Yup, I'm one of THOSE mothers, the ones that chain their kids like dogs.
Well I kind of did with Rockchick. She was about 18 months, had been walking since 15 months and decided she was too big for the pram, she performed Houdini type escapes whenever I put her in it, and if she was not in it she would pull things off the shelves and run off so fast I had trouble watching her. So I bought a baby harness.
I was 20 years old, standing in the middle of the local mall, with my "perfect" baby that was so easy (first baby, remember?) in her leash for the first time. She was crawling along the ground with her head between her hands sobbing her little heart out, banging her head on the ground, and then turning around and smacking my legs as hard as she could. I stood stunned watching this performance, having no idea what to do about it, and feeling fairly mortified at the 50 odd people who had stopped to see what the commotion was, and I actually heard SOMEONE say "OMG what a terrible mother, I would NEVER chain my child up like it was a dog!"
Now that makes me angry. There are two reasons you chain up a dog, to protect others, and to protect the dog. To stop the dog running away, into traffic. To stop the dog getting into things. To anyone that says "don't chain your kids up like a dog" I say, don't you love your kids as much as your dog?
If any parent feels the need to "chain their kids like a dog" I say, good on you for doing whats right for you, and protecting your children in your own way. If you dont need/want a leash thats your right. But why belittle others?
Although I think its becoming more accepted again, slowly.
So anyway, on with the story.
I am getting sick of getting the pram out of the car, and putting two kids into it every time we go anywhere. CheekyLala can walk now, and BankyBoo is close (by close, I mean she can, but won't in public, and still reverts to her knees a lot). So I decided to buy Cheekylala a leash, and I found one of those ones that is a backpack with an attachment for a very reasonable price.
Being a bit more clued up this time round, I stuck it on her for the first time at home. We walked all round the house together for a minute or so, which she found very fun, and then I started stopping her going in certain directions, just a little bit. After about 5 minutes she seemed fairly used to it.
Then we went out. Our first outing with the new "system" (being me carrying Bankyboo and Cheekylala walking on her leash) went fairly well. Mostly. We went to a local foodcourt with a kiddy playground and met a few other mothers there, and that went fine. Then we went to the supermarket.
Now my local supermarket has 4 trolleys with two toddler seats. Thats right FOUR... feel sory for the fifth person with twins (or two children under 3) that walks in. Out of the 50 plus they must have in store at any given time... So being able to have one on the leash, and one in the trolley was great.
We managed our shopping with only a few minor tangles and one topple, and got to the checkout. CheekyLala saw the chocolate bars, and that was the end of her good mood. No chocolate equals baby on ground sobbing.
I'm pretty sure the guy in line behind us thought she was screaming because she was on the leash, as he was shaking his head at us and tutting under his breath. After a short glare in his direction and a fairly loud "NO DARLING, YOU CANT HAVE CHOCOLATE, ITS ALMOST LUNCHTIME!" and pointed look over shoulder at the judgy man, he seemed to decide not to look at me any more at least. I don't really blame him, I sincerely doubt he had kids, and hey I was a perfect parent until I had kids too.
No no, the one that ticked me off was the "perfect mother" in the next checkout. She had two perfect boys with her, sitting on one of the benches along the wall with not a hair out of place, nor a crease in their clothes, nor a sound from their mouths. And she looked at me like I was the worst mother she had ever seen. And I really wanted to walk over there, spill something on her perfect clothes (there was some yoghurt in my trolley, that would have done it) then ruffle her kids hair on the way back.
But I didn't. Just.
xx The Ramblings of Another Mother.
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
midnight maddness
I was woken at 2am a few mornings ago (in the middle of the night, when I have no sense of time, its always 2 am) by the following noise:
MUUUUHHHHHHHUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was Rockchick, I called back, what?
"murmer mumble, ear, murmer, mumber..."
HUH??? No chance then, I have to get up. I get in there and make my sleepy way to her bedroom.
"What?"
"My earring is stuck on my pillow."
Ok this calls for light.
Once the lights on, I see little Rockchick is indeed attached to her pillow. Its one of those fluffy ones, and some of the fluff is wrapped around her earring. In the attempt to get a closer look I am rewarded with screaming and small hands attempting to cover the offensive area.
I finally decide to go get scissors to cut the fluff so I can then at least see and unhook it. So I go off to get some.
I don't know if you have ever tried to look for scissors at 2 in the morning, but they are extremely difficult to find. Put together mental sleepiness with finding something that is usually missing at the best of times. I finally looked in the kids pens box and found a pair of kiddy ones in there, and chopped away the offending pillow from Rockchicks ear. The fluff immediately disappear so I happily tuck her back in.
"Night night, Darling"
"Night night Mummy"
Sometimes I fantasise about an alarm service along the lines of:
"Hello, you have reached Mummy (daddy), she is not available to take your scream in the middle of the night right now, please try again at 7am. Thank you, Goodbye."
But then I would lose some rather amusing stories!
xx The Ramblings if Another Mother
MUUUUHHHHHHHUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was Rockchick, I called back, what?
"murmer mumble, ear, murmer, mumber..."
