In my experience, the longer you live (or, specifically, the longer you "mother"), the grayer your opinions become. You follow?
There is a phenomenon called "Mommy Wars," and it is a very popular topic of discussion on the mothering-blogs that I read. Most of the issues mothers rant and rave about on their blogs, in their mothering-communities, and to uninterested (pitied!) bystanders, fall into the category of "mommy wars". In fact, almost every decision a mother makes, every mundane decision regarding childcare, has been chewed over and scrutinized by a legion of mothers across the globe. Say, for instance, that someone tells you that it is perfectly alright to put the parts of your baby´s bottle in the dishwasher. You are relieved to hear that you will no longer have to worry about the tedious task of boiling it all to sterilize the bottle for future use. Then, you make the mistake of looking it up online. As soon as you google "clean baby bottle," your confidence goes out the window. Apparently, about four-thousand other mothers claim that dishwashers ruin the bottle-parts, and you should never opt for that easy way out. Or your child will become terribly ill, your bottle-parts will break, and there are about a million things that could go wrong if you´ve chosen to go the dishwasher-route.
The same is true for: heating water in microwave, pacifier versus thumb, letting baby sleep in baby-swing, crib-protectors.... so on and so on.
And those are just the little decisions. When it comes to "working mother versus stay-at-home mother," the mommy-war is truly vicious.
The insecurities of mothers are big business.
Anyway, it is the work-issue that I was thinking about this morning (because of an article I read on a mothering-website, incidentally).
What got me thinking more about this issue, beside the fact that I am in the middle of that decision, is that I have changed my mind very drastically. Similarly, I am less adamant about every other aspect of motherhood, simply because experience has taught me that there really are two sides to every story.
I am not going to into all the pros and cons of both camps (the working-mothers versus the stay-at-home mothers: whether one is either better for the kids, or easier for the mother). But I wanted to say just how much I´ve been confronted with the fact that things are a heck of a lot "grayer" than I used to think. Things aren´t so simple: it´s not really fair to judge someone for their decision, especially if we haven´t been in their particular place. Sure, I still have some strong opinions regarding what is best for my children, or for my own life, but I am (SLOWLY!) learning to step back and look at an issue from all possible angles before charging ahead on one side of the battlefield.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
The New Abode
Inevitably, moving into a new house is always followed by a string of little discoveries: you become acquainted with all the little idiosyncrasies of your new home. Yes, a house is rather like a person.
First impressions count when it comes to houses (as they do with people), but it takes time to discover the little things that you either like or dislike about your new residence. The creaks of certain doors, your neighbors´bad taste in music, the lack of light in certain rooms, bad water-pressure (a pet-peeve), closet-doors that don´t open easily....
But, there is much to love about this place. It is neither luxurious nor notably spacious, but I had a feeling that it would prove very livable. And it has.This is why:
*Closet-space: this place boasts so much storage-space! we´ve accumulated so much stuff throughout the years, that the space-issue was a not only a plus, but a prerequisite. it has helped us get organized.
*Windows: (possibly related to the fact that I come from a country of houses with big windows) I love windows. The living-room has a wall of windows, and I could not be more delighted. It stormed the other night, and I just sat there....on the couch, looking at the grey and restless sky.
*Book-wall: the living-room has a wall of built-in shelving. Perfect for book-hoarders. My boxes of books will arrive several weeks from now, and I am thrilled to have the shelf-space to display them.
*Balcony: this is directly related to the space-thing. We have an enclosed balcony, not wide (or sunny) enough for plants, and not suitable as a hang-out place, but it is just what I needed to manage the laundry. My laundry-rack sits there, out of our way, dry when necessary, and in the fresh air when the weather permits (all I have to do is open 1 or 2 windows). Moreover, it, too, has a closet for miscellany. It serves as a laundry-room, shed, and pantry.
*The fourth bedroom, now an office/music-room. We thought of using this open room (connected to our living-room) as a dining-room, but decided it had more potential. Daniel convinced me that it could be put to better use, and it now holds his music-collection. Once our wooden chest, black chair, and woolly brown checkered rug arrive from Holland, this room will be well on its way to becoming the coziest nook on this side of the Atlantic.
