It’s a Tuesday night after work. The kids got up at 6am today and I started work at 7:15. It’s just the three of us tonight because my husband has used one of his “kitchen passes” to play golf with friends after work. Both kids are sitting at the kitchen table with me, as we listen to Pandora (VicTorious Cast theme), my older daughter colors, and the younger one distracts us both and runs amuck.
The 5yo has decided she wants Peanut Butter and Banana sandwiches for dinner. Who am I to defy this request? I have all the ingredients and frankly I can’t imagine thinking of something to make that doesn’t involve a bowl filled with cereal. Also her 2yo sister is grumpy-as-cus starting one thing and quickly growing board and moving on to the next mess making venture. 7:30 will not get here soon enough for me tonight. Don’t get me wrong, I adore my kids, but they drive me totally batty too. Sometimes the craziness of it all just gets to me. As an example- to get this far in my first entry it has taken me nearly a half hour. I have stopped twice to help the 5yo write a word and three times to help the 2yo, 2xs in the bathroom and once to keep her from pulling the batteries out of a toy.
A little background about me for my first blog- I was born in Orange County California in the late 1960's. My formative years were the 70's and 80's. If you did not live through this time yourself you may have seen That 70's Show or watched one of the many early John Hughes movie. These fine documentaries chronicle the decades I am talking about. From these sources or others like them you will know it was a confusing mix of change, optimism, newfound freedom, excessive use of drugs and alcohol, divorce, social and sexual exploration, financial crisis, reaction, and fear. Being a child in the 1070’s in particular was an interesting experience. Parenting meant sending your kids off to play for hours on end with little to no supervision, possibly without shoes, and certainly without a helmet. We were feral children in many ways. We came home when the streetlights came on, M-F often to an empty house after school. There was a lot of responsibility to being a latchkey kid. There was also a feeling that the neighborhood was watching out for you, and would pick up a phone and call your mom if they felt the need. A positive and a negative in oh so many ways.
As a member of Generation X I spent my teens watching the prosperity of the baby boomers, hearing about the depression and hard times from my parents. In my 20's my generation was characterized as slackers who spent too much time in school and coffee shops or as wanta-be-boomers stressing out about the previous generation and attempting to live up to the mythical standards they set for all future Americans. Every TV show was about growing up in the 50's or early 60's and we were constantly being hit over the head with information about this golden era of endless opportunity, liberty, and optimism (ha!) which we had just missed out on.
I learned about JFK and Camelot in school and what they didn't cover in class I learned at the loving and all knowing knee of made for TV movies. (My own Camelot didn't happen until the 1990's, ah the Clinton years!) I am a product of the decades in which I have lived and the forces which formed those times.
I am not a slacker, most of the time. I work hard, as a mother, wife and employee. Like many women I need to have a job to help support my family. There are days I wish I were in the position to be a stay at home mom and days when I am so glad to have a place to go, where I can talk to grown-ups and I am not required to wipe anyone else's rear end.
Well, it’s now nearly time for dinner. The rest will need to wait because I gotta get cooking!
The 5yo has decided she wants Peanut Butter and Banana sandwiches for dinner. Who am I to defy this request? I have all the ingredients and frankly I can’t imagine thinking of something to make that doesn’t involve a bowl filled with cereal. Also her 2yo sister is grumpy-as-cus starting one thing and quickly growing board and moving on to the next mess making venture. 7:30 will not get here soon enough for me tonight. Don’t get me wrong, I adore my kids, but they drive me totally batty too. Sometimes the craziness of it all just gets to me. As an example- to get this far in my first entry it has taken me nearly a half hour. I have stopped twice to help the 5yo write a word and three times to help the 2yo, 2xs in the bathroom and once to keep her from pulling the batteries out of a toy.
A little background about me for my first blog- I was born in Orange County California in the late 1960's. My formative years were the 70's and 80's. If you did not live through this time yourself you may have seen That 70's Show or watched one of the many early John Hughes movie. These fine documentaries chronicle the decades I am talking about. From these sources or others like them you will know it was a confusing mix of change, optimism, newfound freedom, excessive use of drugs and alcohol, divorce, social and sexual exploration, financial crisis, reaction, and fear. Being a child in the 1070’s in particular was an interesting experience. Parenting meant sending your kids off to play for hours on end with little to no supervision, possibly without shoes, and certainly without a helmet. We were feral children in many ways. We came home when the streetlights came on, M-F often to an empty house after school. There was a lot of responsibility to being a latchkey kid. There was also a feeling that the neighborhood was watching out for you, and would pick up a phone and call your mom if they felt the need. A positive and a negative in oh so many ways.
As a member of Generation X I spent my teens watching the prosperity of the baby boomers, hearing about the depression and hard times from my parents. In my 20's my generation was characterized as slackers who spent too much time in school and coffee shops or as wanta-be-boomers stressing out about the previous generation and attempting to live up to the mythical standards they set for all future Americans. Every TV show was about growing up in the 50's or early 60's and we were constantly being hit over the head with information about this golden era of endless opportunity, liberty, and optimism (ha!) which we had just missed out on.
I learned about JFK and Camelot in school and what they didn't cover in class I learned at the loving and all knowing knee of made for TV movies. (My own Camelot didn't happen until the 1990's, ah the Clinton years!) I am a product of the decades in which I have lived and the forces which formed those times.
I am not a slacker, most of the time. I work hard, as a mother, wife and employee. Like many women I need to have a job to help support my family. There are days I wish I were in the position to be a stay at home mom and days when I am so glad to have a place to go, where I can talk to grown-ups and I am not required to wipe anyone else's rear end.
Well, it’s now nearly time for dinner. The rest will need to wait because I gotta get cooking!
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