First, a shout out to the YDS chicks…
hey!
Keep doing what you’re doing. Get yourselves graduated; we need you out in the church!
And give S a hug for me.
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Announcement: I appreciate anyone’s interest in my child’s safety. But in response to the notice over the PA system to strap children into shopping carts because doing so “is as important as strapping them into their car seats,” I must ask—just how much of a raging death trap IS the Home Depot?
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Aquaphor and Eucerin anti-itch formula is rocking the socks off of SBJ’s itchy crusties. The Target Eucerin knockoff had these weird granules in it. Yeah. Great for soothing dry skin.
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I asked little she-who-is what she wanted to take from the local rec center after she finishes her ballet class. We were encouraging soccer or T-ball, but I also found a science class called “Little Labcoats.” She JUMPED on it. We were hoping she would choose one of the sports, since science is something we can do with her easily… but she was decided.
She is so attuned to gender roles that I’m worried that she will be the only girl in the class and somehow decide that science is a boy’s thing. I’ve been trying to figure out if there’s a friend of hers that might register too. And who knows, maybe she won’t be the only one, or it won’t be an issue.
She’s very excited though. Yesterday she said, “I can’t wait to take the class and find out how the earth was made.” Uh, do you suppose that Parks and Rec has figured out how to simulate the Big Bang in a classroom setting?
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So I think I will love part-time because I can do stuff like take kids to classes and the library and such, but I always feel really out of place with the other moms. They all sit while their kids are in class and talk and compare recipes and parenting tips. That sounds like a cliche, but that really is what they talk about. We all talk shop, don’t we? And this makes sense—if you’re home with children all day, you crave that adult interaction. But when you work, even part-time, and especially in a people-oriented profession like ministry, maybe you don’t feel that urgent need.
Well, I don’t.
So I bliss out with the iPod and a book, but I feel like I’m giving off this Unfriendly Vibe. It’s not that I’m not friendly, I just don’t have a lot of time to just be quiet, so I take it when I can.
So if you’re a mom reading this, and you’re tempted to judge the mom over there in the corner who doesn’t talk to anyone… please don’t.
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I went walking again yesterday with SBJ. It didn’t go much better than the previous day. I thought he was just annoyed about being in the stroller, but I think he was cold, even though I bundled him up well. It was sunny, but cooler than I’d thought. So I cut the walk a bit short, but went longer than I should have. We got home and his little fists (which he was determined to take out from under the blanket) were popsicles. Fodder for therapy later in life, I’m sure.
I guess we’ll have to go to the mall next time… grumble grumble…
I have a goal to work out 15 times before the end of the month. If I make it I’ll do something fun for myself—any ideas?
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We joined a CSA and just got our first newsletter. Can’t wait to get started. Bring on the copious beet tops and kale!
24 Responses to “friday minutiae”
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So if you’re a mom reading this, and you’re tempted to judge the mom over there in the corner who doesn’t talk to anyone… please don’t.
Ohhhhh yeah.
That little labcoats class sounds terrific. Wonder if they let big kids play?
and if you’re the mom in the corner listerning to her ipod or reading her book and you’re tempted to judge the moms who are comparing recipes and parenting tips… please don’t.
just a thought.
little labcoats sounds fun!
RE CSA–not just beet tops, but beet bottoms too, in my experience.
I hate beets–I gave them away out of every.single.box. last year. By the end of the season, I had trouble unloading them because my usual recipients didn’t want to eat beets anymore.
Now, Kale….mmmm…yum!
have you ever tried cardio-kickboxing? A DVD that you could do at home? It really elevates the heart, but it’s fun. A thought.
She’s very excited though. Yesterday she said, “I can’t wait to take the class and find out how the earth was made.” Uh, do you suppose that Parks and Rec has figured out how to simulate the Big Bang in a classroom setting?
Wait a minute, I thought God created heaven and earth.
Thanks for the YDS shout out!
I’m missing my senior class (all expenses paid!) pilgrimage to Canterbury this week because I’m 2 weeks from my due date, so the encouragement is much appreciated!
Keep on writing, sister!
LL
I think C is the daughter my father always wanted. All he ever wanted was a scientist daughter! I belonged to a CSA once. But then I remembered I only like 3 vegetables.