HUH??? No chance then, I have to get up. I get in there and make my sleepy way to her bedroom.
"What?"
"My earring is stuck on my pillow."
Ok this calls for light.
Once the lights on, I see little Rockchick is indeed attached to her pillow. Its one of those fluffy ones, and some of the fluff is wrapped around her earring. In the attempt to get a closer look I am rewarded with screaming and small hands attempting to cover the offensive area.
I finally decide to go get scissors to cut the fluff so I can then at least see and unhook it. So I go off to get some.
I don't know if you have ever tried to look for scissors at 2 in the morning, but they are extremely difficult to find. Put together mental sleepiness with finding something that is usually missing at the best of times. I finally looked in the kids pens box and found a pair of kiddy ones in there, and chopped away the offending pillow from Rockchicks ear. The fluff immediately disappear so I happily tuck her back in.
"Night night, Darling"
"Night night Mummy"
Sometimes I fantasise about an alarm service along the lines of:
"Hello, you have reached Mummy (daddy), she is not available to take your scream in the middle of the night right now, please try again at 7am. Thank you, Goodbye."
But then I would lose some rather amusing stories!
xx The Ramblings if Another Mother
Saturday, 25 June 2011
Cotton Wool Kids
I have been thinking about this post for a few days, and uhmed and ahed about weather or not to write it. Its a tricky subject. But its one i have strong opinions on (note the use of the word OPINION here) and I finally decided to share them.
You have all seen those kids wrapped in cotton wool right? The ones whose parents have made a spotless environment for their kids to live in, with no germs ANYWHERE and the childproofing is still on all the doors and windows, cupboards and the toilet even though their kids have been using the toilet for several years now. (just ask permission dear)...
My opinion of these parents is on several levels, my first thoughts are one day their kids must go out into the world and find out its a scary place with germs everywhere and holes in the ground they might trip on and toilets that you can just open up and use. My second thought is that they must be exhausted from both managing to maintain that consistency of spotlessness and from the abject terror they must have of their kids coming into contact with all these risks they have worked so hard to protect their children from. And I also feel sorry for the kids, who have no notion of their own limits and skills, and lets face it, no immune system.
Now I'm no scientist or doctor, but I have done a fair amount of reading articles WRITTEN by scientists and doctors, and the consensus seems to be as follows: you create immunity from interacting with germs, and you create antibodies to everything you come into contact with. You have immunity to chocolate, apples, meat, sand, dirt, airborne things like germs, and you have immunity to illness. You don't get immunity from never being exposed to these things, in fact, by never being exposed to these things we have no immunity to them so when we do become exposed to them we are more likely to develop an allergy from our immune system working overtime to deal with the new "threat" (that's of course not the only way allergy's develop).
Now I get that some children have medical conditions such as mass allergy or low immune system or whatever that means their parents MUST maintain this environment. By if your child doesn't then in my opinion, let them play!
Something else I know is that for the first one to two years of exposure to the real world, your kids will get sick, a lot. And because a lot of the illness they catch will be things that you have never been in contact with (what they call mutations and new viruses) you will get it too. In fact it could go straight through the whole family. That's normal. Its good in fact, because then that's one more thing you have all built up immunity to. Now if you heavily protect your child from all possible contact with germs then they will start getting sick at school, and miss a fair bit. I don't know if it will be worse if you wait till then because I never waited that long, all my kids faced the big scary world of germs before they turned one. And started getting sick. A lot. In fact my twins have some kind of virus right now that has given them both a snotty nose. I believe that their good stong immune systems that have been getting lots of exercise since they were ten months old has kept it that way, and I also believe that if they had just started kindy last month they would be sick, but I wouldn't call them sick, I am just wiping their noses off a fair bit.
Another part of cotton wooling I highly disagree with is protection from "meanness". Like as soon as you see a kid on the playground giving your precious baby a hard time you are in their like a shot to "save" them. I can't stand that. In my opinion, that's setting your kids up for major bullying at school, because, in case you hadn't realised, you will not be present on the school playground to rescue them from the other kids, and they will be so used to being rescued they will have no clue how to handle it. So they will just cry. Or worse, tell the teacher (which has its place) but eventually they will run out of teachers, and remember what we all thought of the "tattle-tale kids" at school? And remember how we treated them? Kids are cruel, they can belittle the crap out of anyone who lets them, and if your kids have no clue how to protect themselves, then they WILL let them.
The part of cotton wooling I do agree with is that I want my children to know that the safest place on earth for them is home. My kids can come to me with ANYTHING and I will listen and support as best I can. As kids they can tell me all about the mean kids at school and I will wrap them in my arms and we can talk about how to handle that when they go back out their again. When I face teenage hood, I intend to at times buy them alcahol so that I know what they are drinking, how much, and where, at least SOME of the time. If one of my girls comes home pregnant, I (sincerely hope) will freak out at some point that they don't see me do it, because they are safe to bring me that in their home. Drug addiction, same thing. If I do my job right, my main feeling on any of that will be gratefulness that they feel SAFE to come to me knowing I love and support them no matter what.
