Parenting 101

Recently our local paper reprinted a column from The Washington Post titled "How parents can really help students" by Mari-Jane Williams.

I have put her suggestions in bold below while my thoughts about her thoughts follow.

1. Let Your Child See You Making Mistakes.
She quotes a kindergarten teacher who suggests that parents let their children see them laugh about mistakes, not taking themselves too seriously. Is that like laughing at the State Trooper who wants to see your license, insurance and registration? Or like laughing off forgetting to feed the pet snake and turtle while the kids were at camp and trying to replace them with exact replicas before the kids get home? Or by laughing off the failure of one more round of rehab.

2. Don't Tell Your Child You Weren't Good at Math.
They will figure this out soon enough on their own, when you divide five M & Ms four ways and you get two. Or when you suggest they save their .25 a week allowance for that $350 bike in the catalog. Or when you give them your monthly bank statement along with your check book to reconcile? Or when a note comes home from the math teacher telling you to 'bug off' from your kid's homework.

3. Check Their Homework and Then Have Them Explain it to You.
Absolutely the most boring of all the suggestions, this means that you as parent must sit through one more go-around of the Gettysburg Address, the Constitution of the United States, the flora and fauna of all 50 states plus the history of Warrick County, Indiana. About fifth or sixth grade, the work gets harder and more complex, leaving many parents in the dust. Ms. Williams writes, "Even if the parents don't understand quite what the student has done, it lets you know that the child has completed the task." Actually it lets the parent know that the child has completed some task, perhaps the same task completed last week or by their best friend. This is the point at which a hired tutor is helpful.

4. Help Your Child Make Connections to Literature.
For example, when you spend all the Christmas money on redecorating the master bath room she can relate that to the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. When she complains about the three-times-a-week cereal for dinner she can remember Oliver Twist who only wanted, "More, please," which is also a wonderful reminder of his good manners.

5. But Don't Do Everything.
Okay !

And that's what I think about it.
 

Today's Kohl's Shopping Experience: Not Their Finest Hour

Wandering through the store my nose caught the whiff of a new purse in the air. Just in time for Fall and a trip east to see a grand daughter, a new handbag was just what was needed.

Rifling through display after display of purses, most of them on sale, I settled on a style and a color. What made me look at every single one of the exact same purse still evades me, but I did...enough said.

All these purses had their perforated tags removed and Kohl's price stickers affixed....except one. All the other bags were sticker priced $79 with 40% discount. But the one bag with the original price from the manufacturer was marked $69 with 40% off.

So the manufacturer set the price at $69; Kohl's reset the price at $79.

Taking the originally-priced bag through check-out, it rang up at $79! That's when I was met with clerk-attitude. I showed her the original price tag from the manufacturer still on the bag and asked her to re-check the price. The computer, not surprisingly, again choked out $79.

Unhappily for her, I asked her to call a manager. Whatever the phone conversation was between the two of them the purse ended up costing me what I had happily agreed to pay: $69 minus 40%. (You do the math if you want, just know it was less).

Unfortunately for the clerk, my purchase came up with the request to participate in a Kohl's survey regarding this very visit to their store. As soon as I post this that is exactly what I'm going to do.

And that's what I think about it.

Randomness

The baby bunny hopped by my window yesterday. He would fit with room to spare in the palm of my hand. So cute. The birds in the feeder are all bigger than he is. His little ears look like tiny, individual Tootsie-Rolls.
He would make a tasty treat for the local hawk.

The rose bushes that I so carefully pruned (twice) during the summer are once again growing at odd askew angles. The good news is they are still blooming and look lovely.

The mums arrived today. I picked up our six pots, one of every color.

Two months from now all the political ads will be removed from TV. All the political pundits on the news stations will be on to other news of the day. A president will be elected and life will go on as usual. Or not.

My husband's 70th birthday was last month. We went out to dinner with the family. I bought him a remote-controlled police helicopter. I have seen him look longingly at little kids in the neighborhood who have these so I thought he might want to go out and find some playmates.

I also paid for breakfast for him and his cronies on Wednesday morning. They call themselves the ROMEOs, which can be translated either Rich Old Men Eating Out or Retired Old Men Eating Out.

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Now it is a few weeks later. Every day I hear the helicopter taking off from the floor, the hassock, the coffee table, and hover around the furniture and if I'm not careful, my head. Jim is not yet skilled enough to land on my hand.

Soccer season is in full swing. The twins are playing varsity; Brittany is coaching junior varsity.

I spend four or five hours a day writing on my dissertation; some days are more productive than others.

The pulley rope on our 80-inch accordion blind broke a few days ago. The blind is stuck open two feet up from the window sill. If I'm sitting in front of the window I can see out. If I stand up, the view is blocked. When it gets dark we have to get into another room and turn the lights off in the great room. Jim was not pleased, at all, when the blind man (as in the shade man) told him what it would cost to come out and take the blind down and back to his shop to re-string. Not happy at all!

Thanks to a niece near Boston I have discovered that Cadbury is making a Halloween Cadbury egg. The yolk is green. I do like green eggs, Dr. Seuss. 

There is a huge, visible streak on the outside of our big window. Unfortunately, the stuck blind does not cover it up. I noticed it...well, in June.  Every time I sit and watch TV I look out into the back yard through the window and see the streak. It's rained since then but the streak remains. I think the snow may cover the streak come December.

I read three books last week. The first "City of Women" was a memoir about living in Berlin during WWII. The second was a memoir, "January First," about a four-year old with schizophrenia and the parents' struggle to find treatment for their little girl. The child has an IQ of way-off-the-scale (she knew the Periodic Table of Elements at the age of 4, for example). The third book was "Gold" by the author of "Little Bee." "Gold" is about Olympic cyclists. Right now I'm reading Elie Wiesel's newest "Hostage." Four very diverse books. All worthy of a second-look.

Well, there you have it, snippets of life in southern Indiana. And that's what I think about it.