Selfish Mom

I. Don’t. Bluff.

Nov 30, 2009 Kids

Have you ever had an evening go from blissfully pleasant to shitty in the space of about 90 seconds?

We were having a fantastic day.  Jake doesn’t have Tae Kwon Do on Mondays so there’s no running around, no rushing.  We always have time on Mondays for a slow dinner, a board game, whatever.  Tonight Jake wanted to make paper airplanes – something I’m really good at, BTW – so we did that for a couple of hours.  Daddy came home, all remained pleasant.  There were a few close calls with paper airplanes landing near flames and buzzing close to eyes, but no actual damage.

Then Jake got in trouble, doing something he’s done before and definitely knows he’s not supposed to do.  One of those things that just gets an instant punishment, no warnings.  It was about half an hour until he was supposed to get ready for bed anyway, so I told him he was done and was going to bed early.  I told him to say goodnight and go get ready.

He refused.

I calmly listed the punishments he would receive if he didn’t go upstairs right away and get ready for bed.  I warned him not to do anything stubborn or stupid, to just go upstairs.  Probably a poor choice of words.  I can see the distinction between calling his behavior stupid and calling him stupid, but he didn’t, and shot right back with “I’m not stupid, you’re stupid, and I’m not going upstairs.”

So that was that.  I told him he had all of the punishments I had just listed, and if he didn’t go upstairs they’d be doubled.  He went.

I don’t understand what happened.  I don’t bluff about punishments, and he knows that.  He knows that.  He knows that if I threaten a punishment I always follow through.

This is not how it’s supposed to work.  This is not how it usually works.  He gets in trouble all the time for things he’s already done, but I can usually stop him from doing the next thing.  Not this time.  And honestly, I wouldn’t have threatened such a huge punishment if I had thought for a second I would have to follow through on it.  But I did, and I do.  Sometimes being a parent just sucks.  I guess the only thing worse is being eight.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Tags: punishments

These boobs were made for talkin’

Nov 30, 2009 Uncategorized

Have you seen this commercial for Reebok Women’s EasyTone Shoes?  I have no problem with the concept of the shoes.  I just think the commercial is really dumb.  Because it’s not bad enough that I already compare my body to other bodies (yeah, I do, all the time.  If I know you then I’ve sized you up and compared, just deal with it), but now Reebok wants my body parts to compete with each other?  With a commercial filled with close-ups of boobs and and a butt?  A butt bending over, no less?  Who’s the audience for this commercial?  Because it seems to be men.  But I think most men would be worried about a smack on the head if they gave a woman shoes and said “Hey, babe, your butt could be tighter.  Wear these.”

For the record, while I don’t think the second commercial is great, I think it targets its audience a little better: women who wish people were staring at their butts instead of listening to what they’re saying.

Ugh.  Or maybe I’m just pissed at both commercials since my boobs and butt will never look like those!

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Tags: commercial, Reebok EasyTone Shoes

Very cool t-shirt giveaway from Estilo LAB

Nov 30, 2009 Contest/Giveaway

My newest advertiser, Estilo LAB, is a boys’ t-shirt company with hip, unusual designs (sometimes even featuring drawings from the owner’s nine-year-old son Jalen, whose art is quite impressive).  The owner, Lisa, has offered up a great prize for one lucky reader: a shirt from the current line (either the ABC Tree shirt in sizes 3T-5T, or the ants in a maze shirt in sizes 5-10), plus a polo shirt from the spring “Beware of Boys!” line (to be sent out at the end of February 2010).  So, the winner will ultimately receive 2 of these fantastic t-shirts.

To enter, all you have to do is visit the Estilo LAB site, and leave a comment back on this post saying which of the current t-shirt designs is your favorite.

For a second entry, you can tweet about this giveaway (don’t forget to leave a separate comment linking to your tweet!).  Just make sure to mention what the prize is and link back to this post, or you can just copy and tweet this:

Enter to win 2 very hip Estilo LAB t-shirts from @SelfishMom http://bit.ly/7hMJR5

So, that’s a maximum of two entries per household, please.  The comments will close at noon-ish on Monday, December 7th and random.org will draw the winner.  For complete rules, please see my Giveaway Rules page.  Good luck!

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 9 and 12. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Tags: Estilo LAB, t-shirts

My shameful long-weekend confession

Nov 30, 2009 Amy in the Morning

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Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

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Tags: video

Privacy in crises

Nov 26, 2009 What's Going On

I was on my way to bed, about to turn off the computer.  But I decided to check CNN.com, always a big mistake – I need to learn to just turn off the computer without “checking” a bunch of sites.  And this article was at the top, about half-a-million text messages from September 11th that were leaked to the press.  I had to read them, I was curious.  They were there.  But I wish they weren’t.