And on a lighter note, when we play monopoly if someone is low on funds the bank will give them a few million dollars as a gift, and if they can't afford to pay the rent of the spot they land on they can sleep there for free that night. We avoid "whos the winner, whos the loser" during games because to me its about having a fun family night. Competition has no place in my home, they can learn about that at school. And we dance stupid dances in the living room with crazy moves, play silly voice games around the dinner table, and my husband and I try to "whip" each other with the tea towels when we do the dishes. Because laughter is a really important part of our home life.
So my conclusion is, cotton wooling their feelings at home is vital, cotton wooling your children from the big bad world is like performing emotional suicide on their behalf. harsh words I know, but that is my honest to goodness opinion. Children that walk out of their incredible safe home world with no idea of what it is really like out there are going to fall flat on their face, and it could be years, if ever, before they learn how to handle that.
Now I would like you to remember that I carefully used the word OPINIONS at the beginning of this blog post. This is all my personal opinions, and how I choose to raise my kids, to the best of my ability. You choose your way.
xx The Ramblings of Another Mother.
You have all seen those kids wrapped in cotton wool right? The ones whose parents have made a spotless environment for their kids to live in, with no germs ANYWHERE and the childproofing is still on all the doors and windows, cupboards and the toilet even though their kids have been using the toilet for several years now. (just ask permission dear)...
My opinion of these parents is on several levels, my first thoughts are one day their kids must go out into the world and find out its a scary place with germs everywhere and holes in the ground they might trip on and toilets that you can just open up and use. My second thought is that they must be exhausted from both managing to maintain that consistency of spotlessness and from the abject terror they must have of their kids coming into contact with all these risks they have worked so hard to protect their children from. And I also feel sorry for the kids, who have no notion of their own limits and skills, and lets face it, no immune system.
Now I'm no scientist or doctor, but I have done a fair amount of reading articles WRITTEN by scientists and doctors, and the consensus seems to be as follows: you create immunity from interacting with germs, and you create antibodies to everything you come into contact with. You have immunity to chocolate, apples, meat, sand, dirt, airborne things like germs, and you have immunity to illness. You don't get immunity from never being exposed to these things, in fact, by never being exposed to these things we have no immunity to them so when we do become exposed to them we are more likely to develop an allergy from our immune system working overtime to deal with the new "threat" (that's of course not the only way allergy's develop).
Now I get that some children have medical conditions such as mass allergy or low immune system or whatever that means their parents MUST maintain this environment. By if your child doesn't then in my opinion, let them play!
Something else I know is that for the first one to two years of exposure to the real world, your kids will get sick, a lot. And because a lot of the illness they catch will be things that you have never been in contact with (what they call mutations and new viruses) you will get it too. In fact it could go straight through the whole family. That's normal. Its good in fact, because then that's one more thing you have all built up immunity to. Now if you heavily protect your child from all possible contact with germs then they will start getting sick at school, and miss a fair bit. I don't know if it will be worse if you wait till then because I never waited that long, all my kids faced the big scary world of germs before they turned one. And started getting sick. A lot. In fact my twins have some kind of virus right now that has given them both a snotty nose. I believe that their good stong immune systems that have been getting lots of exercise since they were ten months old has kept it that way, and I also believe that if they had just started kindy last month they would be sick, but I wouldn't call them sick, I am just wiping their noses off a fair bit.
Another part of cotton wooling I highly disagree with is protection from "meanness". Like as soon as you see a kid on the playground giving your precious baby a hard time you are in their like a shot to "save" them. I can't stand that. In my opinion, that's setting your kids up for major bullying at school, because, in case you hadn't realised, you will not be present on the school playground to rescue them from the other kids, and they will be so used to being rescued they will have no clue how to handle it. So they will just cry. Or worse, tell the teacher (which has its place) but eventually they will run out of teachers, and remember what we all thought of the "tattle-tale kids" at school? And remember how we treated them? Kids are cruel, they can belittle the crap out of anyone who lets them, and if your kids have no clue how to protect themselves, then they WILL let them.
The part of cotton wooling I do agree with is that I want my children to know that the safest place on earth for them is home. My kids can come to me with ANYTHING and I will listen and support as best I can. As kids they can tell me all about the mean kids at school and I will wrap them in my arms and we can talk about how to handle that when they go back out their again. When I face teenage hood, I intend to at times buy them alcahol so that I know what they are drinking, how much, and where, at least SOME of the time. If one of my girls comes home pregnant, I (sincerely hope) will freak out at some point that they don't see me do it, because they are safe to bring me that in their home. Drug addiction, same thing. If I do my job right, my main feeling on any of that will be gratefulness that they feel SAFE to come to me knowing I love and support them no matter what.
And on a lighter note, when we play monopoly if someone is low on funds the bank will give them a few million dollars as a gift, and if they can't afford to pay the rent of the spot they land on they can sleep there for free that night. We avoid "whos the winner, whos the loser" during games because to me its about having a fun family night. Competition has no place in my home, they can learn about that at school. And we dance stupid dances in the living room with crazy moves, play silly voice games around the dinner table, and my husband and I try to "whip" each other with the tea towels when we do the dishes. Because laughter is a really important part of our home life.
