Category: Parenting

When Parenting, Exciting Can Be Bad And Boring Can Be Good

Health, JSL, Parenting

Digital_Thermometer_7094 (6) SmallOn Friday, I was feeling the End Of The Week Blues.  That moment when you wish that you could whip out a Universal Remote Control and hit fast forward until the weekend arrived.  I was craving a little excitement outside of the office.  I tweeted "Is it the weekend yet?"

I should have known better.

No sooner did I tweet that than I got a call from B saying that JSL was running a 101 fever and she was picking him up from school.  Yes, it looked like we were in for an "exciting" weekend.

JSL has had five febrile seizures (including one where he stopped breathing, turned grey, and required rescue breaths to start breathing again) so any fever is a dangerous and scary prospect.  We gave him medicine and his temperature stayed at around 101.  (It’s quick fluctuations in temperature that cause febrile seizures.)  We could tell he wasn’t feeling good when he turned down macaroni and cheese (his favorite food) for dinner.

That night, he slept in our bed so we could monitor him and quickly help him should his temperature rise.  At around 2 in the morning, he woke up complaining that his stomach hurt and he felt like he was going to puke.  I helped him to the bathroom but it became clear that something else was up.  I asked him if he was hungry and he said "yes".  We got him to eat a rice krispy treat.  Sure, it’s not the healthiest thing, but it was easy to feed him at 2am and gave him a quick shot of sugar.  (We correctly guessed that low blood sugar + hunger was mistaken for "gonna puke.")

JSL said he felt better and fell asleep.  B fell asleep too.  I lay there trying (and failing) to fall asleep, mostly worrying about JSL.  Then, just as I was getting to sleep, B yelled my name in panic.  I shot upright expecting to see either JSL seizing or something seriously wrong with NHL.  As I shot up and asked "what?", I saw JSL sleeping soundly next to B.  B woke up and informed me that she had had a nightmare about being in trouble and unable to yell for me.  She finally tried so hard to yell that she yelled in her sleep.  Needless to say, I couldn’t get back to sleep after that.

Thankfully, JSL got better after that one day and night.  The next day, his temperature returned to normal and no other symptoms manifested.  Any fears I had about JSL having the flu or another serious illness we proven wrong.  (There really was no sign that JSL had the flu to begin with, but I can’t help it… I’m a worrier.)  Most of all, I re-learned two parenting axioms that I tend to forget.  One: When you are parenting, exciting can be bad and boring can be good!  Two: Never ask The Universe for excitement without specifying exactly what kind of excitement you’d like.

NOTE: The "digital thermometer" image is by Alvimann and was obtained from MorgueFile.com.

Aloha Friday: Talking To Your Kids About Hate

Aloha Friday, Life, Museum, Parenting

hate-iconI’ve had to deal with hatred and bigotry two times in my life.  The first time was in high school when a friend of a friend began telling me about how he idolized Hitler and wished he had finished what he started.  To say that I was upset is an understatement.  I’m not violent by nature, but I honestly wanted to punch this person in the nose.

The other time was in college.  Someone (notorious for doing this sort of thing across the country) took out an ad in our college paper claiming that the Holocaust never happened.  I joined my college branch of Hillel to protest this and to compose a counter-ad.

Thankfully, my kids have been mostly shielded from bigotry so far.  So when we went to the New York State Museum’s civil war exhibit, they passed by a display of a Klu Klux Klan uniform and didn’t notice it at all.  When I pointed it out, they had no clue what it was or what kind of person would wear it.

I had a small discussion with my kids about how some people hate other people based on who they are or what color their skin is.  To be honest, I don’t think they really understood.  I’m pretty thankful that they’ve been shielded from this ugly side of reality, but I still worry about them being targets of hate.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: How do you talk to your children about hate/bigotry?

P.S. If you haven’t already, try out my Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Rout.

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #172

Fishy Museum Activities

Art, Museum, Parenting, Photos

One of the things I like about going to the New York State Museum is that they always seem to have crafts or other activities for kids.  When the boys and I went last week, there were two fish related crafts to complete.

