Peanut Butter Bullies - What Is Happening with Our Kids?

In a world where parents seem to go out of their way to protect their children from imagined dangers, the real danger seems to be right in front of us...with kids themselves.

How did we come to a place where our kids don't care or don't seem to be aware of the consequences of their actions?

Take these 2 stories (there are many more) of kids smearing peanut butter on allergic kids:

• Bullies use Peanut Butter to Threaten Kids with Allergies
• Peanut Butter & Deadly Taunts

I don't believe for a second that deep in their minds, these kids knew exactly what the potential ramifications of their actions were. When I was a kid, we didn't really know about these allergies, but in school's today the awareness is everywhere with peanut products being completely banned in many classrooms. These kids know EXACTLY why and what can happen if a child who is allergic is exposed to peanuts.

Now, I'm not going on a big peanut butter diatribe. In fact, it annoys me to no end when I'm rushed in the morning and I can't throw together a peanut butter sandwich for his lunch. But still, I gotta follow the rules.

What I don't understand is how bullies get this way? Are kids just no longer responsible for their actions, are they allowed to lie...what is it?

In my short near 7 years as a parent, I've observed some parent of bully behavior that might contribute:

• Parents that defend or cover up for their children, even when they've done wrong.
• Parents who allow the older siblings to bully the younger, so that the youngest ends up lashing out at kids at school.
• Parents that bully their own kids.

I don't know. I guess I keep having to repeat that I'm not a perfect parent (or a perfect anything, for that matter), but I've raised my kids not to make stupid decisions like this...and if they did make them, they'd fully understand the serious consequences of doing so.

Do You Say "Best Friends" or Just Try to Be One?

"Best friend," has never been a regular phrase in my vocabulary. Even as a kid when every girl seemed to have a new best friend each and every week, I just tried to be a good friend to those who were special to me. I didn't feel the need to put a label on it back then and I still don't.

Now, I'm definitely not saying I'm a perfect friend. Not by a long shot as I definitely have my own quirks. I just think that the way we act is much more important than that "feel good" things we say in a relationship.

It's something I've been thinking about because I have a friend who has been throwing around the words a lot lately. Personally, I feel like it's just a way to "make it okay" that in the past year our relationship was put much lower on the priorities in her life. Still, when I was told in a few emotional moments "you're my best friend", I appreciated it and cut her some slack.

But today, those two words were used against me. I was told in anger, "but you're supposed to be my best friend."

What did I do to make her say that, you may ask? Well, that would be a terribly long story and you'd only get my side of it (but for the record, she was sooooo wrong and what I did - or more accurately...what I didn't do - she's been doing to me for a long time). Besides, it takes me away from the main point of what I wanted to ask you. :-)

Is "best friend" a regular part of your vocabulary and have you thought about how those words affect your relationship?

Brad Paisley - Cooler Online Video

If you haven't seen this video, you might get a laugh.

It has William Shatner and Maureen McCormick in it (Marsha Brady) as well as a few other people you may recognize.

There are a few other funny one's too, they had a contest.

There is no embed link but you can see it here.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7GcVnhNjWV0&feature=PlayList&p=15A8DF8556E24188&index=1

I Got a New Toy

My husband bought it for me as an Anniversary gift, but he let me pick it out because he figured he'd probably choose the wrong one (he was right by the way - he told me which one he probably would have bought). So he just took me to the digital camera section of the store and told me to pick one. I thought we were going there to look at TV's again (LOL) so there was still a bit of a surprise factor even though I picked my own gift.

I have a smaller convenient, easy to carry camera, but this is a bigger, "can do more things" camera. Here's a picture I took with it. Nothing fancy, but I like it because my other camera, while it has a nice big LCD screen, does not take pics in black and white.


...and yep, this is the baby...4 months in this pic.

5 months in this one - so fast


I'm loving the camera so far. Plus it helps to have cute subject matter. ;)

If You Can't Clean Your Own House...

Today's Montell Williams show featured families that were hoping to get onto the Clean House show to help transform their pig-sty-style homes into much cleaner and organized homes (details of today's episode are here).

I'm sorry, but I was particularly disturbed by the family who not only lived in but complete clutter, but utter filth and wanted to get on the show because they were looking to adopt a baby.

The woman even acknowledged that no adoption agency would give them a baby if they saw their current state of their home.

Excuse me?

You want someone else to come in and fix your house (a temporary solution), so you can get a baby? People who live in filth don't suddenly become clean because someone else cleans up their house.

Now if people want to be messy, so be it. As I ranted about this a few moments ago, someone pointed out:

"I hear you, but as a chronically messy person, I must say I'm a good mom. Just not a good housekeeping role model."

I can accept that, but if someone is trying to adopt a child and have to mislead the agency into thinking they're something they're not - that's where I have a problem.

Or maybe I'm just an unreasonable person with neat-freak tendencies??

Spring Cleaning - have you done yours yet?

It has been absolutely beautiful here for the past week, a little bit of heaven!

So I've been in the mood to get things freshened up and in order, something about fresh, spring air breezing through the house does that to a person.

Today it is raining, which somewhat "dampens" the feeling, but gives a greater opportunity to get some indoor cleaning done.

I've put up a few articles that you may find helpful

10 Spring Cleaning Tips - From Boring to Beautiful

25 Spring Cleaning Tasks That You Can Do In 10 Minutes

I've also got the brand spanking new iShine Community up, a project that I have wanted to put together literally for years, but hadn't found the right platform to do it. I finally did!

I have put up a spring cleaning forum there as well as a bunch of others.

And you will also find my Spring Into Spring Cleaning Challenge group there as well. It requires a purchase, but it is good value, with it you can do your spring cleaning in 20 minutes per day - with lots of support and accountability along the way.

And you won't need to wait for a rainy day, or spend a beautiful day indoors to do it!

Puppies with Momma

By request, here are pictures of the puppies with their momma. The puppies are up and about and have their eyes open and everything. Such a cute stage!



It's feeding time!




MY puppy


Climbing on Mama - The one sitting on the right is the runt, so cute!

Protective or Over-Protective? - Can We Ease Back a Tad, Parents?

After last weeks story about the New York Mom that let her 9-year old take the public transit home on his own, I've been thinking more on how, as a society, we've wound ourselves up into a big tizzy of fear and worry over everything, including our own kids.

As a result, I've posted an article at Mom's Talk Network that asks parents to really look at their behavior and allow a little more growth and independence for our kids.

The article references an interesting piece by the National Crime Prevention Council that attempts to put our fears at ease and show us that crime isn't getting worse, but our paranoia is. The article includes some good common sense tips for keeping our families safe, without resulting to chaining our children to their sides.

I don't know about you, but I want to raise self-sufficient, confident and street-smart kids. What do you say parents, can we let go...just a little?