So my conclusion is, cotton wooling their feelings at home is vital, cotton wooling your children from the big bad world is like performing emotional suicide on their behalf. harsh words I know, but that is my honest to goodness opinion. Children that walk out of their incredible safe home world with no idea of what it is really like out there are going to fall flat on their face, and it could be years, if ever, before they learn how to handle that.
Now I would like you to remember that I carefully used the word OPINIONS at the beginning of this blog post. This is all my personal opinions, and how I choose to raise my kids, to the best of my ability. You choose your way.
xx The Ramblings of Another Mother.
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Dear Pimple
Why did you have to appear on my LIP I mean seriously, my LIP its one of the most conspicuous places on my body and it hurts like fricken hell. But the pain I can take, I have had 3 children. two at the same time and the pain is nothing. Its the conspicuosness that is pissing me off! I have to GO OUT OF MY HOUSE today, I have to go grocery shopping and LOOK at people and let them look at me. And there is a pimple on my LIP my lip feels so fat and gross and of course I feel like the whole world is staring at it.
There are so many places on my body you could have appeared, so why my lip? My LIP?? Seriously.
I am very mad at you Pimple.
Sincerely,
The Ramblings of Another Mother.
There are so many places on my body you could have appeared, so why my lip? My LIP?? Seriously.
I am very mad at you Pimple.
Sincerely,
The Ramblings of Another Mother.
Monday, 20 June 2011
Who are you and what have you done with my mother?
Have you seen that add? It cracks me up. And I have recently felt a little like that about myself (which is scary and exciting at the same time.)
First we gave up smoking, one month ago tomorrow. (Taking bow.) Then I morphed (almost overnight) into an exercise junkie, and then I started feeling motivated about all sorts of things.
Granted some of these things are just not happening (like baking every Tuesday for Paige's lunch.... which I should be doing RIGHT now) and some of them are plain outrageous expectations on myself (like working for the twins entire naps on my days off) haha, yeah right. Not if it can wait till next work day. Which it almost always can. And if it can't then yeah ok, I do it.
But then again some of these things have been hugely beneficial to me.
Like I can now go on a fairly extensive and intensive walk and not feel like I am about die. Which feels very good. Especially after the first time when I walked with the twins up the hill and was panting so heavily that they thought I was entertaining them and turned around in their pram to laugh their brains out at me.
One of the less good things would be that my head is so so full of crap that I can't get rid of it to get to sleep. So I am getting quite tired. I want to do something like write about it in a journal or SOMETHING but I suck bottom at keeping to these things.
Today a wonderful woman on facebook told me about Kiwi Mummy Blogs http://www.kiwimummyblogs.co.nz/ and through that I have found a blog called http://www.greatfun4kidsblog.com/ which is a beautiful blog and is very similar in content to what I am trying to achieve. But most of all, it has new blogger tips.
Now I must admit one of these tips is so blindingly obvious that I actually laugh at myself. Can you guess what it might be? Google it. Thats right, it had NOT occurred to me to google ideas on improving my blog! I blame Nappy Brain.
As an aside, here is the pattern of brain freeze I have noted women follow:
I'm Pregnant: Preggy-brain
I'm a new mother: Nappy Brain
My kids have left home: Senior Moments.
Anyways. So now I am full of tips and advice and well meaning posts from OTHER bloggers and am feeling all motivated AGAIN to make my blog PURDY!!!
Watch my blog go BLITZ!!!! Stay Tuned
First we gave up smoking, one month ago tomorrow. (Taking bow.) Then I morphed (almost overnight) into an exercise junkie, and then I started feeling motivated about all sorts of things.
Granted some of these things are just not happening (like baking every Tuesday for Paige's lunch.... which I should be doing RIGHT now) and some of them are plain outrageous expectations on myself (like working for the twins entire naps on my days off) haha, yeah right. Not if it can wait till next work day. Which it almost always can. And if it can't then yeah ok, I do it.
But then again some of these things have been hugely beneficial to me.
Like I can now go on a fairly extensive and intensive walk and not feel like I am about die. Which feels very good. Especially after the first time when I walked with the twins up the hill and was panting so heavily that they thought I was entertaining them and turned around in their pram to laugh their brains out at me.
One of the less good things would be that my head is so so full of crap that I can't get rid of it to get to sleep. So I am getting quite tired. I want to do something like write about it in a journal or SOMETHING but I suck bottom at keeping to these things.
Today a wonderful woman on facebook told me about Kiwi Mummy Blogs http://www.kiwimummyblogs.co.nz/ and through that I have found a blog called http://www.greatfun4kidsblog.com/ which is a beautiful blog and is very similar in content to what I am trying to achieve. But most of all, it has new blogger tips.
Now I must admit one of these tips is so blindingly obvious that I actually laugh at myself. Can you guess what it might be? Google it. Thats right, it had NOT occurred to me to google ideas on improving my blog! I blame Nappy Brain.
As an aside, here is the pattern of brain freeze I have noted women follow:
I'm Pregnant: Preggy-brain
I'm a new mother: Nappy Brain
My kids have left home: Senior Moments.
