Life in our Shoes

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Thing 1 is very into computers. She could navigate her way around a computer by the time she was 3. Games I can buy on disk are not enough for her anymore. They bore her. It seems that these days every toy or show has an associated website. She saw a commercial for something called Panfu and asked if I would sign her up.

I went to the website and checked it out. Here are some of the claims. (I added what is in parentheses)
~Aimed at children 6 and up (Preying on children 6 and up)
~Safety is ensured by filtered chats and well-trained chat moderators who supervise Panfu chats at all times (or never, whichever we decide)
~Chat suitable for children (that we want to corrupt)
~Children-chat has strict rules (or none at all, again, whichever we decide)

Being that the website made these claims, and I saw nothing out of the ordinary during her free trial (some of which I played myself), I signed her up for a membership. Big. Mistake. Apparently there are no moderators on the chat. I have screenshots of some very perverse things that were said while my 7 year old (who can read!!!) was playing.

I immediately contacted the owners of the website, sent them the screenshots and told them I would be canceling Thing 1′s subscription. I also told them I expected my money back (which I am sure I will never see)

So now, I am trying to put the word out there as best I can for anyone with children to NOT ALLOW your kids on this site. I know my blog is in a very remote corner of the internet and has virtually no readers, but if you do stumble upon this…please pass it along.

I understand the need for schools to enforce healthy eating habits in children. Really, I do. I just think it can be taken too far. Maybe I’m wrong. You tell me.

Sometime during the first weeks of school, I noticed Thing 1 brought her snack back home instead of eating it. I also noticed it was the days I sent her treats that she likes. I sent her a little baggie of those chocolate mint grasshopper cookies. We rarely buy them, because only the kids eat cookies, and Thing 2 doesn’t like mint. I thought she would have inhaled them the moment she laid eyes on them. When I asked her why she brought them back home, imagine my shock when she said “the teacher told me I’m not allowed to have them because they aren’t healthy”. OK, so why didn’t you drink your juice box? “Not allowed to have that either” (Plain water only). Say what?

Now, I know for a fact that if the kids buy lunch, they are allowed to choose an extra snack from the cafeteria (that I pay for!!!), to bring to the classroom for snack later. They have a wide assortment of things from fruit to veggies to yogurt to pudding, and even chips! But, this teacher, she only lets them choose fruit or a veggie. In my opinion, it should be up to the parent what their child eats. Especially since we pay for it. Now, again, don’t get me wrong, I am all for my kids eating healthy. But, Thing 1, she usually will choose fruit over chips or cookies. On the occasion that she should want something else? I think she should be allowed to have it.

What makes the list of healthy snacks? Fruit. Veggies. The teacher will bend the rules for pretzels and cheese sticks. That’s not a whole lot of options, especially now that fruit is starting to be out of season.

Here’s the latest occurrence that prompted me to write this post. At the beginning of the year, a paper went home asking what each parent was willing to volunteer for. I volunteered to be room parent. But, one of the choices was to be a baker for the Halloween party. I imagine there are some parents that would be all over that. Some people just love to bake creative little treats. Not me. I burn them. Anyhow, I got an e-mail from one of the other room parents about the party. The teacher wants healthy treats only. No baked goods. A pretzel tray and a fruit tray. She is asking the “bakers” to donate individual oatmeal packs, tea bags and granola bars for the kids to make breakfast bags for seniors. While I think that is a fantastic idea, and would make for a great activity for the kids to do, even at their party, I also think they should be allowed a treat. I know for darn sure if I was one of those parents that loved to bake, I would be really disappointed if I signed up to do so, and what I got instead was a request to donate oatmeal.

So, what are your opinions?

Did you ever notice that when you take your kids to the doctor, whatever the reason you took them there for magically disappears? It’s like they pump some sort of cure all medication through their venting system.

Funny thing about Thing 2′s appointment last week was when the doctor said “I’m concerned about this because he is showing absolutely no signs of any kind of illness.” Really, she checked him everywhere. Even looked for some kind of fungus growing on his scalp. Nothing. So, I took him for blood work and almost immediately he started coughing. Shortly after that, he passed out cold on the couch in the middle of the day. This boy does not nap. Not ever. So, I grabbed the thermometer and sure enough he had a fever. I actually breathed a sigh of relief and knew at that moment that his blood work would come back fine. It did, of course, so I panicked over nothing.

I kept his follow up appointment almost a week later since he was sick. Do you know he did not cough or sniffle even once the entire time we were in the office. He was like the picture of perfect health. He saw a different doctor than we saw for the original consult. He never remeasured his lumps, nor did he look in his throat or nose, even though I told him he was stuffy/coughing/feverish. Then again, I’m not surprised. This is the doctor that insisted Thing 2 did not have torticollis. Yeah, that guy. Which reminds me, I need a new pediatrician soon.