The first part involved fish painting.  Each of the boys was given a rubbery fish to paint.  They chose their colors and carefully painted their fishes until there was nowhere left to paint.

painting

Once the fish was painted, they were given a piece of construction paper.  By placing the construction paper over the fish and pressing down…

construction-paper

… they made a fish painting on the paper!

final fish

JSL’s fish was small enough that he was able to make two on the same piece of paper.

With the fish painting done, it was off to the fish washing station to help the fish get all clean and dry for the next kids to arrive.

cleaning

Later in the day, when we went back to collect our paintings (which had to be left to dry), the kids got to participate in another fish activity.  This time, they were given (one at a time), a fishing rod and taught how to cast out the line.  Instead of a hook, a block on the end would catch hold of some rubbery "fish" which could be reeled in.  A helper would then assist with the net to put the "catch of the day" in.

fishing

JSL wound up needing a bit of help with this, but both boys really enjoyed fishing in the museum.

Have you ever done any fun activities in your local museum?

Commercially Inappropriate

Parenting, Television

Last week, I saw the following tweet come through from my friend Christina Gleason (aka WELLInTHISHouse):

tweet

This tweet was made at 3:44PM on a Thursday.  This is easily a time when children can be listening.  I was surprised, but didn’t really think about it again until Saturday.  B had gone out to secure some groceries and I was watching the boys.  Feeling tired, I convinced the boys to all cuddle in bed and watch Star Wars: Episode I.  I didn’t even notice what channel it was on.  All I knew was that it was noon and we were going to enjoy a nice, wholesome Jedi movie.

Then, the channel cut to commercial.  Suddenly, we were presented with a couple who were very eager to get their purchase completed in the pharmacy.  You see, they were buying Trojan condoms and were "in a rush" to get out of there.  The commercial even had a graphic of a rolled out and "filled up" (albeit with a generic shape) condom.

I lay there with only one thought in my mind: Which of my kids are going to ask what a "condom" is?  Which will say they want one (as they seem to do for everything advertised on TV)?  Will this lead to questions about what the guy and the girl were doing as they hurried out of the pharmacy?

Thankfully, my kids ignored the ad.  I guess their brains recognized that this wasn’t an ad for a toy and, thus, fell into the "boring TV ad" category.  Still, I was shocked.  Yes, in hindsight, I noticed that this was Spike TV.  I realize they’re not exactly a paragon of clean programming.  Still, a condom ad in the middle of the day during a movie that is rated PG and thus suitable for many young children?

It’s bad enough that we need to screen television shows and music for appropriate content.  Do we really need to be screening for commercials as well?  If so, score 1 for DVRs and 0 for Live TV.

Has your child ever stumbled upon an inappropriate commercial?  If so, how did they react?

Hugs and Breaking Hearts

Parenting

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that something horrific happened on Friday.  Too many families went home that day without their precious children.  As the news filtered out and we began to get a clearer picture of what happened, and as the death count rose, I began to get antsy at work.  Web programming and answering e-mails didn’t seem important anymore.  All I could think about was getting home to my kids to hug and kiss them.

When quitting time finally came, I couldn’t get home fast enough.  I entered the door and rushed right in to my kids playing.  I called them to me and gave them each a very big, very tight hug.  They didn’t have any clue why, but at that moment all I wanted was to keep my kids safe and close to me.

We kept the news off while the kids were awake, but I had heard plenty before coming home.  Once the boys were asleep, I couldn’t bear to listen to another news report.  I can only take so much sad news.  My heart was breaking for everyone involved.  I spent the night decompressing by playing some video games and watching comedies.

On Sunday, we decided that the kids might hear something about the tragedy in school the next day.  We didn’t want them hearing about it first from school so we told them some of what happened.  We told them that something bad happened and many people died.  We said that this has made us (and many other people) very sad.

So far, we don’t plan on telling them more.  As parents, we want to shield them from the horrific truth.  We want to protect their innocence and spare them the anxiety of wondering when their lives will be invaded by terror.  We can only do that so much, though.  The "real world" will intervene, so it is up to us to filter the information into a form that our kids can more easily understand.

Let’s just hope and pray that we never again need to shield our kids from a horror like this.

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