Anyways. So now I am full of tips and advice and well meaning posts from OTHER bloggers and am feeling all motivated AGAIN to make my blog PURDY!!!
Watch my blog go BLITZ!!!! Stay Tuned
Monday, 13 June 2011
Thank goodness I'm having a fantastic day.
So I went to a motivational seminar on Friday last week, CAN YOU TELL???? I MEAN I'M NOT FEELING MOTIVATED OR ANYTHING...........
Anyways. It was (as you might have already deduced) a fantastic experience, and I came away with some very cool new tools (this was a sales training seminar which I attended in aid of generating myself more business) and a strong feeling of "I can do this".
Very cool.
One of the stories the woman taking the seminar told us very early on was funny and awesome at the same time. She told us that the day before (on Thursday) she had flown to Sydney and back to do another training seminar, and arrived at 6 in the morning at the Airport, and had forgotten her passport, she also ran by her own watch and was actually arriving at the airport an hour before the flight was due to depart. Enter frantic race home to collect passport. And she made it onto the plane, slightly frazzled, and told the story to the person next to her, who said, wow what a bad day.
She said that she replied, well actually I am having a fantastic day. And she did.
She went on to say, that the power of our minds to create what we believe is incredible. I know this to be true anyway, because I have utilised it myself. I just need reminding every now and then from a like minded person.
So I went home after a lot more motivational talk and training, and felt pretty bloody good about it all. Then I had a pretty bloody good weekend with my husband and my two younger children, as the eldest was at her fathers.
I then got up this morning, and started my day with intention, "today I am having a fantastic day"
And I tell you what, I did.
Let me tell you about it.
It started at about ten to seven, a short time after the dear husband left. Rockchick came in to where I was attempting to manage a few more seconds sleep before I dragged my butt out of my nice warm bed into my freezing bedroom.
"MUUUUUM! I haven't got any uniform!"
"Ok, I will be up in a minute and I will find you one." Rockchick exits stage left.
I'm thinking, that's fine, there's a clean uniform in the laundry basket. I just haven't folded it yet.
Then the twins began to yell. UP UP UP MUM MUM MUM ...... One more minute darlings...
Rockchick re-enters stage left. "MUUUUUUUM the tvs not working!" Rockchick is not allowed TV unless she is all ready for school.
"Are you all ready for school?"
"I will check" Rockchick exits stage left.
The twins are rather insistent now. Ok I'm up, I'm up.
Thank goodness I'm having a fantastic day...
Morning continues with more whinging and whining, and kids that want feeding and mums that want silence and the clock that JUST KEEPS ON TICKING.....
We actually got out the door ALMOST on time. MUCH earlier than usual and I felt very proud. Dropped the kids at their various things and went to the beach where I meet a friend 3 mornings a week to go for a walk, I was early and she had text me that she was running late. I was feeling VERY full of a bunch of unwelcome energy so I decided to run around the park while I waited. Brilliant. First 20 seconds felt like I was running on a cloud of happy lala land. After that I felt like I was dying.
Thank goodness I'm having a fantastic day.
Met up with friend, we went to the beach, there was no sand left on the beach, since it all disappears about this time of year, and she had her youngest in his pram and so we struggle across the rocks and carried the pram a lot of the way, which the little fulla didn't like, he likes his pram, it is HIS pram thank you!
We decided that instead of compromising a lot of the beneficial exercise, we would go back via the road (which is quite a bit hillier and further, remember I have also been for a run.)
That was tiring. Its a good thing I'm having a fantastic day.
Went to work. Work work work. Then I remember that Rockchick has an after school activity to attend, and I forgot to remind her. But its lunchtime at the school no point in calling now. Work some more...
I call the school and input the code for her classroom, (remember back in OUR day when they sent notes from the office, those were the days weren't they?) after going through this several times and getting the same recorded message saying something like "no one is available to take your call, goodbye" I called the office, and what do you think they did? They sent a note.
Ok that's sorted. Work work work work........ enter several more minutes of work here.
Day ends. Time to collect the kids. Get in car and back up. I missed the driveway completely and ended up in the mud.
Now I don't have a normal car, I have a bloody big fat mongrel of a beast of a car. You know, a people mover. It is Rear Wheel Drive (so Fisherman informs me, please don't ask me what it means. It is also blue, and it has four wheels in the right places and a fifth one for steering.) But apparently my car being rear-wheel driven means it gets stuck in the mud rather easily. And I was stuck in the mud.
I thought for a minute, then turned the steering wheel RIGHT round and reversed a little further round the corner, I was attempting to get my car back on the concrete. Instead I put the drivers side front wheel into the mud too. Ops.
Thank goodness I'm having a fantastic day?
I called my dad (being my hero when my Hero Hubby is not in my general vicinity) but it turned out that he was no where near me. I called my mum, thinking she could bring me her car. I could not get through. I called the daycare, explained that I was stuck in the mud and that I was coming as soon as I worked out what to do about it. I called mum again. I contemplated calling several friends, but dismissed every one knowing that they were all busy with THEIR afternoon things too. I thought, well its not THAT far. I will walk to the school, collect Rockchick, walk to mums, which is not THAT much farther, and get her car, come back and get the carseats and then go get the twins. Not hard, no problem.