I´ve lived in many houses. There have been prettier ones, two (one in SC, the other just down the street) with splendid terrace/porch-spaces.... However, I have never before been quite so happy with how I´ve been able to organize my belongings. Shelves, drawers, etc. Everything in its right place. We´ve had to be creative, but it works wonderfully. (i.e. one of our 2 bath-tubs now hides our 3 laundry-hampers. the hampers sit in the tub, and all I have to do is open the tub´s sliding doors, and voila!, there are the 3 color-coordinated hampers. Out of sight. By the way, it took me about 2 hours of scrubbing and complaining to discover that, 1, it would not work as a bath (FILTHY!), and, thus, 2, it needed an alternative function. Who needs 2 bathtubs, anyway???). How is that for looking on the bright side?
And then there´s the neighborhood. I already knew I loved it when I moved here several years ago. But now, having returned here, I see just how excellent it is.
* little shops: there are dozens of little shops within walking-distance. Dozens. Meat-shops, flower-shops, the movie-rental place, travel-agency, peluquerias, bars, coffee-shops, banks, book-stores, "chinos", bakeries, shoe-menders, fish/vegetable-shops, pharmacies, electronics, et cetera.
and, could it get any better?:
* I can walk from my apartment-building to each and every one of these places without getting rained on or scorched by the sun, when necessary. My building connects to the other 20-some buildings in the neighborhood through covered walk-ways. We can sit at a table outside a bar, have a coffee or two, and Ari can run around in sight. It is ideal for people with kids and strollers.
En fin. There is plenty to do before it will feel "just right", and it´s not the house of our dreams, but we are quite at ease here.
First impressions count when it comes to houses (as they do with people), but it takes time to discover the little things that you either like or dislike about your new residence. The creaks of certain doors, your neighbors´bad taste in music, the lack of light in certain rooms, bad water-pressure (a pet-peeve), closet-doors that don´t open easily....
But, there is much to love about this place. It is neither luxurious nor notably spacious, but I had a feeling that it would prove very livable. And it has.This is why:
*Closet-space: this place boasts so much storage-space! we´ve accumulated so much stuff throughout the years, that the space-issue was a not only a plus, but a prerequisite. it has helped us get organized.
*Windows: (possibly related to the fact that I come from a country of houses with big windows) I love windows. The living-room has a wall of windows, and I could not be more delighted. It stormed the other night, and I just sat there....on the couch, looking at the grey and restless sky.
*Book-wall: the living-room has a wall of built-in shelving. Perfect for book-hoarders. My boxes of books will arrive several weeks from now, and I am thrilled to have the shelf-space to display them.
*Balcony: this is directly related to the space-thing. We have an enclosed balcony, not wide (or sunny) enough for plants, and not suitable as a hang-out place, but it is just what I needed to manage the laundry. My laundry-rack sits there, out of our way, dry when necessary, and in the fresh air when the weather permits (all I have to do is open 1 or 2 windows). Moreover, it, too, has a closet for miscellany. It serves as a laundry-room, shed, and pantry.
*The fourth bedroom, now an office/music-room. We thought of using this open room (connected to our living-room) as a dining-room, but decided it had more potential. Daniel convinced me that it could be put to better use, and it now holds his music-collection. Once our wooden chest, black chair, and woolly brown checkered rug arrive from Holland, this room will be well on its way to becoming the coziest nook on this side of the Atlantic.
I´ve lived in many houses. There have been prettier ones, two (one in SC, the other just down the street) with splendid terrace/porch-spaces.... However, I have never before been quite so happy with how I´ve been able to organize my belongings. Shelves, drawers, etc. Everything in its right place. We´ve had to be creative, but it works wonderfully. (i.e. one of our 2 bath-tubs now hides our 3 laundry-hampers. the hampers sit in the tub, and all I have to do is open the tub´s sliding doors, and voila!, there are the 3 color-coordinated hampers. Out of sight. By the way, it took me about 2 hours of scrubbing and complaining to discover that, 1, it would not work as a bath (FILTHY!), and, thus, 2, it needed an alternative function. Who needs 2 bathtubs, anyway???). How is that for looking on the bright side?And then there´s the neighborhood. I already knew I loved it when I moved here several years ago. But now, having returned here, I see just how excellent it is.
