Tuesday's Truth

What’s The Rush!

“… slow down and take a deep breath!”
-The Helper, 2006

In my 42 years of living in the vicinity of New York City I have become accustomed to the extremely fast pace of life in this area. It’s true, New Yorker’s want everything yesterday, but does that mean we have to sacrifice manners and common courtesy? What kind of example are we setting for our children?

Yesterday, I was making my daily run to our local supermarket (childless) to restock some provisions (chicken and carrot raviolis – the Helper’s main food staple.) I always try to use the self-service check out. I like this idea, I can check out at my own pace… quick! I can bag the items the way I want, so nothing gets crushed in transit.

While I was in the middle of scanning my eighteen piece order (no, I wasn’t on a twelve items or less line) a man gets on line behind me. Once I completed and paid for my order I walked to the end of the belt to bag my items, eighteen in all, should take about twenty seconds, right? Well, the man behind me steps up to the scanner and proceeds to start his order. Six two liter bottles of soda, start sliding their way down the belt and slam into my container of fresh baked rainbow cookies (a reward for, Mommy and Daddy, working so hard lately.)

Being a “rough and tough” New Yorker I needed to combat this blatant inconsideration with a stern response, “Excuse Me! A little patience, please, I’ll be done in a minute!” To which I received a “humph” and “snort,” …so much for civility at the supermarket.

It just seems that the life’s pace is ever increasing, for all of us. Whether by our own choice or external pressures, things are just moving way too fast.

I don’t know about you, but I, for one, am in no rush to sprint toward the finish line!

I will try to employ my four year old’s mantra stated above… he’s wise beyond his years.

And that’s The TRUTH!

This Week’s Links:

A selection of some great stuff that I’ve come across this week…

• Our friend, Steve at Inside Fatherhood recently posted an article on: 10 Ways to Become a Better Parent This Week

• Tino Buntic has started a great project. If you haven’t been there yet you must check it out:2000 Bloggers

• Our friend, Jeff at Daddy Diary Tales has started another blog for TV and Technology: Daddy Diary Tales: The Other One

• My local newspaper, Newsday, ran a story about kids being able to sleep over at a museum: Sleeping at the American Museum of Natural History

• Long Island Families posted on article with some great tips for big broods: Big Broods – They’re Back!

• Another Newsday piece on dreaming and its influence on our lives: Dream A Little Dream…Of Self Discovery

• Our friend, Karly, at Wiping Up Snot wrote a great piece for a writing contest: I Am…

• From NBC Nightly News’ “Making A Difference” Segment: Minnesota Teen Makes a Difference

• And finally my favorite post of the week from Long Island Dad: Pens and Pocket Knives
  

Monday Morning Quarterback - 1/29/2007

A Re-cap of This Weekend’s Trials and Tribulations…

The Helper has not mentioned his ear concerns since the initial crisis. Either I am a very effective parent with regard to building my child’s self esteem OR he has the attention span of a four year old...

The Mommy has been working nights since Friday. A difficult schedule for all involved. On Saturday, she left the house at 2:00 p.m. and returned home at 4:00 a.m. Sunday morning… only to have to go back to work at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday. The children tend to take this in stride until the Helper decides he’s had enough, and then demands he go to work with Mommy. Things will improve tomorrow when the Mommy has a day off...

In an effort to give Mommy some time to herself, I took the Girl and the Helper out on Saturday (the Baby stayed home with Mommy…hopefully for a nap.) We went to the cellular phone store so I could get cases for our new phones. Then off to a fast-food lunch. The Helper loves his French fries. On the way home we stopped at the Pet Store for two new fish. The Helper insisted on “Red” ones. Remember folks, “Lighting McQueen” is red. The Girl was fine with this as long as she got to name them…Skittles and Goldilocks… though the Helper has his own name for them…Red.

The only casualty of the weekend was a “Willow Tree” statue called “Tenderness.” It seems that the Helper was running in the living room… that’s odd he never, ever does THAT! Ha! The statue fell from the shelf and the heads broke off. When asked, the Helper threw his sister under the bus faster than he can eat a Reese’s peanut butter cup… and trust me, that’s fast!

“Christopher, what happened?”

“Emily broke Mommy’s statue, she’s gonna be sad, you have to buy her a new one!”

[Look of shock and disbelief on the Girl’s face.]

“I think Daddy can fix the statue, Christopher, we don’t have to buy a new one.”

“Good, ‘cause Mommy’s gonna be sad, because Emily broke it.”

“How did she break it?”

“She was runnin’”

[The Girl only runs on the soccer field… and only when she has to.]

The ability to scapegoat one's sibling is learned so early these days...

That's all for this week's edition of Monday Morning Quarterback… Stay tuned -- as breaking news happens I will interrupt your regular programming for updates.

Elephant Ears?

Another reason being a Stay-At-Home-Parent ROCKS!

Job Duty # 56: Self-Esteem Builder.

Mama never told me there’d be days like this…

[The Helper runs into living room with hands over ears.]

“Daddy my ears are BIG!”

“What? No they’re not!”

“Yes they are…BIG like ELEPHANT’S!”

“Honey your ears are just FINE, they’re PERFECT, you’re PERFECT!”

“No, c’mon see, I’ll show you!”

[Leads the Daddy into his room, hops up on his bed, and looks in mirror, while pushing his ears forward with his hands.]

“See… BIG like ELEPHANT’S!”

“Honey, they’re perfect, you’re a very handsome boy, your ears are fine, Okay?”

“Okay.” [Not sounding too convinced]

A half hour later I go into his room, he’s laying on his bed holding two little story books against his head.

“Baby, what are you doing?”

“ELEPHANT EARS!”

Okay, this is just a phase. It’s one of those things that will go away once we stop talking about it. When pre-school age children discover their appearance, all bets are off, though it’s better with boys than with girls, I’ve found! We’ll see what happens today. You can’t make this stuff up!

Perhaps, he saw the news report, yesterday, that Prince Charles is visiting the U.S.

Do you think the Prince had a similar conversation with the Queen when he was four?

"Oh, Mummy, my ears are big like elephants."

"Yes, Yes they are my son... but you'll be King one day."

THAT'S IT!... NO MORE CNN BEFORE BED!