Mamahood.org » rants

Safety and common sense

Jenn — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 03:05:46 +0000

There are so many instances where I read news articles about accidents, injuries and even deaths occurring as a result of people not using the brains God gave them to do things. For instance, if you’re going to have a pool, you better damn well have not only a mesh pool fence, but a tall chain-link, or better yet wooden post-style fence, a lock on the gate, and an audible alarm on the gate so that if it’s breached everyone within a five mile radius will know about it. The same goes for baby gates and stairs, those damn wheeled exosaucer thingies — walkers, that’s the name — and sticking infant seats on top of shopping carts. Take care, people. Children can get hurt in an instant, and you can’t always undo what has been done.

This Public Service Announcement brought to you by some stupid people I read about in the news today.

I don’t think my son’s Boy Scout troop leader likes me

Jenn — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 02:33:59 +0000

I received a text around 4:30pm today from Ryan’s Boy Scout troop, letting me know that there would be no meeting tonight, due to no one being able to come. I said okay, thanked him for the info, and we went about our evening, which included taking a trip to Target to get a few things for Alyssa and Ryan. Suddenly Alyssa’s arms grew like three inches and her midsection expanded, so she’s in need of a winter coat, as well as a few more shirts. Then she found a pair of snow pants, and I know her current pair is a little on the short side (thanks to snow we had in FREAKING OCTOBER WHAT THE HELL MOTHER NATURE?), so I said yes. Dan was all, “Oh, wait until it snows to buy the snow pants”, but as I pointed out to him, if you wait until the first snowfall or cold snap to buy a winter coat, snow pants or snow boots, there won’t be any left, since there will be a desperate flock of mothers rushing all of the retailers who keep them in stock.

Anyway, two coats (one for me – the perks of weight loss include needing a coat that’s two sizes smaller than last years, whee!), one pair of snow pants, one pair of waterproof gloves, six shirts (three for Ryan as well), two cheap toys, a Christmas present for my sister-in-law, and a box of green rope-style Christmas lights later, we were at the checkout lane, when one of the fathers from Ryan’s Boy Scout troop approached Dan, and asked, almost accusingly, why we weren’t at tonight’s Boy Scout meeting.

What the actual eff?! I told him that the troop leader had texted me, and I showed him the text messages. He seemed a little puzzled… so yeah, I don’t know. I’m going to email the troop leader tomorrow to figure out what the heck is going on. Was there or wasn’t there a meeting? More importantly, if there was a meeting, why would you say there wasn’t?!

Allowance: it’s a privilege, not a right

Jenn — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 14:00:08 +0000

I didn’t get an allowance growing up. I helped out with tasks when asked, and was generally a good kid, but I didn’t get a set dollar amount every week/other week/month in exchange for doing these things. Instead, my mom would take me out periodically, get me stuff, surprise me with things, etc.

Dan and I are going the allowance route with Alyssa and Ryan – they each get $2 per week for doing chores and having good behavior. So it made sense to offer my sixteen year old brother an allowance in exchange for him completing certain chores and tasks. Given his age and the fact that we were asking a bit more of him (doing dishes on the weekends, taking out the trash, mowing the lawn periodically, etc.), Dan and I agreed to give him $40 per month. Not too shabby, no?

Well, it must not have been enough of an enticement for my brother to do the tasks asked of him, and to do them correctly, because as of this past Saturday my brother can kiss his allowance goodbye, indefinitely. For weeks now I have had to chase after him, check up on him and ask/bug/DEMAND several times that he put his clothes away (properly – not just throwing them all over the floor of his closet), do the dishes (properly – meaning cleaning them with hot water, use soap, and wash and rinse them thoroughly; many times now he’s had to redo the dishes two and three times because there’s still food gunk left on them), keep up with his daily expectations (hygiene things, taking his medication, cleaning up after himself, etc.), etc.

These things are so easy that a six year old — MY six year old — can do them with ease. In my brother’s case, he can do them, he just chooses not to. He is careless, impatient, and has a bad habit of half-assing things as quickly as possible in order to get back to what he really wants to do – play games on his laptop. Well, I hope that it’s been worth it, because I am fed the hell up, and as I told him again today, I am done following him around and making him re-do things. He can kiss his allowance goodbye, and I’ll use the time spent badgering him to do shit to just do it myself, correctly, the first time, and without the aggravation.

Special needs =/= clingy

Jenn — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 22:56:22 +0000

Today I accompanied Ryan on a preschool field trip, which was to the local elementary school to take a tour, meet the reading specialists and principal, and discuss the transition to kindergarten, what to do, what to expect, etc. He had a really good time, though he was a little too interested in what the janitors were doing, what with their closets and toolboxes full of tools, lightbulbs, grow lights, etc. During the Q&A, someone asked about ages of kindergarten students, and one of the reading specialists remarked that she feels that special needs children should not go for an additional year, because they’re “simply not ready”. I bristled a tiny bit at this, obviously (Ryan is autistic), and so I asked her what her reasons were. She stated that “most” special needs children are clingy and simply are not ready to be away from their families, mothers in particular, for another 1-2 years.

I? Disagree. Ryan may be a bit of a Mama’s boy when compared to Alyssa, but he is not clingy. He has been attending preschool for two years now, and does just fine. Furthermore, he and other special needs children may need additional help in transitioning from being at home and/or in preschool part-time, but that’s because they need help settling into a new situation and adjusting to a new routine, not necessarily because they’re still clinging to Mommy’s apron strings.