* little shops: there are dozens of little shops within walking-distance. Dozens. Meat-shops, flower-shops, the movie-rental place, travel-agency, peluquerias, bars, coffee-shops, banks, book-stores, "chinos", bakeries, shoe-menders, fish/vegetable-shops, pharmacies, electronics, et cetera.
and, could it get any better?:
* I can walk from my apartment-building to each and every one of these places without getting rained on or scorched by the sun, when necessary. My building connects to the other 20-some buildings in the neighborhood through covered walk-ways. We can sit at a table outside a bar, have a coffee or two, and Ari can run around in sight. It is ideal for people with kids and strollers.
En fin. There is plenty to do before it will feel "just right", and it´s not the house of our dreams, but we are quite at ease here.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
These are things that I don´t understand.....
Sometimes it pays to be poor. This would be lovely if we were just a tad poorer than we are.
Unfortunately, we´re always in the "no-[pay] José!" category.
It has been a rotten day, so this is rotten rant #286.
I have told you all about my trips to the pre-school we wanted Ari to go to. Sadly, it didn´t want Ari to go there. The system decided it would do everything in its power to keep average people like us away.
Again, I rushed, I went through the red tape, I tried to jump through the hoops, tried the "enchufe" route by approaching the helpful principal of the school, but all of this to no avail. Ari, Anika, and I walked over to the school one last time this morning and discovered that it has no place for normal people. Let me explain:
STUPIDLY, admission revolves around a point-system. The only category that made any sense to me was the proximity of home to school. We got all the points for that: the school is 3 minutes away from our house. That´s where our chances ended. Ari, along with about 50 other kids, was on the no-admission list. 85% of the prospective students have siblings that already attend the school. The remainder of the "plazas" were given to the poor, the disabled, and those students who come from "familias numerosas" (families with more than 3 children).
No waiting-lists, no first in line, nothing else matters at all. I´ve been thinking and fuming all day. You see, the thing that strikes me is this: Daniel and I are not rich. We wouldn´t even say that we´re middle class. Really. There is a reason I am looking for a job. We don´t own a car, we don´t own a home, and we certainly don´t dress the part of pijos. We do, however, live in a nice neighborhood. Not a fancy neighborhood, but a young family-oriented area of our city. There is a serious shortage of schools due to this. As a result, well over 100 kids (of Ari´s age, especially) are in the same situation: school-less due to a lack of points. Where are they going to go? Am I going to have to get Ari up at dawn, so that she can attend a school on the other side of town? Is she going to be assigned to one of the few schools that actually has a place for her, probably because it is completely run-down, and all the other kids were assigned places in our neighborhood because their parents don´t make any money?? ANY money.
That´s the strange thing. Even the majority of the kids on the not-admitted list happened to have points in the money-section. How did they get points there? Are people THAT poor? How can they live here, in our nice neighborhood, if we have a really hard time getting by from month to month on what we consider a pretty average income? (in order to have gotten those points, they have to be earning just one half or quarter of what we earn).
I am dumbfounded. I really am. We are not wealthy enough to let Ari attend any of the international schools in Madrid... We can´t even afford the car to drive her there!
We are certainly not reaping the benefits of the wealthy, not by any stretch of the imagination. But we are not poor enough to get anything else, either. We are, apparently, in the rotten middle.
Don´t get me wrong: I am grateful for what we have. We have a (nice) roof above our heads, food in our fridge, clothes to wear, etc. But I thought we could, (especially through my manic efforts & punctuality) at least, send Ari to a "decent" school in our neighborhood. So that I can go to work & help us make it from one month to the next. If Daniel made 1/4 of what he makes, we´d have a place on that list. And that really infuriates me. We weren´t trying to get Ari into a posh school.
I tried, by the way, to find out if we could still send her to a pseudo-private school (concertado). There is one just down the street. See, this option would be cheaper than either a private school or daycare, so I figured it may be our only option. As I was standing there, at reception desk, I saw a line of 3-year olds with their teacher, reciting "Hail- Mary" and blowing kisses at her shrine. It is, after all, funded by the opus dei; I doubted much whether that´s the place for Ari.
We are just not rich enough, not poor enough, and not Catholic enough.
We are falling through the cracks.
Unfortunately, we´re always in the "no-[pay] José!" category.
It has been a rotten day, so this is rotten rant #286.
I have told you all about my trips to the pre-school we wanted Ari to go to. Sadly, it didn´t want Ari to go there. The system decided it would do everything in its power to keep average people like us away.
