Kidding
Big fatty mcfat disclaimer: I don’t think you are a bad person if you let your kids watch TV. So whew. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about alternatives to screen time. We all learned last year (the year before? mommy memory) that screen time for kids under two years of age should not exist. No no. A big no no. And after two should be limited. The average kid watches like 2-4 hours of TV a day. Not a good stat. Why? It affects their brain development, it inhibits imaginative play, it pacifies them, it gives them lots of images and ideas you may not want in there, it curtails their communication with siblings/you/care provider, and the list goes on. But why do we think we cannot live without it? Why does everyone have these HuffPo articles being like “hey, it’s okay if your infant watch TV so you can just breathe a little” or “I’m a guilty parent too, but my kids are just fine”? Because our kids are clamoring constantly? Don’t play by themselves? Can’t be left unwatched so we can shower/screentime ourselves/poop? Because you can’t fry anything on the stove while holding your babe in the sling? Because we need them to zone out so we can have a break? I get it! I have two kids under three (now three) as well. Maybe it’s their personalities, or maybe it’s because they don’t know any different, but we don’t use screen time. Period.…
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Joy in kid world. And freaking out your sister. Yes, my poor son is one of those food allergy kids. I shared about his jarring introduction to allergic reactions a long while ago, and now that he’s three we recently had a food challenge in ye ole doctor’s office. That’s when you starve your child until you reach the doctor’s office and then slowly feed him a food he’s previously reacted to and wait & watch as you incrementally increase the amount of the potentially death-inducing food. For four hours. With a three year old. In a small examination room. It’s a peach. A little background for those not willing to delve into the depth of my hyperlinking (I don’t blame you–so often my older posts had bad photos, and link to the old blog so everything’s a big ? over there): SuperBoy was allergic to peanut, egg, and reacted to pine nut. Blood tests confirmed all this, as did a lovely trip to ER when he was 18 months old and ate peanut for the first time. Charmed, I’m sure. IGG versus IGE testing is whole other blog post, but he appears to be sensitive to a variety of foods as well. A few great resources: Food Allergy Support Group of MN, It’s an Itchy Little World, and my girlfriend Abby’s blog about her son’s allergies. The egg part, well, egg is molecularly different when it’s baked into (not onto) other foods–the chemistry changes. So baked eggs weren’t off…
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Boys are hyper, right? Or at least that’s why they apparently can’t sit still and focus in the conventional classroom. An alarming number of boys are diagnosed with ADHD each year, and medicated for the condition, 2.7 million children in 2007 according to the CDC. But a recent study came out questioning the efficacy of the ADHD drugs, and showing that they don’t boost the kids’ grades, instead that the other effects of the medication may outweigh the short term benefits of being able to sit still in a classroom. Read more in the WSJ article. Family encouragement, along with other environmental factors, appear to be more significant in long-term effects paired with the medication. No surprise: drugs alone aren’t the answer. *Update* A girlfriend just gave me this great link & resource for parents going through troubled times with their kids and who are in need of intervention services. Thank you, Deb! One thing that I hear again and again from friends with older boys is that it’s just plain hard for them to sit still for long periods in the classroom. I get it now; I have a three year old boy. He is wiggly, squiggly, and very tantrum prone. I know that’s “normal” for a three year old boy, but I’m sick of the many many tantrums a day. It pains me to see him so beside himself when he can’t have his way. It pains me because I know to indulge him will set him up…
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Happy Fourth of July! Happy celebration of the independence of our country! Try explaining that to a three-year-old. — England used to be in charge, but America thought they were mean, so then America had a revolution and became independent. But why were they mean? They made America do things they didn’t want to do. So did America have time out? Time out for not listening? Um. No. Well. Kinda. Adults do weird things. — We’ll be spending the holiday with our dearest family friends, the mother of who was recently diagnosed with cancer. It’s treatable and she’s so upbeat, worried more about the rest of us than herself, of course. Please pray for her & everyone around her as she goes through treatment. We’ll also spend the holiday celebrating the birth of my brother & sister-in-law’s son!!!!! AA and I are going to become the proud Godparents in just about a month. The little boy was born July 3, and is perfectly healthy and big! My brother’s deployed so this time has been a hardship on his little family, and the greater family in general. So excited little baby boy is here, finally, earthside, and everything went well. Celebrate your freedoms this holiday. And tune in again next week for a review of my acupuncture treatments (ah-mazing), a new sponsor—sneak peak on the sidebar, and a post on food. Or maybe on surviving a three year old. Or maybe on having more children–not pregnant yet! Freedom to have your…
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It is mindblowningering that three years ago today I met our son. My birth story is here, for all you birthy-world friends who love my blah blahing about unmediated labor. But the real story has been the last three years of raising him and watching him become him. That story is really the backbone of Whole Parenting Family, a project I began after culminating all this knowledge, and so, like any new mom who’s a writer, I started a blog. To share my new knowledge! To edumacate! To change the world! Really, it’s about my son, my daughter, my husband, our garden, our dinners, our cries, our laughs. And about yours too. I love hearing and sharing and connecting. Thank you for caring about my family, and know we care about you too. SuperBoy is sensitive, bright, tantrum-prone, particular, hot-tempered, and a snuggler. He’s not easy going. He’s not particularly difficult. He’s your typical three year old who wants to be an altar boy and baseball player when he grows up, but also atypical in so many ways. He’s taught us who he is through our trials and errors. And we love him for it all the mostest. A ten day trip home for my sister, her husband, and daughter ends today–much sorrow on all fronts on that score. The cousins had a delighted and delightful time playing, sharing, shrieking, flower picking, mashing food around, and generally loving each other. So glad you were with us, V! These photos are…
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Poor brave SuperBoy. He has had quite a lot of brushes with the medical world lately, and this week he finally got hit by it. After a chance of Lyme’s Disease with a tick bite, an ER visit with severe breathing problems–wheezing & coughing, a follow up with his allergist and multiple tests for other allergies beyond his peanut & egg, then it came: hernia! or possible hydrocele. All within the month. Thankfully nothing has proven fatal, and nothing too serious, thankfully. The biggest deal was the hernia. He just underwent out-patient surgery to repair it. Initially the pediatric urologist thought it was a hydrocele, but upon opening him up, it turned out to be a larger hernia than expected. A wee longer surgery than expected, but he came out just fine. He slept in my lap for a long time on the hospital bed in the recovery room, then had his pain meds, drank a little, ate a little, and bounced back with enough inertia to read the new Tintin book his BFFs gave him, The Blue Lotus. Although we have all the joined books and a few of the individuals, this one has never surfaced. Tintin. The French journalist boy with his little dog Snowy. We grew up reading it, and SuperBoy loves it now too, as do his best girlfriends. Whisky? Smoking? Opium? Guns? Yes. Tintin has it all–except inappropriate romance, thankfully. Watching your son go into surgery, and come out with an incision on his belly,…
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