Thank goodness I'm having a fantastic day!!!
My mum called back and I almost cried!
My husband had a good laugh at me when he got home and tugged my poor car out of the mud, I told him that statistically men have more crashes than women but I don't think he believed me.... actually I'm not sure he even heard me through his happy chortles. Probably a good thing too since I made it up. The kids did not get bathed as was in the plans because I go to tap dancing on a Monday and there was no longer time for THAT.
So that was an interesting pile of shit. Thank goodness I'm having a fantastic day!
And you know what's funny? I really did.
xx The Ramblings of Another Mother.
Anyways. It was (as you might have already deduced) a fantastic experience, and I came away with some very cool new tools (this was a sales training seminar which I attended in aid of generating myself more business) and a strong feeling of "I can do this".
Very cool.
One of the stories the woman taking the seminar told us very early on was funny and awesome at the same time. She told us that the day before (on Thursday) she had flown to Sydney and back to do another training seminar, and arrived at 6 in the morning at the Airport, and had forgotten her passport, she also ran by her own watch and was actually arriving at the airport an hour before the flight was due to depart. Enter frantic race home to collect passport. And she made it onto the plane, slightly frazzled, and told the story to the person next to her, who said, wow what a bad day.
She said that she replied, well actually I am having a fantastic day. And she did.
She went on to say, that the power of our minds to create what we believe is incredible. I know this to be true anyway, because I have utilised it myself. I just need reminding every now and then from a like minded person.
So I went home after a lot more motivational talk and training, and felt pretty bloody good about it all. Then I had a pretty bloody good weekend with my husband and my two younger children, as the eldest was at her fathers.
I then got up this morning, and started my day with intention, "today I am having a fantastic day"
And I tell you what, I did.
Let me tell you about it.
It started at about ten to seven, a short time after the dear husband left. Rockchick came in to where I was attempting to manage a few more seconds sleep before I dragged my butt out of my nice warm bed into my freezing bedroom.
"MUUUUUM! I haven't got any uniform!"
"Ok, I will be up in a minute and I will find you one." Rockchick exits stage left.
I'm thinking, that's fine, there's a clean uniform in the laundry basket. I just haven't folded it yet.
Then the twins began to yell. UP UP UP MUM MUM MUM ...... One more minute darlings...
Rockchick re-enters stage left. "MUUUUUUUM the tvs not working!" Rockchick is not allowed TV unless she is all ready for school.
"Are you all ready for school?"
"I will check" Rockchick exits stage left.
The twins are rather insistent now. Ok I'm up, I'm up.
Thank goodness I'm having a fantastic day...
Morning continues with more whinging and whining, and kids that want feeding and mums that want silence and the clock that JUST KEEPS ON TICKING.....
We actually got out the door ALMOST on time. MUCH earlier than usual and I felt very proud. Dropped the kids at their various things and went to the beach where I meet a friend 3 mornings a week to go for a walk, I was early and she had text me that she was running late. I was feeling VERY full of a bunch of unwelcome energy so I decided to run around the park while I waited. Brilliant. First 20 seconds felt like I was running on a cloud of happy lala land. After that I felt like I was dying.
Thank goodness I'm having a fantastic day.
Met up with friend, we went to the beach, there was no sand left on the beach, since it all disappears about this time of year, and she had her youngest in his pram and so we struggle across the rocks and carried the pram a lot of the way, which the little fulla didn't like, he likes his pram, it is HIS pram thank you!
We decided that instead of compromising a lot of the beneficial exercise, we would go back via the road (which is quite a bit hillier and further, remember I have also been for a run.)
That was tiring. Its a good thing I'm having a fantastic day.
Went to work. Work work work. Then I remember that Rockchick has an after school activity to attend, and I forgot to remind her. But its lunchtime at the school no point in calling now. Work some more...
I call the school and input the code for her classroom, (remember back in OUR day when they sent notes from the office, those were the days weren't they?) after going through this several times and getting the same recorded message saying something like "no one is available to take your call, goodbye" I called the office, and what do you think they did? They sent a note.
Ok that's sorted. Work work work work........ enter several more minutes of work here.
Day ends. Time to collect the kids. Get in car and back up. I missed the driveway completely and ended up in the mud.
Now I don't have a normal car, I have a bloody big fat mongrel of a beast of a car. You know, a people mover. It is Rear Wheel Drive (so Fisherman informs me, please don't ask me what it means. It is also blue, and it has four wheels in the right places and a fifth one for steering.) But apparently my car being rear-wheel driven means it gets stuck in the mud rather easily. And I was stuck in the mud.
I thought for a minute, then turned the steering wheel RIGHT round and reversed a little further round the corner, I was attempting to get my car back on the concrete. Instead I put the drivers side front wheel into the mud too. Ops.
Thank goodness I'm having a fantastic day?