Again, I rushed, I went through the red tape, I tried to jump through the hoops, tried the "enchufe" route by approaching the helpful principal of the school, but all of this to no avail. Ari, Anika, and I walked over to the school one last time this morning and discovered that it has no place for normal people. Let me explain:
STUPIDLY, admission revolves around a point-system. The only category that made any sense to me was the proximity of home to school. We got all the points for that: the school is 3 minutes away from our house. That´s where our chances ended. Ari, along with about 50 other kids, was on the no-admission list. 85% of the prospective students have siblings that already attend the school. The remainder of the "plazas" were given to the poor, the disabled, and those students who come from "familias numerosas" (families with more than 3 children).
No waiting-lists, no first in line, nothing else matters at all. I´ve been thinking and fuming all day. You see, the thing that strikes me is this: Daniel and I are not rich. We wouldn´t even say that we´re middle class. Really. There is a reason I am looking for a job. We don´t own a car, we don´t own a home, and we certainly don´t dress the part of pijos. We do, however, live in a nice neighborhood. Not a fancy neighborhood, but a young family-oriented area of our city. There is a serious shortage of schools due to this. As a result, well over 100 kids (of Ari´s age, especially) are in the same situation: school-less due to a lack of points. Where are they going to go? Am I going to have to get Ari up at dawn, so that she can attend a school on the other side of town? Is she going to be assigned to one of the few schools that actually has a place for her, probably because it is completely run-down, and all the other kids were assigned places in our neighborhood because their parents don´t make any money?? ANY money.
That´s the strange thing. Even the majority of the kids on the not-admitted list happened to have points in the money-section. How did they get points there? Are people THAT poor? How can they live here, in our nice neighborhood, if we have a really hard time getting by from month to month on what we consider a pretty average income? (in order to have gotten those points, they have to be earning just one half or quarter of what we earn).
I am dumbfounded. I really am. We are not wealthy enough to let Ari attend any of the international schools in Madrid... We can´t even afford the car to drive her there!
We are certainly not reaping the benefits of the wealthy, not by any stretch of the imagination. But we are not poor enough to get anything else, either. We are, apparently, in the rotten middle.
Don´t get me wrong: I am grateful for what we have. We have a (nice) roof above our heads, food in our fridge, clothes to wear, etc. But I thought we could, (especially through my manic efforts & punctuality) at least, send Ari to a "decent" school in our neighborhood. So that I can go to work & help us make it from one month to the next. If Daniel made 1/4 of what he makes, we´d have a place on that list. And that really infuriates me. We weren´t trying to get Ari into a posh school.
I tried, by the way, to find out if we could still send her to a pseudo-private school (concertado). There is one just down the street. See, this option would be cheaper than either a private school or daycare, so I figured it may be our only option. As I was standing there, at reception desk, I saw a line of 3-year olds with their teacher, reciting "Hail- Mary" and blowing kisses at her shrine. It is, after all, funded by the opus dei; I doubted much whether that´s the place for Ari.
We are just not rich enough, not poor enough, and not Catholic enough.
We are falling through the cracks.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
The sting of parenting...
(or is this just another empty-glass version of it?)
Lately, I´ve been thinking of parenthood; beauties and difficulties, the whole lovely mess of it. (clearly, I´ve hardly done anything else since Ari´s birth....considering the issue permeates this blog)
Well, I´ve noticed a trend, and I think it all comes down to this:
the sting of parenting, for me, is the continual shifting from hopefulness to disillusionment. Wow, that sounds negative. Let me explain:
1)Hopefulness: just that. Hopes for a bright future, blah bluh blah. It must, inherently, be a hope for universal betterment, or something. Our children are the future. It´s a cliché for a reason: this has been the idea throughout the centuries, hasn´t it?
Thus, our children come into the world, and we place a huge burden (unwittingly & subconsciously, perhaps, at first) on them. They seem perfect, and we convince ourselves that it is up to us to make them the best of their kind. Of our kind. To instill in them all the values that we strive to cultivate in ourselves, or to teach them what we hoped to learn for ourselves...
Then, as the months go by, and the children become just a little less perfect, we all take a tumble. We all fall from Grace- just a little. And then, suddenly, we´re here:
2) Disillusionment: they weren´t supposed to turn out like this. We were going to be better examples, we were going to make this world a better place. indirectly. through those little ones.
