falling – I just could not help but to grab my camera instead. See the Santa? He was a gift from our friend Mr. Jimmy Horton for Christmas 2007 and we were told at that time he was, “Vacationing Santa, so he should be out all year long”. This being said Santa Horton is out all year and when we display the rest of our Santa’s, he gets packed away for the Christmas Holiday.

January 20, 2012 and it is grocery shopping day.  I have found if we start our grocery shopping with a prepacked box of mixed fruit, everything else falls in line without the impatience a toddler can feel when they are doing something which does not intrigue them.   And if we are honest, there just is not much about grocery shopping which is entertaining.  I had to take five or six shots before my Lil Man would even look at me, much less smile.  I think he felt sorry for me, so he finally flashed this – “If I smile, will you stop?” smile.

January 21, 2012 and it is freezing cold out.  We had a bit of snow in the middle of the night; if I were to guess I would say about an inch and a half.  Today however, the beautiful snow is nothing more than hardened ice.  Poppa is taking a little time to teach Riley Jabe how to throw what should be a snowball, but is really nothing more than a freezing cold chunk of ice. They really seemed to be having a great time together, so once I took my picture I went back inside to let them have some bonding time.  Riley’s little mouth was jabbering a mile a minute when he came back in to tell me about his new talent of throwing blocks of ice.  I do so love to hear his stories!

And so ends week three of the year 2012.  What a wonderful three weeks it has been so far!  I hope you have enjoyed your view in to our world; I look forward to sharing in yours as well. Have a great week  and remember to enjoy the little things in life – they are the most special of all.

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The Age of False Entitlement

Does this sound familiar to you?  Perhaps your cousins children, your neighbors or God forbid, even your own children have grown to have a false sense of entitlement.  Is there a way to raise your children in a society where we are always trying to Keep up with the Jones’, without them believing they are entitled to the best of everything whether it fits within your budget or not?  Is it more important to raise well-rounded, honest, hard-working adults who appreciate what they have, than it is to be your child’s best friend?  Is there a way to do both?  These are the questions parents my age are facing as a whole generation of children become young adults – young adults who expect to be given everything their hearts desire.

I am the mother of three; their ages are almost twenty-one, fifteen and twenty-seven months.  To write this article I will first need to tell you a little about our history as a family.  My eldest child is my biological daughter and my middle child is my chosen, or as most would say, my step daughter from a previous marriage and my baby is biologically my grandson, though we have raised him since birth, giving us more of a parental love for him.  Though we have not adopted him legally, we do have legal custody and he does call us Momma and Poppa.  He is our son. I am going to keep the hardships to a minimal, as they are only slightly relevant to this article.

When my eldest child was eleven and my chosen daughter was six, my ex and I divorced.  This was a very difficult time for me, as he had controlled me and my actions for so long I did not really know how to function without his commands – not to mention he prevented me from seeing my youngest daughter from the moment he made my eldest and I leave his home.  During the first few months of our separation, I found myself slipping further and further into depression and the mixture of medications the doctors had given me were making me hallucinate.  Realizing this was not a healthy situation for my eldest daughter, I called my mother and asked for her help while I detoxed from medications prescribed to me.  Her answer to helping me was to take custody of my daughter and prevent me from seeing her until after her eighteenth birthday.

My middle child had never had a relationship with her biological mother, as she spent most of her life in and out of prison.  I have been the only mother she has really ever known, though she did know and spend a little amount of time with her biological mother.  Her father has spent time locked up as well and after we divorced he went back to prison.  This opened the door for me to have a relationship with my chosen daughter, through the love and understanding of my ex-husbands mother. So while my mother was keeping my biological child from me, my relationship with my chosen daughter grew stronger through the years.  Her biological mother passed away in 2006, which entitled my chosen daughter to social security monies intended for her biological mother.  These monies came at a good time, given the fact her father went back to prison for the second time since our divorce and he would therefore be unable to help with finances again.  This being said my chosen daughter has been paying bills and penny-pinching since the young age of eleven.

I must admit I have been guilty over the years of making sure my children had everything they needed and at times, many things they did not need.  Some of these things were given because the girls wanted them and some (like TV’s for their bedrooms) were given for my convenience.  If you have ever watched The Lion King for the millionth time in one week, you know what I mean.  Because I was not allowed to be a part of my eldest daughters life during the very important teen years, she did not get some of the lessons I taught – and life taught – my middle child.  These are important life lessons – ones which teach us to earn things we want because nothing is free and we must work to have a better life than the one we were handed by fate.

