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Showing posts with label parenting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parenting. Show all posts

Friday, January 13, 2012

Parenting in 11 Steps

Found this today on FB and had to share. Its so true

 

11 Step Program for those thinking of having kids

 
Lesson 1

1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the paper.
5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2

Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...
1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3

A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)

Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4

Can you stand the mess children make? T o find out...
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5

Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.

Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6

Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.
Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7

Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8

1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.

You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9

Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10

Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11

Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

This is all very tongue in cheek; anyone who is parent will say 'it's all worth it!' Share it with your friends, both those who do and don't have kids. I guarantee they'll get a chuckle out of it. Remember, a sense of humor is one of the most important things you'll need when you become a parent!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Mom layers

I was just sitting here thinking that along with the fact that there is no manual for how to raise children they also don't tell you that motherhood has many layers. Maybe it is because I have such a huge age gap with my boys or the fact that all three are complete opposites of each other but i have had to delve into my layers a lot lateley.

Edward is the oldest and although he is not a bad kid he makes some really dumb decisions and is not very easily motivated. He has goals and dreams and the ability to reach them but zero motivation. So for him I have to be his cheerleader even for little things, I have to be his reason (hope he stops before making dumb decisions), his guardian and for him I need to be psychic so that I can know when I have a sliver of a chance for a deep conversation with him.

Douglas is the middle child and he is so much like me and the wild person I would love to have had the chance to be had I not been a mom so early. For him I am his guard to keep him in line, his sounding board, his nurse when he is too stubborn to listen to his body when he is sick or injured. With him I have also had to learn how to walk the fine line between parent with rules and parent with guidelines since he is so independent. Although he is wild in many ways he is also the responsible one a full time job and dreams of college.

Ethan is my youngest. I thought his brothers were a handful but Ethan can put both of them to shame. He tests my courage, patience, wisdom and confidence daily. He is so busy trying to be big like his brothers that he has some major attitude one minute then the next he is sunggling and telling me he loves me. He also has my husbands rigidness when it comes to routine and I fight routine with ever fibre in my body.

For all three of them I am also their rock, the safe one they can fight with and be horrible to when the world overwhelms them. It has taken me a long time to realize that being dumped on (of course respectfully) is a sign of a good parent. My kids feel safe to tests their limits with me because even if I don't change my mind or give in I will always love them and this will always be there home.

I have also learned to stop and smell the roses in a sense with my boys. The older two rarley tell me that they love me but if I stop and either listen to how they are with their friends or what they tell them about me then I get the praise and reassurance that I got some things right with me.

The other day Edward sent me a text telling me what a wonderful mom I am and that I should not worry about my parenting skills that I have given him all the tools he needs he just has to use them. This will be stored on my phone forever. It is one of those rare yeah moments for a mom with boys on the verge of manhood.