A punishment for one kid is play for another
Mar 2, 2010 Amy in the Morning
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: cleaning, Kids, Rick Astley, Rickrolling
Sweet reunion
Jan 11, 2010 Amy in the Morning
video management, video solution, video streamingOriginally 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.
Swim school makes headlines for letting kids compete
Aug 7, 2009 News
I should be in bed right now. But I forgot to do laundry earlier in the day. I had plenty of chances. I knew that The Ass was out of undershirts. The laundry was already sorted and it would have taken only a minute to start the load. But I never got around to it. Until 1am. And so, here I am, reading Fark at 2 in the morning, waiting to put the laundry in the drier so that I don’t get woken up in five hours when The Ass can’t find it in the washing machine.
But I didn’t post to bitch about laundry. I’m posting to bitch about stupid grown-ups. A swim school in Australia has made headlines because they’re going to hold an event where kids swim against each other. Where there will be winners and losers. The fact that this is at all notable is just sad.
I remember winning a bronze medal when I was on the swim team in 7th grade. I won a silver in 8th grade. I was a good swimmer. I pretty much sucked at every other sport. I was only played in vollyball when we were ahead by so much that we couldn’t lose or behind by so much that we couldn’t win. I’m not sure if my softball team, the Buccaneers, ever won a game.
Winning felt great. Losing didn’t. I needed to experience both, so that I could learn how to handle both.
Know what sucks more than losing? Not losing until you’re an adult and have no fucking idea how to handle it.
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: Australia, Kids, self esteem, swimming
I’m in a new Yahoo video
Jul 29, 2009 Self-Promotion
A site that I write for, the NYC Moms Blog, has partnered with Yahoo to produce a video series, called “A Byte Out Of Life” and I’m in one of the first videos. I’d tell you exactly where I was, but then you might not see all of the other fabulous moms in the video.
Basically, I’m trying to prepare my kids for the real world. If I thought that keeping them away from the internet 100% of the time would keep them safe, I’d do it. But I’m trying to raise my children, not just keep them in a nice safe bubble. The internet isn’t going anywhere, and I want to feel secure that when they get out into the big bad world, they’ll be able to handle themselves.
Of course, that will all just be big talk if someone gross manages to contact them online, and I’ll probably become a Luddite for a little while. But for now, I’m comfortable with the amount of time they spend online and where they go. The problem is, I have no idea how long I should keep checking their browsing histories and only let them access the ‘net through the filter of parent-controlled software, but I know I’ve got years ahead of me still where I should still be doing all of that, so I’ll think about that another day.
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.
When a bratty force meets a stubborn object
Apr 20, 2009 Kids
Man, did this afternoon go in an ugly direction fast. I’m in the middle of a stand-off with my son.
The rest of the day was uneventful, even pleasant. The kids got ready for school fast and we got there on time. Jake was a little grumpy that he had to go back to school after a week and a half of spring break, but he was being good. After school, same thing.
When dinner was almost ready, I asked the kids to set the table. Fiona’s in the middle of a “great helper” phase, so she jumped to it. Jake was a little slower, but was doing it. I noticed that they hadn’t cleaned up the foil wrappers from some chocolate Easter eggs they had eaten earlier, so I asked Jake to put them in the garbage. He turned around and asked Fiona to do it. I stayed quiet, curious how it would play out (yes, it’s true, sometimes I look at them as little mice in an experiment).
Since her helpfullness isn’t specific to me, she did it, but she missed a couple of pieces. I asked Jake to grab them. Realizing that his sister hadn’t done as perfect a job as I wanted, he reached out and scratched her hand. WTF? She was doing his work without complaint AND getting hurt for not doing it right?
I said (calmy – I’m convinced his main goal when he’s in this mood is to get me to lose my shit) “Jake, get in the corner, seven minutes please.” That’s the first step when he’s in this mood. It’s not a punishment exactly, the purpose is just to get him to slow down and think about what he’s doing before he does something really bad. Like what he did on the way to the corner. As he was passing by me, he muttered “Shut up, dummy.”
With steely calm, I told him that he had lost TV, computer and video games for the rest of the night (tragic, really, because he had gotten his homework done quickly and would have had a couple of hours to play). He stomped over to the corner, where he proceeded to whistle, tap the wall, and hum – all against the “corner” rules. After telling him a couple of times to be quiet and still, I sent him upstairs. I told him that he could come down when he was ready to stand in the corner quietly, and then after that he could have his dinner.
After he was upstairs for about ten minutes, I started to think that maybe he didn’t understand. I repeated that he could come down when he was ready. He yelled down “I know.” And stayed up there.
It’s been about half an hour. His dinner is cold and it won’t be reheated. I’m not sure what he thinks he can gain from this, but I damn well know what I could lose. This is the kind of stand-off that can define a relationship. If I back down, it will come back to bite me in the ass over and over again. Unluckily for him, I’m just about the stubbornest person I know.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom
Tags: behavior, discipline, Kids
