392 Family: January 2005 Archives

The New York Times had an interesting bit on parenting blogs.

Personally, I love reading about parent's struggles with parenting. I can't stand the kind of parenting literature that preaches or turns parenting into a three simple steps to success revival. I would much rather hear real people tell me, "It's really hard, but you and your children will probably survive it."

When I read about other people's experiences I don't feel like such a freak for thinking things like "If an adult bit and hit me the way my kids do, I would open up a can on them!"

I was talking to a friend of Jeannie's, who said that since her kids were born she had stopped reading fiction and began to exclusively read books on parenting. I get depressed just thinking about it.

• Jennifer Weiner's response.
• Ayelet Waldman's response.

I would also like to note that I am uniquely gifted at both complaining and marveling at myself, which makes me the perfect blogger, at least according to the NYTimes.

Ed Emberly writes books for kids which are geared at helping kids learn to draw. His web site has a ton of projects, which can be printed and downloaded at no cost. I'll try these at home and let you know what I think. I think this will work great for Matthew and Elise.

[Link courtesy of b^2.]

So last week, when Elise and Jeannie were sick I took Matthew to pre-school. Once a week, I guess, the parents sit in a room and have a parenting class. They spent the first 45 minutes or so in a time they labeled "Joys and Concerns". During the "Joys and Concerns" part of the show, people told one awful story after another about children melting down in stores while other shoppers just stared, dysfunctional family gatherings, siblings walloping each other, and little girls who won't wear their coats or get dressed on schedule.

The saddest thing to me is that I actually enjoyed it a little. I don't know if it was my recent reading of the novel "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk or what but I really enjoyed listening to their stories.

The problem was that I wanted to inject humor into the discussion, which clearly was not on the agenda. I managed to censor myself successfully. Other parents would say something like "I notice children are often needy at six o'clock, maybe you should do you medical transcription later in the night." I wanted to say "Have you thought about vodka on the rocks for breakfast?" or "Your assignment for the week is to start a fight with a stranger."

I shared the only joy of the day. I said I had a nice trip on the train with Matthew. When I said this people just looked at me like I had gone for communion at church and said, "No thanks, I just ate I'm stuffed" or "Do you have the cheesy wafers?"

I have to go to this class more often.

Elise has been going to ice-skating lessons. After the first class Elise confided to Jeannie that she had been frightened the ice would crack and that she would fall into the water and drown. Even with that fear in her mind, she got out there on the ice and followed directions and kept working on her skating and falling skills. Daddy's little girl is a real trooper. We've since reassured her that there is no way she'll drown at the local ice arena as the ice is just inches thick. I think she felt a little less trepidation about yesterday's lesson.