Solo Mother

A Facebook poll got me thinking about the whole mess that No Child Left Behind has created in our schools. Teachers are teaching to the test. Enrichment programs like art, music, sports are being cut so kids have more time to learn the test materials. Hell, some schools don’t even have recess anymore.
Kids aren’t learning. They are memorizing. They aren’t being taught how to think. They are being taught to regurgitate what they have been told, with little understanding of how or why the answer was found.
I think it’s a disaster.

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Summertime rolls around and my son blossoms. He’s reading like a fiend, learning about money (which means how to add and subtract and not go into negative numbers!), and getting a crash course in paleontology and natural history. Along the way, he has learned how to swim well enough to be promoted to the next level, ascended a climbing wall, run like a banshee, paddled a canoe, searched for frogs, found a black snake, jumped off a dock, guided a boat, played mini golf, and generally had the best. time. ever.
But those days are coming to a close. Soon, we’ll …read more

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NASA has restored much of its old footage from the Moon. If you have a spacegoing child in your household, this is the week to sit down in front of your computers and televisions and computers and have a ball.
The King of Everything wanted to be a Paleontologist and an astronaut. At the same time. But not in space. Sort of a seasonal kind of astronaut Paleontologist. He wore his astronaut costume at every opportunity: to the park, to bed, and most times in between.
I really don’t blame the ex for this… rather, I think it tragic and funny. A few …read more

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Tonight after dinner on the roof beneath a rainbow sky, my mother played some old videos of the King of Everything. We watched and laughed as this cute, little, little guy did science ’spermints at the kitchen sink. Mom took the video maybe two years ago. I miss that little kid.
When my ex and I split up, he kept the video camera… and all the videos I’d taken of the King of Everything since he was a baby. I haven’t seen them since. Videos of how he used to crawl like lightning to find the vacuum cleaner, crowing with laughter at …read more

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One of the hardest things about not being a stay-at-home parent is missing stuff. Even married moms and dads miss stuff, the first word, the first step. Think how hard it is when you’re a single parent, and you miss stuff because you’re not part of a married couple anymore.
And single parents who never had a partner miss the milestones because usually, they are off working to keep the single-income flowing, and the roof over everyones’ heads.
Who knew spring break with Grammie would net me another zero in the ‘had to be there’ column? I missed another milestone in my …read more

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My fridge can’t hold another piece of art, another photo of the Kid, another memo from the school. Something has to go… but if I don’t keep it on the fridge, where will I put it?
For a while, I was throwing it all into an under the bed storage bin. Fine for the short term, but there needs to be some final solution (and if there are any Peter Murphy fans out there, you’ll laugh at that line).
Well, my poking around on the Internet found me two great sites for the price of one. Have you heard about Mom Made …read more

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This “Tell me about it” is almost a year old, but it’s still making the rounds on the Net as a little boost for harried mothers everywhere. Read Why don’t friends with kids have time and laugh at the writer’s snippy efforts to ‘understand’ why moms with kids don’t have time for her.
Seems to me like the writer is as much workas any kid would be, and the rewards significantly less.

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Walking to dinner tonight, we passed this still life with urban transportation.
Love it.

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One of the nice parts of life in the city is our morning walk to school. As we came up to the entrance, one of the KoE’s friends came grumbling out of his mother’s car, barely closing the door behind him. He ignored our greeting and stumble grumbled up the stairs. My son couldn’t understand why his friend wouldn’t say anything to him.
“Hang on, babe. It’s Monday. I think he needs a little time to get used to that fact.” 
The security guard laughed and high fived me. “Don’t we allllll!”

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A mother said she loved her kid, but sometimes had a hard time liking her. What she means is, she loves the kid but doesn’t necessarily appreciate all the bone-headed, self-centered, idiot things a kid can do. I hear you out there, mothers, I really do. We love our kids, but don’t always like what they do. Remember that the next time your children drive you up a tree, ok? Or when you turn around to find your well-mannered son sitting at the restaurant table with chopsticks shoved up his nose.
And confidential to the mom who accidentally locked her …read more

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