Maybe I´m a little insane. Everyone knows, going into it, that it´s going to be virtually impossible to really raise perfect social beings. Right? I knew it, but I expected more from myself. I expected to be a better model to my daughters. Slow to anger, paying attention to the important things, etc.. And then, when I see my failures through my daughter´s (mis-)behavior, I cringe a bit.
I wonder how other generations went about it. We (this generation of parents) seem to take it so seriously. We´ve become so introspective, and we (over-) analyze everything, including our parenting. Narcissism, I guess. We give ourselves all the credit for the good and the bad. Probably a flawed perspective. Again. Agh. I want to live by the Proverbs. Really. I´ve found so much practical knowledge in the Proverbs, and in what the Dutch refer to as "tegeltjeswijsheid" (try pronouncing that! HA! That´s not even close to the longest Dutch word) basically, "tile-wisdom". The quotations you find on printed tiles.... My dad uses them in conversation all the time, and it´s so helpful. Basic little rules of "sensible living". In the tradition of "Early to bed, early to rise...." It´s silly of me, but I always find that just reciting these (common sense) sayings helps return me to the real world, and to the task at hand. Which is, of course, just doing the best I can, and helping my kids learn the basic principles of responsible living & altruism, etc.
Lately, I´ve been thinking of parenthood; beauties and difficulties, the whole lovely mess of it. (clearly, I´ve hardly done anything else since Ari´s birth....considering the issue permeates this blog)
Well, I´ve noticed a trend, and I think it all comes down to this:
the sting of parenting, for me, is the continual shifting from hopefulness to disillusionment. Wow, that sounds negative. Let me explain:
1)Hopefulness: just that. Hopes for a bright future, blah bluh blah. It must, inherently, be a hope for universal betterment, or something. Our children are the future. It´s a cliché for a reason: this has been the idea throughout the centuries, hasn´t it?
Thus, our children come into the world, and we place a huge burden (unwittingly & subconsciously, perhaps, at first) on them. They seem perfect, and we convince ourselves that it is up to us to make them the best of their kind. Of our kind. To instill in them all the values that we strive to cultivate in ourselves, or to teach them what we hoped to learn for ourselves...
Then, as the months go by, and the children become just a little less perfect, we all take a tumble. We all fall from Grace- just a little. And then, suddenly, we´re here:
2) Disillusionment: they weren´t supposed to turn out like this. We were going to be better examples, we were going to make this world a better place. indirectly. through those little ones.
Maybe I´m a little insane. Everyone knows, going into it, that it´s going to be virtually impossible to really raise perfect social beings. Right? I knew it, but I expected more from myself. I expected to be a better model to my daughters. Slow to anger, paying attention to the important things, etc.. And then, when I see my failures through my daughter´s (mis-)behavior, I cringe a bit.
I wonder how other generations went about it. We (this generation of parents) seem to take it so seriously. We´ve become so introspective, and we (over-) analyze everything, including our parenting. Narcissism, I guess. We give ourselves all the credit for the good and the bad. Probably a flawed perspective. Again. Agh. I want to live by the Proverbs. Really. I´ve found so much practical knowledge in the Proverbs, and in what the Dutch refer to as "tegeltjeswijsheid" (try pronouncing that! HA! That´s not even close to the longest Dutch word) basically, "tile-wisdom". The quotations you find on printed tiles.... My dad uses them in conversation all the time, and it´s so helpful. Basic little rules of "sensible living". In the tradition of "Early to bed, early to rise...." It´s silly of me, but I always find that just reciting these (common sense) sayings helps return me to the real world, and to the task at hand. Which is, of course, just doing the best I can, and helping my kids learn the basic principles of responsible living & altruism, etc.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
An ode to Imperfection....
or something like that.
Last weekend, we moved back to the old neighborhood (to the most recent old neighborhood, if you follow...). Getting ready for this particular move has been close to unbearable, despite our eagerness to leave the pueblo & to recover a home of our own.
Both of us have had our share of long- and short-distance moving, but this one was more stressful than all the previous moves combined. Really.
This time around, we were responsible for almost everything. It was up to us (well, ME, especially) to find the house (making lists, establishing the criteria, visiting the potential homes), pack & unpack everything we´ve accumulated throughout the last 4 years... all the while, of course, keeping the children fed and entertained, the bills paid (through a job that my husband has come to loathe), finding an additional source of income (for me, this time), and registering our children at the daycare/pre-school. We have come this close to losing it.