Basically he told me to keep an eye on him for a month and bring him back for a follow up. What am I looking for? In the words of the wise doctor, “I don’t know. Anything, really”. It’s scary that he is the head of the practice.

Buying a house is no fun at all. Sure it started out fun, looking at open houses and imagining ourselves living there, or not depending on the house. We giggled at some decorating ideas people had, and likewise got some of our own. We saw a LOT of houses. A. Lot. We only liked two. Two!?!

OK, so we are a little picky. There needed to be a room that could be the kids playroom, and an office, and 4 bedrooms. That’s a good amount of rooms. Also, it had to have a good size backyard. Preferably fenced in, but not a deal breaker. A pool wasn’t exactly a must, but we wanted one, but not inground because I am way too paranoid about my clumsy children (I’m looking at you Thing 2). Oh, yeah, no basement. I don’t like basements. They feel like dungeons and we don’t use the one we have now. Then there is that other minor detail of it needing to be in our price range.

We made an offer on a house, which wasn’t accepted because the seller needed full asking price, due to some of his own financial issues. He also at one point said “I don’t care if the house forecloses, I’m not going to short sale” So we made the same offer on another house. Basically, the same house on a different street, minus a few of the upgrades. They were asking for way more than the first house, though. They weren’t willing to come down any and we weren’t willing to go up.

That left us back to the first house. Were we willing to pay full asking price? Well, the answer to that is, yes. We were. We love the house. It’s perfect for us. And besides, I have already decorated it in my brain. We managed to make a deal, sign the papers, and secure the house we want. Smooth sailing until settlement, right? Wrong.

The house passed inspection, with only a little glitch that the seller is willing to repair. Not such great news with the appraisal, though. It appraised for 9,000 under asking price. So, either the seller or us has to come to settlement with more money. We aren’t willing to do that, and given his financial situation (or what I know of it) he can’t do it. Which means the only way he can sell it is a short sale. I know in my brain that means good news for us, because we can get the house for cheaper. But, I am hardcore stressing about it. What if he refuses to do short sale and stupidly waits for someone that will pay the extra money? He would be a fool to do that, but you just never know.

So, now for the next 6 weeks or so, I sit here with baited breath, waiting to hear if the bank will accept the short sale. Or..I could walk away. But, I won’t. Because I already live there in my head.

I’m what some might call a paranoid parent.  I hate letting my children out of my sight for even a minute.  I often worry about things that haven’t even happened, but maybe potentially could happen.  None of them ever do of course.  Well, except the time I let Thing 1 climb to the top of the monkey bars against my better judgement and she fell off and hit her head.  But, kids need to be kids and so I have to let them do these things.

At the beginning of the year, I drove Thing 1 to and from school every day. She begged me to let her take the bus, and I finally caved. The school is, after all, only about a three minute drive away.  It went OK for the first few days.  Then, she started getting off the bus every day crying.  This kid was mean to her, that one won’t sit with her.  I had talks with her and gave her the advice she needed to help her work through these issues.  Until the day she got off the bus, dove into The Squatch’s arms and cried.  She told us that the kids on the bus were chanting at her and a second grader to “fight, fight, fight!” and the bus driver did nothing.  She just stared out the window, saying nothing, refusing to cry.  She didn’t want to let them see her cry.  I don’t blame her.  From that day on, I picked her up from school.  I still let her take the bus to school because it is only her Kindergarten friends.

For months now, all has been going well.  I got over my fear of her not making to school somehow and I know she arrives safe and sound every day.  Not to mention happy as can be, because she gets to sit with her best friend every day.  But now, everything has changed.  I worry about putting her on the bus and shipping her off to school and just blindly trusting that she makes it inside.  I have good reason.

In less than a week there were two attempted abductions in her school district by a man in a white truck.  Then today (still less than a week after the last two reports), I put Thing 1 on the bus and as it drove away, my phone dinged indicating I had an e-mail.  Never one to resist the temptation of a new e-mail I opened it up.  It was from the school district again.  Another safety alert.  Two parents reported being approached IN THE SCHOOL PARKING LOT by a man in a white truck.  The truck has also been spotted parked in the school parking (not her school, but one very close by)  The license plate number was reported to the police along with a description of the man.

I wanted to stop her bus and take her to school myself today.  Physically walking her inside the locked building and handing her off to her teacher would make me feel so much better.  But alas, I had no car.

Does anybody have an armored bubble with lasers and alarms around that I could borrow for my kids? No? Crap.

I’ve been a long time blog lurker. So long, in fact, that I feel I know all the bloggers I read on a personal level. Then I realized, hey wait! I don’t have a blog. Here I am reading about the lives of everyone else, all their joys and sorrows, and I don’t  let anyone else in on my life. Not that it’s all that interesting, but someone may want to read about it.  So, here it is. My first post. More later. You know you want it.