My eldest daughter returned to me four months after her eighteenth birthday, six and a half months pregnant with a child she made clear she did not want.  Apparently nobody was paying attention, as my daughter has stated not even she knew she was pregnant. (I promise we are getting to the point of this article – but this paragraph is necessary to tie our history up in such a way as to explain how it applies to my thoughts.)  It has become clear to me that my eldest child was not taught important life lessons which would have ensured she would become a productive  member of society. I can only think my mother, instead of teaching these lessons, was busy making up for all the things my daughter had lost. She was molding a  young adult who would have a false sense of entitlement through her desire to be her friend and to keep my daughter within her walls.  She filled her mind with untruths in regard to me, she closed her up in her bedroom hidden behind a computer screen, where my daughter would build her life and she gave her everything.   There were bi-weekly trips for a manicure and pedicure.  There were the monthly trips to the beauty shop to have her hair professionally tended to.  There was one of each gaming system and every game she desired stacked high upon her shelves.  Her laundry was washed, dried, folded and put away.  Her sheets were cleaned and her bed was made.   She was not expected to work on the weekends to earn her playing money, nor was she encouraged to take drivers ed so she could become an independent young lady.  She was not taught to prepare meals for the family, or made to do yard work.  The maid came in weekly to clean her bathroom and vacuum her floors. She was not taught to take responsibility for her actions, nor does it seem there were repercussions for untruths she may have told.  Simply stated, she was handed everything she required and desired on a silver platter. Ahhh yes, welcome to The Age of False Entitlement!

Now for the point of this article.  In my frustration I spoke to many of my friends, both in the real world and in the computer world and I found most of them have, or have dealt with young adults who live with this same sense of false entitlement.  I have read article after article, story after story and frustration after frustration in search of answers on how to reverse this way of thinking.  What I have found is the age-old adage of, “tough love”.   You do not need to be in my unique situation to realize how difficult this can be.  You need not have your child legally kidnapped and kept from you for seven and a half years and then returned to you with a sense of false entitlement.  You need not be a divorced parent, where your ex spouse tends to spoil and give in to your child in an effort to make up for their broken family. Quite simply, any parent in today’s world has the potential to set themselves up to raise children who then become young adults who believe the world should be handed to them on a silver platter, simply because they exist.  Are we so eager to not repeat the sins of our parents when raising our children, that we forget to teach them the most basic of life’s lessons?  Are we so eager to be our children’s best friend, that we forget to teach them how to lead productive, meaningful, healthy lives?  Are we so eager to provide our kids with all of their hearts desires in order to stay on their good side, that we forget what they really need is guidance to become  successful, hard-working members of society who have every right to be proud of their accomplishments?  I say yes, yes we are that eager.

Sadly it is our children who pay the price in the end; it is our children who wake one day disappointed in themselves, in the world around them – in us, their parents, for having failed them. We have raised their expectations so high, given to them so freely, without making them earn rewards, that one day they will have no choice but to fail because they will not have the required tools to acquire things they desire. Will they in turn raise their children to have a false sense of entitlement, or will they instead repeat the sins of many generations where children were put to work at an early age, where they were to be seen and not heard, where discipline was swift and hard in an attempt not to over indulge them?  Is there a happy medium?  One where we can be our children’s friends and still be their parents?  Is there a place where we can give them all of what they need, some of what they want and guide them gently in to becoming productive members of the human race?  I want to believe there is.

I am not saying we should stop rewarding our children, or praising them when they do well.  I am not saying we should not strive to be our adult children’s friends – the key words here being adult children. What I am trying to say is this: when our children are young they need our guidance, more than they need our friendship.  They need to know they can depend on us to be there to listen, to help them when they fall and to teach them how to work through issues which cause them stress.  They need us to teach them about friendship, loyalty, love and family.  They need to learn about trust and faith through not only our words, but through our actions as well.  They need to know they can rely on us to provide them with the necessities like food, clothing and shelter – while also teaching them that the comforts of home do not come easily, they are not free and we are not entitled to live with heating or air-conditioning simply because of the era we live in.

There is a time for getting down on the floor and rolling around with our children.  There is a time for finger-painting and dancing in the rain, a time for singing and cuddling on the couch.  There is a time for enjoying the beautiful beings we have brought in to the world and for applauding their accomplishments as we watch them grow.  And then there is a time for teaching, mentoring, molding and rewarding the gifts we have been entrusted with by The One I Am.  And finally, there is a time for basking in the light of the wonderful, well-adjusted, self-reliant, proud and accomplished  adults we have raised, which we can now call not only our child but also our best friend.  Is there such a time?  Such a place?  I want to believe there is.

©Kesia L. Shelton~Miller

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