Not to say that we haven´t had any help. Friends & family have been gracious to us, as usual, but it has been a tough winter-spring. We tried to keep things in perspective, we tried to make long-term plans, as a distraction-method (plans of settling elsewhere, into a more laid-back lifestyle; the dream we recycle year after year).. nonetheless, there has been a lot of tension.
The guilt of how our children must be experiencing these changes and tensions plagues me to no end... but then I remember that we (humans, that is) are resilient. (and young humans, especially).
I´ve gotten into the ugly habit of yelling. I never thought I was a yeller. It turns out that I, too, can be one of those moms....the kind of mother at whom more patient mothers roll their eyes. It´s not an easy thing to discover. Such a contrast with my earlier, more cheerful, mothering.
So, I sat there amid the boxes and the chaos, after many stressful days, "comiéndome el coco," and wishing I could just stay calm in front of the kids. Many evenings, I crashed on the couch and watched hours-worth of a funny TV-show....regardless of the sleep-deprivation. I laughed at the awkwardness of their fictional lives, at their ridiculous behavior, and at the horrid monotony of their world. A waste of time, perhaps, but it serves to remind me that, even in the stressful moments, it´s alright just to laugh at life and at our imperfections.
So I waver between wanting to be perfect in front of my children and accepting that I am a "normal" mother, like all the rest. Almost daily, I read through a bunch of parenting-blogs, in search of commonality, I suppose. Sometimes, at the end of an article, I close my computer with a new resolution, equipped with a new & improved mothering-method of some sort. The kids wake up from their naps, I greet them with confidence..... and then life happens. Multi-tasking is no piece of cake; not even for mothers. Adieu resolutions, adieu intent.
Inspiration for laid-back parents:
www.sweet-juniper.com
http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/
Last weekend, we moved back to the old neighborhood (to the most recent old neighborhood, if you follow...). Getting ready for this particular move has been close to unbearable, despite our eagerness to leave the pueblo & to recover a home of our own.
Both of us have had our share of long- and short-distance moving, but this one was more stressful than all the previous moves combined. Really.
This time around, we were responsible for almost everything. It was up to us (well, ME, especially) to find the house (making lists, establishing the criteria, visiting the potential homes), pack & unpack everything we´ve accumulated throughout the last 4 years... all the while, of course, keeping the children fed and entertained, the bills paid (through a job that my husband has come to loathe), finding an additional source of income (for me, this time), and registering our children at the daycare/pre-school. We have come this close to losing it.
Not to say that we haven´t had any help. Friends & family have been gracious to us, as usual, but it has been a tough winter-spring. We tried to keep things in perspective, we tried to make long-term plans, as a distraction-method (plans of settling elsewhere, into a more laid-back lifestyle; the dream we recycle year after year).. nonetheless, there has been a lot of tension.
The guilt of how our children must be experiencing these changes and tensions plagues me to no end... but then I remember that we (humans, that is) are resilient. (and young humans, especially).
I´ve gotten into the ugly habit of yelling. I never thought I was a yeller. It turns out that I, too, can be one of those moms....the kind of mother at whom more patient mothers roll their eyes. It´s not an easy thing to discover. Such a contrast with my earlier, more cheerful, mothering.
So, I sat there amid the boxes and the chaos, after many stressful days, "comiéndome el coco," and wishing I could just stay calm in front of the kids. Many evenings, I crashed on the couch and watched hours-worth of a funny TV-show....regardless of the sleep-deprivation. I laughed at the awkwardness of their fictional lives, at their ridiculous behavior, and at the horrid monotony of their world. A waste of time, perhaps, but it serves to remind me that, even in the stressful moments, it´s alright just to laugh at life and at our imperfections.
So I waver between wanting to be perfect in front of my children and accepting that I am a "normal" mother, like all the rest. Almost daily, I read through a bunch of parenting-blogs, in search of commonality, I suppose. Sometimes, at the end of an article, I close my computer with a new resolution, equipped with a new & improved mothering-method of some sort. The kids wake up from their naps, I greet them with confidence..... and then life happens. Multi-tasking is no piece of cake; not even for mothers. Adieu resolutions, adieu intent.
Inspiration for laid-back parents:
www.sweet-juniper.com
http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/
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