(And yes, I voiced that exact opinion to her.)

So many donations, so little takers

Jenn — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 04:43:59 +0000

I love Freecycle.org because it’s easy to donate used items, and there’s the added benefit of having those people who are interested in your items coming to get them up. But lately I have had a lot of no-shows for Freecycled items, and it’s starting to piss me off. It’s not as if I’m offering eclectic items like retro decor or a farmhouse stool. No, we’re talking external hard drives, computer RAM and various electronic items that are still in perfect working order. I listed 2GB worth of RAM, for example, and would you believe that it took FIVE people before one finally came to pick it up? Ugh, I was annoyed. It makes me want to just donate everything to the Salvation Army or local Goodwill store and be done with it.

Meat rocket? Are you serious?

Jenn — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 02:02:43 +0000

On occasion I watch To Catch a Predator. The men profiled on that show alternately disgust and amuse me. Most memorable, I think, is meatrocket8, a whiny, spineless man who all but broke down in tears when busted at the decoy house. Check out the video for yourself and join in the mockery:

For the love of god, STOP SAYING WHAT

Jenn — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 21:22:43 +0000

Alyssa’s thing lately has been WHAT? It’s her response to just about everything I say to her. It’s not as if she is hard of hearing (she just had a hearing test along with her kindergarten physical in September), or she has gunk in her ears (I clean her ears every week), or I speak softly (anything but). She’s just so busy talking, singing, daydreaming, playing, whatever, that she doesn’t pay attention. At first I would repeat myself. Then, after about a week of her saying, “What?” just about every time I spoke to her I kind of lost my cool and would yell at her for saying what. Now I’m beyond all of that, and I simply respond, “I am NOT repeating myself” and move on. For the large part she has gotten the hint… and more often than not will accurately repeat — and then answer — whatever it was I said to her in the first place.

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I dislike Mullet Mom

Jenn — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 23:20:34 +0000

There’s a woman at Ryan’s preschool that I’ve named Mullet Mom, simply because I don’t know her name. I know that I went to school with her (we weren’t in the same classes, and I don’t think we rode the same school bus, but I do remember seeing her around), but when I went through my yearbooks I wasn’t able to find her (which is odd, because I do remember that distinct mullet!), so Mullet Mom it is. Anyway, I don’t dislike her for her mullet, though I think mullets are incredibly idiotic looking. I dislike her because her five year old daughter:

is terribly overweight (seriously, she’s easily 20 lbs. heavier than the other four and five year olds)
is always dirty and unkempt, and often looks as though she was fed Cheetos for breakfast
is allowed to ride in the front seat of Mullet Mom’s SUV, with no seatbelt and no booster seat

I witnessed the third and most serious offense last year, and said something to both the teacher and Mullet Mom directly. Now this year it’s happening again. I swear, the next time I see her I’m going to come right out and say, “Do you realize that if you were in a car accident and your SUV’s airbag deployed, your daughter would most likely be KILLED?”. I’m also going to tell her flat out that if she doesn’t have her child properly restrained, in a proper booster seat, in the BACK SEAT of her vehicle, I’m going to report her to CPS. I’m not one to pull the CPS card, but this is a definite dangerous situation for her daughter, and one that Mullet Mom refuses to resolve. WTH. Poor little girl.

My mother is a jerk

Jenn — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:40:30 +0000

Last week my mother promised she would take Ryan for a sleepover on Friday night. Well, Friday morning, afternoon and evening came and went, and she never called, emailed, or texted, and she didn’t return the two messages I left on her machine. Fortunately, Ryan forgot all about the sleepover, and I shushed Alyssa when she brought it up, so he wasn’t reminded of it either. Well, guess who woke up this morning asking for a sleepover at Grandmom’s house? So while I was out running errands this morning, I called my mom and asked her to please follow through on her promise of a sleepover, as her three year old grandson is very upset about not being able to go on sleepovers, while his five year old sister does fairly often.

Her response? Ooh, this still has my blood boiling… “I’ll take him on Sunday night.” Sunday night as in NEXT Sunday night. WTF? She has nothing to do all day and all day to do it in, yet she can’t make time to take her grandson overnight. I told her flat out that I hope she feels really shitty for doing this to Ryan, and I hope she can sleep well at night knowing she’s letting him down over and over and over again.

What pisses me off the most is that when my brothers were younger — younger than they are now, of course, but a few years older than Alyssa and Ryan — my mom would give me such hell if Dan and I made plans to do things with them, but then had to cancel due to work or something else coming up. Funny that when the tables are turned, only she has no valid excuse, she has not only no excuse of any kind, but she doesn’t even show a lick of remorse for it!

I hope she comes through on her promise to take him on Sunday night. I could really use the quiet time on Monday morning to catch up on my writing about wedding favors!

Sucky grandma.

Jenn — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 17:29:32 +0000

Ryan was supposed to go to my mother’s house for a sleepover last night. My mother promised him last weekend, when she was here getting Alyssa for what would turn into a four night sleepover. Well, Friday came and went, and my mother never came for Ryan, never called, and didn’t return the two messages I left on her machine. That is such a shitty thing to do, you know? Ryan hardly gets to go anywhere in terms of sleepovers or even parties because he’s autistic and my mom doesn’t know how to “handle” him, despite my brothers being autistic. I’m just glad he forgot and didn’t mention it…