Monday, June 18, 2012
How this mom won the debate on staying home alone.
If I were a different kind of parent, my life would be so much easier. I would set the rules and my children would follow them, mostly. Instead, my husband and I decided to allow our children a say in the decisions that most affected them, sort of “no parenting without representation,” if you will. We’ve always required that they state their case convincingly, backing it up with more than just their own vehemently stated desires. Now, of course, we are living with a severe case of "Be Careful What You Wish For." Children capable of formulating a sound logical argument are not to be trifled with. No matter how loudly I say “Because I said so!” they recognize it as the last desperate gasp of a woman out of countering points. Lately, I find …
Monday, May 7, 2012
This mom would rather deal with an F-bomb than hear the G-word from her kids.
As a parent, I’m something of a puzzlement to my children’s friends. I make funny faces and strange noises, causing my daughter’s best friend to decide I’m weird, “but in a good way.” My son’s friends are always taken aback by how honest we generally are in our household. But nothing confounds his friends more than the fact that we don’t blow a gasket when he swears, particularly when he drops an F-bomb into the middle of a conversation. Even more perplexing to my son’s friends is the fact that while we tolerate the F-word, I get seriously angry with him when he uses “gay” as an insult. To them, and so many other people, saying “That’s so gay” is so innocuous that children of all ages use it with impunity. Even some of my son’s friends’ …
Monday, March 19, 2012
This mom's tired of blaming low self-esteem for every challenge girls face.
Kids do some really crazy things, but I think the craziest thing I’ve heard lately is “Am I Ugly or Pretty” videos. Young girls are making videos of themselves then posting them on YouTube and asking viewers to declare the girl “ugly” or “pretty.” I hope it comes as no surprise that the girls generally get a lot of positive comments but just as many that are mean and abusive. Some of the comments I’ve read should land the commenter in jail. Experts call the phenomenon normal tween behavior. Young girls, the logic goes, have low self-esteem and are insecure about their appearance so look for affirmation. Add to that a huge shot of impulsivity and it can seem like a really good idea to find out if others find them ugly or pretty. We, as …
Monday, March 12, 2012
This mom's blood boiled when her son lost special education services.
I’m fairly wise to the ways of the world, so I usually know when someone is trying to pull a fast one on me. When I got the paperwork prior to my son’s annual IEP review and planning session, I realized his school wasn’t planning on doing any planning. They planned to boot him out of special education all together. I was stunned. We had just received a report noting his—and their—failure to meet the goals set in last year’s planning session. How, I thought, could they justify reviewing his eligibility for services when they hadn’t met their goals? I was ready to raise hell. I’ve gotten pretty good at it; getting my son the education he deserves has been an uphill battle for a long time. See, my son has a high IQ and was in the gifted …
Monday, March 5, 2012
This mom's had it with the politics of the ugly
Senator Olympia Snowe is calling it quits. After 33 years of service to her state and her country, she’s packing it in, even though she most likely would have been elected to a fourth term. What does one senator’s decision to leave congress have to do with parenting in Naperville? A lot, as far as I’m concerned. Sen. Snowe isn’t leaving the senate to retire and crochet doilies. She’s leaving because she doesn’t want to be part of “the atmosphere of polarization and ‘my way or the highway’ ideologies” that have come to mark the American legislative landscape. That an experienced and respected legislator such as Sen. Snowe no longer wants to be part of our Congress makes me fear for the future of elected representation in our country. If …
Monday, February 27, 2012
Screaming kids make this mom want to scream
Few things make me crankier than a visit to Toys R Us. I prefer small, independent stores with imaginative inventory and thoughtful customer service. But my daughter wanted to give her friend a birthday gift that could only be purchased at Toys R Us. So, I sucked up my distaste and off we went. My daughter found the gift she wanted, picked out a gift bag and card and we were in the check out line. Then, the wailing began—high-pitched, loud, insistent. Everyone in the check out line turned to discover the source. There, standing between his parents, was a little boy in full-on toddler tantrum mode. Mom looked apologetically at us, sheepishly shrugged her shoulders and said, “He just turned two.” Dad, meanwhile, was reasoning with the …
Monday, February 20, 2012
This mom thinks it's time to take the village out of our view of Naperville
Last week I was worried about sex. This week, it’s drugs. As the parent of a teenager, the arrest of a Naperville high schooler for selling heroin set my mom radar on high alert. I’m not alone. Media across the area reported on the arrest and residents commented. I found a puzzling pattern in the comments; people can’t believe that “something like this” can happen in Naperville. I’m surprised that so many area residents are surprised. Naperville may once have been a quaint, isolated little hamlet beside the DuPage River, but those days are long gone. There are more than 145,000 people living here. Our neighbor, Aurora, is home to nearly 200,000 people. Together, the two cities comprise the largest metropolitan area outside of Chicago. So, …
Monday, February 13, 2012
What happened when this mom's son wanted to be home alone . . .with his girlfriend.
Love is in the air at our house and it’s got me worried. My son has a girlfriend. He wants to spend time with her after school. My son is 16. I work in the late afternoon until evening. The math doesn’t look pretty. My son has had a handful of carefully selected friends at our house when there wasn’t a parent present. One of them is a girl; we’ll call her “Alice.” I’ve known all of these children for years and I know their parents. In every case, the parents knew that there would be no parent at our house and every one was cool about it. All of the kids allowed over during the parent-free zone are children I would hire to babysit my daughter. While friend girls are allowed, girlfriends are a different story. But my son doesn’t see it that …
Monday, February 6, 2012
Why this mom canned the van
Soon after I moved to Naperville, a friend sent me a cartoon depiction of the Naperville Mom. Blonde and perky, dressed in stylish sweats, she stood in front of a baby blue minivan. Now that I’m an insider, I know a Naperville mom is as likely to wear a sari or hijab as she is a Juicy Couture track suit. But the minivan? The cartoon nailed that one. I resisted the lure of the minivan for nearly a year after we moved west. I was perfectly content to tool around town in my Rav 4. My kids? Not so much. Though two children can easily fit in the back of a Rav 4, they can also touch each other. I would rather drive while trying to wrestle an octopus than drive in a car that puts my children in poking and prodding range of each other. So, we got …
Monday, January 30, 2012
Why the ISATs make this mom testy.
When my son was younger, we got lots of notes from school. Because he has ADHD, he has a difficult time working to his academic potential. We got used to cheering incremental progress and developing strategies to improve less than stellar grades. My daughter, on the other hand, does really well in school. So imagine our surprise when we received a flyer from the school asking our permission to put her in a program to provide supplemental instruction. “Why on earth could she need supplemental instruction?” I wondered. I read the flyer more carefully. My daughter was invited to attend early morning sessions to improve her performance on the ISAT tests. Her school is offering these sessions to move her from a student who “meets expectations…
louisvuitton
10:29 am on Wednesday, August 29, 2012
http://www.louisvuittonhandbags-outlets.net/ Louis Vuitton Handbags outlet Louis Vuitton Handbags http://www.get-coachfactoryoutlet.com/ Coach Factory outlet Coach Factory http://www.atcoachoutletsonlines.com/ Coach Outlet Coach Outlet Online http://www.pradabag-outlet.org/ prada outlet prada bags http://www.saleincoachoutlets.net/ Coach Outlet Online Coach Outlet more ›