I called my dad (being my hero when my Hero Hubby is not in my general vicinity) but it turned out that he was no where near me. I called my mum, thinking she could bring me her car. I could not get through. I called the daycare, explained that I was stuck in the mud and that I was coming as soon as I worked out what to do about it. I called mum again. I contemplated calling several friends, but dismissed every one knowing that they were all busy with THEIR afternoon things too. I thought, well its not THAT far. I will walk to the school, collect Rockchick, walk to mums, which is not THAT much farther, and get her car, come back and get the carseats and then go get the twins. Not hard, no problem.
Thank goodness I'm having a fantastic day!!!
My mum called back and I almost cried!
My husband had a good laugh at me when he got home and tugged my poor car out of the mud, I told him that statistically men have more crashes than women but I don't think he believed me.... actually I'm not sure he even heard me through his happy chortles. Probably a good thing too since I made it up. The kids did not get bathed as was in the plans because I go to tap dancing on a Monday and there was no longer time for THAT.
So that was an interesting pile of shit. Thank goodness I'm having a fantastic day!
And you know what's funny? I really did.
xx The Ramblings of Another Mother.
Monday, 6 June 2011
Its lucky they are so damn cute.
Kids waste shit dont they?
I mean. sometimes I think why do I bother going to all the trouble of supermarket shopping, then come home and put it all away, and then cooking and preparing and slaving to create gourmet perfection meals with the nutritional values up the wazzoo and present my three beautiful children with their dinners to have it whole heartedly rejected.
Why dont I just take the grocery money and flush it down the loo?
The funny thing is, this is annoying me more since I gave up smoking. Now that we have MORE money (since we are no longer basically smoking money every week) and yet now I have this thing that we should SAVE more money. So every time one of the twins chucks dinner/lunch/breakfast on the floor I am thinking "thats another ten bucks on the floor we could have put into the savings account"
Ok breakfast is probably worth about two dollars fifty.
Laughing at myself here.
Why do I bother spending all that time putting their books up neatly and tidying their toys away nicely?
I got up this morning, after having spent several hours yesterday doing a big clean up, mopping vacuuming, tidying, dusting. Ok maybe not the dusting. Folding and washing and straightening. Houseworking.
And this morning we left the house at nine to go for a long walk. My kids had been up for two hours but it didnt take them anywhere near that long to destroy my efforts. My living room is now a dragons lair of books blocks clothes and toys.
Why do I bother doing all the work in the first place?
So basically I am saying I should avoid cleaning, and let my kids feed themselves cookies and chocolate out the cupboard.
Damn they are lucky I love them so much. I want to give them a nice tidy house to destroy, and at least attempt to teach them good nutritional food tastes good, sometimes. Well you should at least eat it.
Then Kaisey comes and leans on me and goes "ello mamaaaaa"
Damn its lucky they are so cute.
xx The Ramblings of Another Mother.
I mean. sometimes I think why do I bother going to all the trouble of supermarket shopping, then come home and put it all away, and then cooking and preparing and slaving to create gourmet perfection meals with the nutritional values up the wazzoo and present my three beautiful children with their dinners to have it whole heartedly rejected.
Why dont I just take the grocery money and flush it down the loo?
The funny thing is, this is annoying me more since I gave up smoking. Now that we have MORE money (since we are no longer basically smoking money every week) and yet now I have this thing that we should SAVE more money. So every time one of the twins chucks dinner/lunch/breakfast on the floor I am thinking "thats another ten bucks on the floor we could have put into the savings account"
Ok breakfast is probably worth about two dollars fifty.
Laughing at myself here.
Why do I bother spending all that time putting their books up neatly and tidying their toys away nicely?
I got up this morning, after having spent several hours yesterday doing a big clean up, mopping vacuuming, tidying, dusting. Ok maybe not the dusting. Folding and washing and straightening. Houseworking.
And this morning we left the house at nine to go for a long walk. My kids had been up for two hours but it didnt take them anywhere near that long to destroy my efforts. My living room is now a dragons lair of books blocks clothes and toys.
Why do I bother doing all the work in the first place?
So basically I am saying I should avoid cleaning, and let my kids feed themselves cookies and chocolate out the cupboard.
Damn they are lucky I love them so much. I want to give them a nice tidy house to destroy, and at least attempt to teach them good nutritional food tastes good, sometimes. Well you should at least eat it.
Then Kaisey comes and leans on me and goes "ello mamaaaaa"
Damn its lucky they are so cute.
xx The Ramblings of Another Mother.
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Suspects.
In the last year, we have had suspected asthma, suspected epilepsy, suspected need for root canal treatment, suspected multiple sclerosis suspected broken collar bone, and suspected appendicitis.
Waiting rooms have become the bane of my existence. I am getting very used to reading old trashy magazines and finishing crosswords that strangers have started, while listening out for the correct name to be called.
So far this year we have had an ambulance to our house on 4 occasions. And Paige has been picked up from my parents house by an ambulance. One of them earlier this evening, in fact about 25 minutes ago. To take my husband BACK to hospital with a second bought of suspected appendicitis. Why they didn't whip it out the first time I don't understand. He was in hospital for three days a few weeks back and he was released after they starved him for two days and then sent home.
I am dying for a smoke right now. 7 days smoke free, what a joke. If the bloody shit would stop coming long enough for me to take a breath I think it would be easier. What an ironic choice of words. TAKE A BREATH........... BREATH IN TOXIC FUMES FROM YOUR TRUSTY LITTLE DEATH STICK.
