Mirror mirror, on the wall....

We know it all as teenagers


When we are teenagers, we take a vow to never end up like our parents.  I remember swearing that I would never do "such and such" when I had kids.  But, that usually changes as we grow and mature.  Eventually, we realize that our parents really are cool and know a thing or two about life.  Somehow down the road, I found myself being just like my mom.  I mean absolutely no disrespect to my mother.  She really does know a thing or two about raising kids and getting kids to listen.  Today was a really good example.

What in the hell happened to my house???


Again, my kids had the house torn apart while I worked on some projects.  That usually doesn't bother me too much but the piece of straw that broke my back was when my 7-year-old daughter and her friend coaxed the dog upstairs with treats.  The dog has been trained not to go upstairs.  That's my one area of the house where I don't have an extra "kid" under my feet and dog hair all over. As many times as I had yelled at the kids about "ruining the dog's training" and coaxing her upstairs, she did it again.  I sent her friend home and grounded my daughter to her room until it was completely clean.  All of a sudden, the mess in the house was beyond what I could handle.


I found myself doing "such and such"

I hated it when I was a kid and my mom threw all my stuff in the middle of the floor when she was cleaning.  It showed me that my mom didn't care about any of my stuff, when realistically, why should my mom care about my stuff if I didn't care enough to pick it up and put it away?  Once she started doing that, we learned very quickly to get our butts off the chair (and fast) and start picking up.


So here I was, throwing my daughters' things in the middle of the floor and making a very big pile.  Because I was so mad about the dog being upstairs, I was kicking most of the stuff into the pile.  My 3-year-old had a "fort" built in the play/dining room with the Barbie house all separated.  She keeps tearing the flowers off the windows, doors and windows torn off the hinges and the furniture just thrown inside the house.  Right now, the Barbie toilet and bathtub are upside down in the kitchen.  I started kicking parts of the Barbie house and furniture over to it's rightful place and my daughter fell apart.  She wailed because "I don't like her Barbie house anymore." That was when I realized what my mom did was right on.  Why should I care about my kids' things when they don't take care of it themselves?  It was a very clear visual at that point.  The house got cleaned up very quickly and I hope they learned that if they don't care enough about their stuff to pick it up, it was going to get kicked and thrown around.

Mirror, mirror on the wall....

I am my mother afterall, and I am damn proud of it!  My mom knew a thing or two about raising kids.  Was she perfect?  No.  Did she make mistakes?  Sure.  She's human.  I learned things from her that I've tried with my own kids that didn't work, and tried things that worked very well.  All I can do is pray that my kids will learn from my mistakes as a parent and learn from me what did work and try other tricks that might work on their own kids someday.

In the meantime....

I'm going to continue to throw my kids' stuff in the middle of the floor.  My house is picked up now and in record time, too.  I'm going to continue to try new tricks and call my mom when I need help.  I find myself calling my mom almost everyday asking her the simplest questions.  And she really does know what she's talking about!  Read more at  Mirror,Mirror....

One of "Those" People

Anita Patterson/Morguefile.com

Have you ever paid attention around you when you're out and about and notice how many people are on their cell phones? Several years ago, I did and I've noticed a huge increase since. I've also noticed how annoyed I become when I'm surrounded by cell phone use. Ok, ok, I am one of "those" people occasionally but not to the extreme I see most often these days.

Restaurants, movie theaters, standing in line at a checkout.... There's always someone's cell phone ringing, an opportunity to listen to half a conversation and oh, especially those "bluetooth" users who look like they're talking to themselves.

What have we done to ourselves for this intensive need to have constant communication? What is the issue of not being able to go to the store without a cell phone "just in case" someone needs to get a hold of us? I'm all about having a cell phone for emergency use but is it really necessary to chit chat while you're supposed to be enjoying your meal with a loved one at a restaurant?

I've noticed the lack of awareness in our society. People don't pay attention to their surroundings anymore. Not many people will smile or say hello when they pass by another person. I am an old-fashioned person. I like the values in life that most people have forgotten. It's hard for me to go through life constantly looking for the bad in people or situations. I believe there's good in everything, you just have to look for it and when you find it, it's a wonderful feeling.

There's a huge list of phobias. It's quite an interesting list. There are fears over things I never knew existed. However, there is no fear of cell phones, at least I can't find one yet. There is also no phobia of forgetting their cell phone and no phobia of seeing someone on a cell phone. Who wants to wager on the time of such phobias will be added to the list? Check them out here: Phobias

I suppose I need to let go of this struggle I have over the new wave of technology. Don't get me wrong.  I'm overly impressed by how fast and how amazing technology can be.  I do take advantage of it from time to time.... ok, everyday.  But I do enjoy getting out and about and enjoying the world around me, not keeping my eyes blinded and my ear to the phone.  Afterall, I don't get out much these days.

A leap into the 20th century

Right now, this is my favorite story to tell.

I've been using a trac cell phone for years now. Since I'm a stay at home mom, I've never needed anything more. The phone is used for my own emergencies, not for anyone else to call and chat for whatever reason. My stepkids tease me about my "dinosaur trac phone". My husband had to get his own cell phone for work and since he uses it extensively for work, he has to be able to access his email, text and many more. So he bought himself the iphone 4 a few months ago. Recently, my stepdaughter convinced her dad to give her his iphone 4, well, she had to buy it off of him. He traded that iphone 4 for an iphone 4s. My stepdaughter leaped from an old obselete cell phone to a Smart phone. I couldn't be happier for them.

When the two of them got back, my husband handed me a white cell phone with butterflies on it and said "here..." the conversation went something like this:

Jeff: Here you go.
Me: Hey, cool! Why did you pick butterflies? (looking at my stepduaghter) I thought you'd get something like zebra stripes or something.
Stepdaughter: No. (showing me her purple phone)
Me: Is this yours? (looking at my husband, very confused)
Jeff: No
Me: Is it yours? (looking at my stepdaughter)
Stepdaughter: I have mine
Me: Then this is yours? (Looking at my husband)
Jeff: No.
Me: What?
Jeff: That's your phone.
Me: No, it's kiersten's.... (very confused)
Stepdaughter: No, this is mine.
Jeff: No, Kiersten has my old phone, I have my new phone...... This is YOUR phone (speaking very slowly)
Me: What?
Me: What?!?
Me: ...... what??????? This is my phone? I don't need a phone....
Stepdaughter: If you don't want it, I'll take it....
Me: No! Wait.... What?

I've never been so confused in my whole life. What took these goons so long is that after they left Verizon, my husband had second thoughts about my dinky-little-dinosaur trac phone and went back to the store and added another iphone 4s onto our plan for me.

I told my husband that I don't deserve this phone. I don't know the first thing what it's capable of. All I need a phone for is to make phone calls and nothing more. I've got a lot to learn.

Later that night, we went out to eat (my husband was feeling super generous that day!) and I texted my stepdaughter something like this:

Ha ha ha! Hardy har har! Tee hee, ha ha! Whooo hoooo har har! Ha ha ha! Guess who's got the dinosaur phone now!!! ha ha!!!!! Love, Jill