Sidewalk Chalk Drama

Stevi got some really nice sidewalk chalk in her Easter Basket this year.  I try hard to find fun useful things to put in Easter Baskets so they aren't just filled with sugar, sugar, and more sugar!! (my friend Susan would say, "whats wrong with that?")

Well Stevi and the little girl downstairs love playing with the chalk, they make rainbows, butterflies, happy faces, and flowers.  Of course since they are 3 and 5, 90% of what they draw looks like scribbles to me.

Yesterday a few older boys started messing with the girls so I told Stevi and her brother they needed to come home and bring the chalk, but when they got home more then half the chalk was missing.  Hunter said he wasn't sure what happened, that the girls had the chalk everywhere and the other boys might have taken some.  I wasn't happy, but I didn't think much of it.

Then today I received a phone call from the apartment complex telling me that it has been reported that my child and the little girl down stairs drew violent and and inappropriate things on the sidewalk in chalk.  I had to explain that my 3 year old daughter had her chalk taken by some older children, that when my children came home the only thing on the sidewalk was a few hearts, rainbows and a ton of scribbles.

So now sidewalk chalk is being banned form our complex.  It's both a sad thing and a good thing.  Good because my child can't be blamed for doing something she isn't even capable of doing, and sad because these older trouble making children not only bother my children, but now they have taken more then chalk from my daughter, they have taken something that she loved doing away, and now just a tiny bit of her fun has be tossed aside.

I'm NOT Against Piercing a Baby's Ears.

I thought I was against piercing the ears of babies.  I even had "excuses" to support why I thought it shouldn't be done.

While working in a pediatrics office, I met a six year old who had a split ear lobe,  looked like a forked tongue.   Her mother told me that she had her ears pierced as a new born, when she was about 18 months old her earring got caught on the netting in her play-pin and ripped the earring straight out.

I use to say,  they are my daughters ears not mine, it's her body and I don't have a right to change it.

I don't want my daughter to think she needs anything to "make" her beautiful.  I want my daughter to have a healthy body image.  I don't have a very healthy body image, I dislike many things physically about myself, and am very insecure, I don't want that for my child.  I'm not saying having her ears pierced would cause her to feel negatively about herself, I just want her to know that earrings aren't for making her beautiful, she is beautiful because of who she is.

When my daughter turned 3 she started asking me to get her ears pierced.  I didn't think she was ready so I said no.  Some of the little girls at daycare had them and she wanted them too.  Then 3 months ago she started ballet and many of the girls there have their ears pierced and the requests started to happen weekly.  Then my daughter's new born cousin got her ears pierced and I knew she wouldn't let it go if she saw that.

Stevi and I went to the mall, and this is when it hit me, I'm not against having my daughter get her ears pierced.  I just wanted to shared in this experience with her, I wanted her to have fond memories of it, the way I do with my mom.  I can remember my mom holding my hand when I got mine done, I can remember her telling me she was proud of me for not crying.  Holding my daughters hand when she had hers done has been one of the best mother daughter days I've had so far.

So for me, not piercing my daughters ears wasn't about the reasons I gave, but about wanting to create fond memories, like the ones I have with my mom.

Loving the Sharks is like Child Birth

"I GIVE UP ON THE SHARKS!!" "ITS THE SAME THING EVERY YEAR" "WHAT THE HELL???"

These were just some of the things said in my living room last night, and in previous years as well.  In fact I've heard these type of rants for a few year now, disappointment and man pouting is also involved.  (Man pouting is similar to child pouting, but swear words are spoken when you call them on it)

Right after a woman gives birth the pain is right there on the tip of her memory and she is in NO hurry to do that again!  Sometimes women say "Never Again, it hurt just to badly"  But after sometime has passed, and the pain is a distant memory and only the endless possibilities the new little person has given you, you start to think about having another little bundle of joy.

I think loving the Sharks is about the same.  Yes, anger and disappointment are the evil monsters looming in my apartment right now, but in a few months they will soon vacant to make room for their distant cousins, Hope and Excitement, and when October gets here the pain of last night wont be nearly as awful as it is today.