Mothers little helper.
Black black few days. Few months. I just need to see some kind of light at the end of this health tunnel, even a teeny tiny speck of dust as small as the most distant star would do. Just SOMETHING!
And its not like theres anything really wrong, its all SUSPECTED its like lets play with this family for awhile, just roll them about in the sand and see how many scratches they can take before they all break into a hundred tiny pieces.
SUSPECTED epilepsy, so Paige has had Febrile Convulsions (fever fits) once or twice a year since she was a baby, but she is 7 now and was meant to grow out of them by 5, but since shes still having them, she is tested for seizure disorders.
SUSPECTED asthma, both the twins had a fairly major chest infection earlier in the year. They both had inhalers and "if symptoms persist see your doctor" apparently they could both develop asthma. So its a waiting game.
SUSPECTED MS Don had massive muscle weakness in his right arm and tremors, after a battery of tests they were unable to conclude anything, and the symptoms subsided.
SUSPECTED need for root canal treatment. Paige again. Refered by the dental nurse for a hole in an adult tooth, and after seeing 3 different dentists (first one was horrible, second one was ill-equiped to deal with children, 3rd was great but he was unable to perform a filling as the local anaesthetic didn't work) we were referred to the only paediatric dentist in Auckland, who was expensive, we were looking at up to 2500-3000 dollars for treatment. She was however fantastic, and has referred us to the hospital where she will be put under general and her tooth will be removed, through public health. She does by the way brush her teeth well every day, but this tooth grew in "soft" and under formed, and susceptible to cavities.
SUSPECTED collar bone break. Recent, Annabelle just started screaming and wouldn't stop, inspection at the local A+E proved she had injured her shoulder, but xrays did not show any breaks. Shes better now.
Nothing concrete, its all suspected. At some point a few answers would be good. Ok Universe? Answers please!
Slightly over it. Slightly fed up. Kinda ready to kick something. I won't, but I want to.
The only conclusion that I can really come to is "no news is good news" if they are not finding anything. Then hopefully there is nothing there. But this is all going to end soon isn't it?
xx The Ramblings of Another Mother
Waiting rooms have become the bane of my existence. I am getting very used to reading old trashy magazines and finishing crosswords that strangers have started, while listening out for the correct name to be called.
So far this year we have had an ambulance to our house on 4 occasions. And Paige has been picked up from my parents house by an ambulance. One of them earlier this evening, in fact about 25 minutes ago. To take my husband BACK to hospital with a second bought of suspected appendicitis. Why they didn't whip it out the first time I don't understand. He was in hospital for three days a few weeks back and he was released after they starved him for two days and then sent home.
I am dying for a smoke right now. 7 days smoke free, what a joke. If the bloody shit would stop coming long enough for me to take a breath I think it would be easier. What an ironic choice of words. TAKE A BREATH........... BREATH IN TOXIC FUMES FROM YOUR TRUSTY LITTLE DEATH STICK.
Mothers little helper.
Black black few days. Few months. I just need to see some kind of light at the end of this health tunnel, even a teeny tiny speck of dust as small as the most distant star would do. Just SOMETHING!
And its not like theres anything really wrong, its all SUSPECTED its like lets play with this family for awhile, just roll them about in the sand and see how many scratches they can take before they all break into a hundred tiny pieces.
SUSPECTED epilepsy, so Paige has had Febrile Convulsions (fever fits) once or twice a year since she was a baby, but she is 7 now and was meant to grow out of them by 5, but since shes still having them, she is tested for seizure disorders.
SUSPECTED asthma, both the twins had a fairly major chest infection earlier in the year. They both had inhalers and "if symptoms persist see your doctor" apparently they could both develop asthma. So its a waiting game.
SUSPECTED MS Don had massive muscle weakness in his right arm and tremors, after a battery of tests they were unable to conclude anything, and the symptoms subsided.
SUSPECTED need for root canal treatment. Paige again. Refered by the dental nurse for a hole in an adult tooth, and after seeing 3 different dentists (first one was horrible, second one was ill-equiped to deal with children, 3rd was great but he was unable to perform a filling as the local anaesthetic didn't work) we were referred to the only paediatric dentist in Auckland, who was expensive, we were looking at up to 2500-3000 dollars for treatment. She was however fantastic, and has referred us to the hospital where she will be put under general and her tooth will be removed, through public health. She does by the way brush her teeth well every day, but this tooth grew in "soft" and under formed, and susceptible to cavities.
SUSPECTED collar bone break. Recent, Annabelle just started screaming and wouldn't stop, inspection at the local A+E proved she had injured her shoulder, but xrays did not show any breaks. Shes better now.
Nothing concrete, its all suspected. At some point a few answers would be good. Ok Universe? Answers please!
Slightly over it. Slightly fed up. Kinda ready to kick something. I won't, but I want to.
The only conclusion that I can really come to is "no news is good news" if they are not finding anything. Then hopefully there is nothing there. But this is all going to end soon isn't it?
xx The Ramblings of Another Mother
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