I am a writer and a mom who writes a parenting column for the local newspaper and this is my first attempt at blogging. I have to admit that I'm skeptical about this new form of communicating with the world and I'm also skeptical that anyone would read this. It feels a little like throwing a message in a bottle and then tossing it out to sea.
I have two boys, ages 8 and 10, and I'm struggling with all the usual dilemmas: work versus parenting versus personal time versus sleeping time, worrying about just about everything from global warming to parent teacher conferences.
This week, I am recuperating from Halloween and still sneaking into my children's Halloween bags to steal their candy. My nightime eating habbits are definitely in conflict with my attempts to get healthy by walking and doing yoga. I'm also looking at a crazy schedule that seems destined to get crazier over the next month. My friend wants me to take tap dancing lessons with her. How do I tell her that I'm already tap dancing as hard as I can? I'm signed up to work at the PTO book fair at my sons' school but I've already had to move appointments around to do that. You get the picture.
I interrupted two moms on the schoolyard yesterday and one mom said to me, "We're talking about teenagers and sex. We're convinced all teenage girls are having sex." Yikes. I can't even go there.
On Saturday, we took the kids to see a local production of "Beauty and the Beast," and we discussed the meaning on the way home. We talked about how it's all about how Beauty fell in love with the Beast because she got to know him and she turned him back into a prince. "Is that what it was like for you and Daddy?" my younger son wanted to know. "No, your father was a prince," I said. "Then he turned into a beast after you got married," he said. We all roared with laughter.
My younger son says he wants to get married when he gets older because "I want someone to keep me company" and "I want to have children." I told him he should make sure he's in love and date a lot of girls first. He's only 8. He has some time.