Morning Moods- BEWARE!!!

I don't claim to be a morning person. In fact, I prefer to be alone when I wake up to enjoy my first cup of coffee without having to talk to anyone. But, I don't feel that I wake up in a bad mood. It just takes a little time to get started. My daughter, however, is so NOT a morning person! She is horrible to be around for about a half hour upon waking. God forbid we talk to her. Today, she comes downstairs with a look that could kill on her face. She sits down at the breakfast bar and huffs- an attention getting scheme, I feel. I ask her if she would like some eggs and she replies, "yuck- no". Being her short order cook, I then ask what it is the little princess would like (I don't think I have to tell you how that comment went over). She gruffly states she would like waffles. I do as instructed and make the little joy waffles to which I add butter. WRONG MOVE!!! Turns out, today she decided to despise butter. Since I did not get this months calendar of gross things, I was not aware of the huge mistake that I made! She huffs and grunts and tells me how gross butter is but since I already put it on, "get me the sugar". I ask what the sugar is for and she tells me that she needs it since I put butter on her waffles. ????? I did not ask and left the room as quickly as possible so as not to inadvertently set off the beast again.

4 am wakeup call

We got a call at 4 am this morning. When the phone rings at 4am, your heart stops and you know immediately that it can be nothing good. So, I jumped out of bed to answer the phone. It was my daughter who had slept at a neighbor's house. She was wondering if we could come pick her up because her stomach sort of hurt. GOOD GOD!! I asked if it really hurt, and she said it was not that bad. So, of course, I told her to go back to sleep, we would not be coming out in the cold to get her and I did not want her waking the neighbors to come home. To this she replied, " I won't wake them up, I will leave quietly." OMG, does she not think at all? Can you imagine our neighbors when they woke up finding that my daughter was no longer in their house? Can you imagine their panic? I told my daughter to go back to sleep and come home in the morning. She comes home this morning. I asked how she was feeling. She said fine so I said, " you weren't really feeling bad were you?" to which she replied, "no, I just woke up and didn't want to be there any more". Again, and I don't think I can use this too much during this story, OMG!!! Really? So, after her call, my sleep wasn't great since I had nightmares of her getting sick all over the neighbors' house. I always thought it would get easier as they grew older. Boy, was I deceived!

Social Media, Part 2

So, I posted yesterday about the influence of social media on my younger daughter. Today I want to comment on it's effects on my soon-to-be teenager. While my concerns for my youger daughter apply to my older one, as well, she has other issues aside from the sexual content. My older daughter does have an instagram account which I am able to access. Instagram, for those not familiar, is an online way of sharing pictures and sayings. It's a nice way to stay connected with friends and acquaintances. However, it also is a way for kids to know who is where and with whom, and realize that they were left out of an activity or not invited to a party. My daughter has been devastated on many occasions when she looks at instagram and sees her supposed friends all at a birthday party that she was not invited to. She has seen groups of them at the mall or other places and questions why no one calls her. Kids post anything and everything from pictures of themselves in front of a mirror, to sleepover pictures. And, they think nothing of the effect these pictures have on those not invited. In fact, I think some of these kids post these pictures with the intent of hurting those not there. Sometimes technology is a blessing and other times I feel it was better when we were growing up and were blissfully oblivious to the fact that we were social misfits. Now days, kids are made painfully aware of their social status through online media. A little side note- my daughter is in middle school. I am amazed at some of the postings and pictures that some of her friends, both girls and boys, post. There are many with obscene language or content. The girls post provocative pictures of themselves with skimpy clothes and in sexual poses. These are middle school kids!! I wonder where there parents are and why they are not monitoring what their children are posting. I can only hope that the parents are not knowingly allowing these posts!

Social Media

I just saw a report on tv about how social media affects teenagers with it's sexual/promiscuous content. The report was saying that little is known about the effects this will have on current teens/preteens because this is the first generation with so much access to social media sites such as Facebook and instagram. It highlighted you tube videos that were sexual in content and showed young girls singing along to songs that were in no way appropriate for them to hear, let alone sing. This got me thinking about my daughters and their use of the computer/ipad/ipod etc and what we, as parents, should be doing to ensure that they are not viewing inappropriate content. My youngest daughter (8) has an ipod touch and has use of my ipad. She is prohibited from going on youtube unless we approve of the video first. She does not have a Facebook or instagram account (although I do know some of her friends have had them for years). We monitor what she sees on the web and she is only allowed to access the web in common areas of our house, never alone behind a closed door. However, despite our efforts to keep her pure, we can not keep her from hearing things from other kids, from songs played on the radio or in stores, and from hearing adults/older kids out in public. So, she does say or do inappropriate things from time to time and it is our job to explain to her the wrong of it. My mother likes to blame me and my parenting for anything the children do wrong (in her eyes). She will say, "what are you teaching her?" or "are you monitoring what she sees on tv and the computer?" "Where is she coming up with this stuff, she didn't just make it up." I try to explain that there is no way, aside from moving to a remote area of the country and living as the pioneers did, that we could possibly monitor her 24/7 and that she hears things just walking through the mall. We, as parents, know that no matter how hard we try, there are outside influences on our kids that we could never eliminate completely. We all have differing parenting styles and what we may view as inappropriate, others view as ok. But, it is important that we do our best to limit our children's exposure to what we feel is not appropriate for a child of their age, as much as we can, and take the time to talk to our kids about the things we were unable to filter. There are a lot of ways that children nowadays are influenced- much more than we ever experienced- and it is exhausting to try to keep up with the newest technologies, but that is our job and we should try our best to raise moral human beings. I didn't realize that I had so much to say about this subject, but as I started typing, it just came out. I will use another post to delve into how social media affects my older child in a later post, so as not to overwhelm you.

Ghosts upstairs

My daughter is afraid to upstairs by herself at night. She states that there are ghosts up there and has gone so far as to name the 3 ghosts that reside in our upstairs rooms. So, to do anything that requires going upstairs, she needs an escort to ensure her safety. She sometimes takes the dog with her, but the dog is not always cooperative with her request, so, she relies on the protection of her 8 year old sister. She is very adamant about not going upstairs alone. So, for our amusement, as she is walking upstairs, we will look behind her and yell "look out!!!!" I know it's mean, but if you could see her face as she screams, it makes up for all the difficulties she puts us through!

Shopping lessons

My daughter still will be seen with me (for short periods of time) in public, so we still get to do things together. Today we went shopping to see if we could score some bargains. Shopping with my duaghter is not only a great opportunity to stay connected, but it becomes a learning experience for me. For instance, I was not aware that my sense of style borders on the grotesque. I did not know that. I also did not know that I should be shopping in, and I quote my child, "the old lady section". News to me. While I always thought of myself as a little bit funny, I was made aware today that I am, in fact, "so not funny". And, that brings me to the biggest lesson of the day- "mom, you are so embarrassing!". Wow, what an eye opener today was. Now excuse me while I put on my granny nightie, make some tea and get ready for bed. OLD LADY, HUH!

Teenagers are Expensive

Until this year my daughter did not care about her looks. She strictly wore sports pants and tee-shirts and sneakers. She always wore her hair in a pony tail which I was ordered to put in. All of a sudden, she is primping and prepping before the mirror. She is, finally, able to do her own hair and gets upset when it doesn't look good. She showers without us begging, bribing and yelling! This new, hygienic, child comes at a price, however. And I mean a BIG price. Price tag, that is. We now have specific stores and specific brands that she NEEDS to have in order to be cool. She HAS to have certain labels in order to fit in with the girls at school. No more are we able to get away with "knock offs". She looks better than I do and I have a job. It just doesn't seem fair.