Think back to your childhood for a moment. What’s the first great memory that comes to mind? How old were you? Was the memory an experience or was it an item that you received from someone? I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that for most of us, our memories of childhood are defined by what experiences we had, rather than by things we acquired.
Some of my fondest memories include tents that my Grandma made for me on her outdoor porch swing in the summer time, camping trips,”hookie days” from school with my Mom for getting good grades, family bike rides, and holiday traditions such as making gingerbread men at Christmas time. If someone were to ask me the best, most expensive or beloved “thing” I got when I was 9, I wouldn’t be able to answer them! I have NO CLUE what I got as gifts when I was 9. Sure, I remember certain things. I remember getting a bike at Christmas one year. I remember being given my pet rabbit and that when I “graduated” 6th grade my Mom bought me a necklace.
Now days, people just buy things for their kids. They buy them new clothes, new video games, Lego’s, hot wheels, and anything else that will pacify them for a while. It’s like everyone is just trying to buy their kid off. My kids may sometimes feel they’re worse off than their friends because I don’t take them shopping for stuff every weekend (I don’t even take myself shopping), but I would much rather spend money on them in a way that creates memories instead of a piece of plastic that will be forgotten about in a day or two.
A good way to make memories is to continue traditions that you enjoyed when you were a child. The gingerbread men are an annual activity here at my house. For boys, it seems that eating them is way more fun than decorating them but come December they are asking me when it will be time to make them. I also like to start traditions of my own. Every spring and fall we take a weekend trip into the mountains and play in the hot springs. We swim, eat gelato, swim, go for a hike, eat dinner (and more gelato!), swim, pass out for the night and then repeat! We have so much fun, and since it’s a short trip within driving distance it’s easily affordable. We also go camping every summer.
I once got this kettle popcorn maker for my stove and initially I wondered what the world I was ever going to do with such a thing. It sat in a cupboard for a few years and then one night it dawned on me that we should have “movie night”. Movie night now happens every Friday night. The boys help me make the popcorn and then we snuggle together on the couch and chow down to a good flick. It’s a really nice way to start the weekend… especially in the winter. The point is that I believe when my son’s grow up, they will remember the activities and adventures we went on together long after they’ve forgotten that I once bought them a $50 game for their Gameboy.
I share the same difficulties as every parent in trying to balance work, social life, hobbies, kids, their hobbies, school, homework, etc. It’s one of the hardest things I have to tackle each day. I may not be able to create a meaningful memory each and every day, but if I plan ahead I can make time to do things with them that are more about being happy then they are about getting stuff that’s “cool”.
How to Be a Better Lover by bluskygirl on September 11th, 2007
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The Good, Bad and Ugly of Online Dating by bluskygirl on July 27th, 2007
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Platonic Relationships... Impossible? by bluskygirl on September 25th, 2007
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Our Parents, for Better or for Worse by bluskygirl on September 5th, 2007
I never really gave much thought to my relationship with my own parents until I became one.
How to be Happily Single by bluskygirl on August 1st, 2007
Being single used to be a temporary state for me.
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Where did summer go? Its seems like my oldest son just finished the third grade yesterday, and yet tomorrow is his first day back. Crazy! I feel like I’m not ready (and so, I can’t imagine how he must feel… hopefully more ready than I!)… I’m not ready for back to school night, selling candy bars to the poor unfortunate souls at my office, and working on 4th grade homework and trying to remember how the hell we did “it” when I was in 4th grade. Mostly, I’m not ready for my son to grow another year older. While there’s a big part of me that can’t wait for my boys to grow up so that I can have a grown relationship with them, the other part of me wonders why this is all speeding by so fast (sigh). But alas, the school year is here so I better get myself together. For any other parents out there trying to get into the swing of things again, here are a few of my tips to make the adjustment a little smoother.
Well, that’s my advice. It’s a lot, but when you think about it, having a kid in school is a lot of work! Especially in the first month trying to get back into the groove. These tips should not only help you adjust, but should also help your student. Happy schooling y’all.
America's Education System is Failing in Two Key Places by bluskygirl on September 4th, 2007
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10 Reasons to Get Away for the Weekend by bluskygirl on November 2nd, 2007
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The Sickies Are Here by bluskygirl on September 12th, 2007
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If you Have a Baby in New York, You Better be Ready to Breastfeed! by bluskygirl on August 1st, 2007
An article appeared on my homepage today that I had to comment on.