Little Labcoats! I’m dyin’ here from the cuteness. I hope she loves it.
I was one of the loner moms when my boys were little. I took them to library and playgroup only on my days off - the other days were filled with lots of shop talk (I worked in a lab then) and plenty of adult chit chat. So if a library staff person had the children’s full attention for ten minutes, I grabbed a book.
It didn’t occur to me at the time that someone might feel put off by that, but I bet some of the other moms experienced me as unfriendly. Whatever… you gotta do what you gotta do, right?
I think it’s interesting that concern about undue influence of gender roles appears in the same post as concern about what the other women at Starbucks think.
Sorry, I call bull. Yes, everyone there was a mom, but I’d feel the same way if it were all dads or a mixed crowd. It’s not their gender but the fact that they’re all engaged in conversation and I’m ignoring them.
Forget the moms. Find a stay at home dads group. We are way more fun. While we might talk shop occasionally and share “grilling tips” every now and then, the rest of the time we’re drinking beer (changing a diaper or two) and having fun! Let the kids loose in the backyard, fire up the grill, and shoot the $%*@.
Then, all the conversation, whether about sports, kids, life after diapers, or just bs, all the conversation and chit chat is about bonding with your buds who know just what you are going through. (Like, oh isn’t that cute, it’s daddy’s day out.)
As for the mom or dad in the corner reading a book. more power to them. if i go to the rec center and don’t know any of the moms or dads i’ll be chillin in the corner with you.
That is unless i think of a cool recipe and must share!
I wasn’t clear–I was thinking about your gender, not theirs.
We all carry incorrect gender notions around. Is one of mine that men would be less likely to care what the other people at Starbucks think about their book and iPod?
(And it definitely wasn’t meant as a dig, even one of those plausibly deniable stealth digs. I only thought the juxtaposition was interesting.)
Hmm… then I guess I just proved your point.
I hate when that happens.
BTW, I know tone is tough to suss out sometimes… I was going for good-naturedly indignant rather than offended.
Like comedy, tone is easy when you get it wrong.
I meant when you HEAR it wrong.
Let’s see how many times we can re-caveat a series of caveats.
We get popsicle fists here too–only in the living room instead of outside. Also a result of Refusal To Be Covered. This will make it to the therapy sessions?!? Oh, dear. Glad you and SBJ made it outside for a while, anyway.
If it makes you feel any better a Walmart employee fussed at me one day about not having my kid buckled into the shopping cart…..worse than that…allowing him to stand in the basket. I told him I would talk to me pediatrician about it.
Well — not leaping to the defense of Walmart (you know, the Evil Empire and all that) — but, if you look at the statistics from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission you’ll see a shocking number of accidents related to children in shopping carts. I believe it’s something like more than 12,000 per year with many many of those being serious head injuries. A shopping cart does not have the correct center of gravity to stay upright if a child stands in it in the wrong place (i.e., at the end especially), and particularly if they move around, reach for something or fling themselves to the end of it suddenly (like for example “Mommy! Sugar-Coated Sugary Sugar Cereal, I want some!!!!!!”) Also, the floors of a store are always hard, and there are often things that a child could hit on the way down.
Whether or not Walmart is truly concerned about your child is something I don’t know. But they do know the statistics and of course they’re trying to avoid lawsuits.
End of my little lecture, stepping off soapbox now.
Lorraine,
The joke is that I am a pediatrician. And I had a child who could climb out of the front of the cart and not out of the back. For us, it was safer to put him in the back. You are right about the other stuff.
You’re both right about all of that. I was just questioning the idea that shopping cart and automobile are equivalent dangers.
I’m just wondering if C actually gets to WEAR a teeny little labcoat for her class? Because that would totally be the best.
And while shopping cart and auto may both be dangerous, I question Home Depot’s genuine concern. Not that there’s anything wrong with Home Depot, but let’s face it, it’s not the type of company that sits around contemplating babies a lot.
I’m still traumautized by having to watch Red Linoleum in Home Ec.
At the end of soccer practice this past fall I noticed that the at home moms seemed to clump together talking about PTA and classroom volunteer stuff while the working moms clustered together comparing that day’s horrific commute stories.