I had the same feeling reading them that I get when I hear 911 calls on TV.  Someone in a crisis, needing help or comfort, reaching out.  Do we need to edit ourselves now, for the possibility that those private, panicked moments will be released to the public at some later date?  The world is not a reality show.  Someone calling for an ambulance because someone is dying didn’t agree to have that raw emotion splashed across the evening news.  Texters searching for loved ones shouldn’t have to worry that those texts will be made available to the public.  It’s just not right.  And I’m ashamed by my curiosity.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Tags: September 11th, text messages

I need a vacation, not a trip!

Nov 26, 2009 Uncategorized

I’m over on the NYC Moms Blog today, talking about how I’d like to do more travel with my family that doesn’t involve visiting other family.  The only problem is, I don’t want to achieve that by visiting my family less.  I think my husband just needs 12 weeks of paid vacation every year and a huge raise and then things will work out fine. :-)

But seriously, I’m far from the only person with this problem.  Most of the people I know in Brooklyn with kids don’t have family nearby.  My maternal great-grandparents, grandparents, and mom all grew up in Buffalo and lived there all of their lives (my mother keeps threatening to leave but I don’t believe her at this point).  I spent weekends at my grandmother’s house, it was just normal.  Now, seeing grandparents is a trip, a big production.  Hardly anybody stays where they grew up anymore.  I wonder if kids growing up without being close to multiple generations of their families is going to have some kind of impact later on.  I know it has a very serious impact on our babysitting budget.

I Need a Vacation, Not a Trip

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Tags: grandparents, vacation

iTunes winners, and how to update your DRM protected music

Nov 25, 2009 Contest/Giveaway, Product Review

First off, I’d like to congratulate the winners of the iTunes gift cards, courtesy of Holiday Inn: Jen and Susan.  Congratulations, and thanks again to Holiday Inn for the great prizes.

[Don't read this next part if you're an avid iTunes purchaser, or just generally aware of digital media happenings - you'll just be saying "duh" a lot and wondering why I didn't know all of this already.]

I also received iTunes gift cards for administering the contest, and this posed a dilemma, because Microsoft gave me a Zune HD a couple months ago and I bought a Motorola Droid phone a couple weeks ago, and I was having trouble getting a few dozen songs that I had purchased on iTunes to play on both of those.  I could burn CDs that would play the songs, but couldn’t transfer them to my Zune or my phone.  I wasn’t sure if I should buy anything else from iTunes, ever.   Then I noticed that all of the files that wouldn’t transfer said “protected” in the file name.  Hmm.

A little googling and I discovered that I had purchased those songs before iTunes music had become DRM (Digital Rights Management) free.  According to Wikipedia, Apple removed the usage restrictions earlier this year from new music purchased from the iTunes store, so everything I’ve bought since then worked fine on my Zune (plus, apparently, some songs I had purchased at an increased price during a transition period – that’s why it was so confusing).  But I was stuck with the stuff that I’d purchased a while back. Grr.

So, first I tried a bunch of different programs that promised to remove the restrictions.  None of them worked at all, but at least they were all free to try.  Then I got back to googling and discovered (this is where the giant “duh!” comes in) that for about 30 cents a song I could remove the restrictions from those songs.  It’s the “upgrade” feature at the bottom of the iTunes store page.  With a couple of clicks I was able to upgrade the rest of my library and I was all set for the Zune and the Droid.  And I was able to use my iTunes gift cards to do it!

So, if you’re afraid to ditch your iPod because of all of the music you’ve purchased on iTunes, that might not be a deal-breaker.  It depends on how many songs you have to upgrade and how much you want to spend.  I’m loving my Zune but would have been upset if I’d had to buy all of those songs over again.  I’ve never used a “real” iPod (I just have a little clip-on iPod shuffle, the original one without a screen that holds about 150 songs – great for jogging) so I can’t compare, but after using the Zune HD for a week I can’t imagine what more the iPod would have to offer.  I’ve never been a Mac person (Jake loves his “I’m a PC shirt” – he tells people it stands for “problem child”) so it kind of bothered me that iPods seemed to be the only good option for music.  I have no idea why Microsoft is so bad about PR for the Zune, but honestly I wouldn’t even have considered it if they hadn’t given it to me.  I’m going to put it in my holiday gift guide to help change that. :-)

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 1, 8 and 10. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

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Tags: Holiday Inn, iPod, iTunes, Microsoft, Zune HD

No turkey…yet

Nov 25, 2009 Amy in the Morning

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This was the line this morning.  No thanks.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Tags: video