How to Get Ready For Winter by bluskygirl on September 24th, 2007
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An article appeared on my homepage today that I had to comment on. According to Fox News, Hospitals in New York City are going ban baby bottles for new Mothers in the Hospital in order to encourage breastfeeding. I don’t deny that Mother’s Milk is best, and that breastfeeding is a more natural way to go. I also don’t deny that it helps to bond Mother to baby and that it can help a new Mom to lose all that pregnancy weight. There are LOTS of benefits- I get it.
What I don’t get is why it should be anyone’s business besides the Mother and maybe the Father. While I agree about the benefits of breastfeeding, my first son never latched on and so I bottle fed him. He is and always has been a very healthy child. If formula fed babies showed significant differences in health or growth than I could understand the push to get women to breastfeed, but in this case I don’t.
Nurses are generally pretty pushy about this subject as well, but now with hospital support behind them, I pity the Mother’s who wish not to breastfeed- whatever their reasons may be.
So, if they can tell us we can’t bottle feed (or at least make it difficult), what’s next?
Making Memories for Your Children by bluskygirl on August 28th, 2007
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How to Get Ready For Winter by bluskygirl on September 24th, 2007
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America's Education System is Failing in Two Key Places by bluskygirl on September 4th, 2007
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Our Parents, for Better or for Worse by bluskygirl on September 5th, 2007
I never really gave much thought to my relationship with my own parents until I became one.
10 Reasons to Get Away for the Weekend by bluskygirl on November 2nd, 2007
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Being a working Mother is hard. I don’t know what the percentage of working mothers is anymore, and I don’t know if the numbers are increasing or decreasing. I have heard more and more about working mothers making the switch back to staying at home with their kids (I think that is supercool, by the way). I am a working Mom and given that I am single, I probably always will be. But, as my kids get older (and I get wiser!) I realize how nice it would be to not have to fight to balance raising a family with my career. I constantly feel out of balance to tell you the truth. It seems like a continuous battle because if I’m focusing on one, then I automatically feel that I am not giving the other the attention it requires for true success.
My day entails nothing less than an hour of driving to deliver my kids to their appropriate destinations, work, swimming lessons and soccer, dinner, a walk at the park for the dog, the gym and then HOPEFULLY some downtime. If I stop for a moment to think about it all, I realize that my focus should always be on my children. Always. This means not working more than 40 hours a week when most of the other people at my office work 50; it means using up all my vacation time to stay home with my kids when they’re sick; it means missing important meetings sometimes because my kid’s Halloween parade at school is more important (How can a blue poster board Monster Truck NOT be better than a meeting?). In the end, this translates into missed opportunities for advancement, bonuses and other perks at work. Now, I’ve clearly made my choices and I accept them, but it is hard to be at work some days and know that I can’t necessarily always reap the same rewards that other employees do.
Then there’s the reverse. A huge project is on my plate and so I start bringing work home at night and on the weekends. I may complete the project on-time and I may feel a sense of pride and accomplishment that I contributed to my company, but there’s this underlying feeling of knowing that because of that project I have not spent as much time with my kids as I could have, or that I’ve been particularly grumpy because of too many late nights. I never feel as though I have proper balance. It seems to be one or the other. In doing some research for this post, I realized that I am not alone in this feeling. There are a lot of resources out there about this very subject. I hope in the future to provide posts about finding this balance, or at least happily accepting the unbalance! But for now, I thought I would provide some links of places that I have found helpful.
These are just a few of my favorite places to go. The balancing act is a fact of life if you’re a working Mom. I suppose its more about attitude than achieving balance. By looking at it that way, we can just consider this “extra” challenge as a daily character-building exercise. ![]()
America's Education System is Failing in Two Key Places by bluskygirl on September 4th, 2007
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If you Have a Baby in New York, You Better be Ready to Breastfeed! by bluskygirl on August 1st, 2007
An article appeared on my homepage today that I had to comment on.
Making Memories for Your Children by bluskygirl on August 28th, 2007
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Back to School... Are You Ready? by bluskygirl on August 22nd, 2007
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How to Get Ready For Winter by bluskygirl on September 24th, 2007
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