Take a minute to read about the organization. Take a few more to read about the beautiful girls.
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The unimaginably heartbreaking loss of Sarah, Lily and Grace Badger in a tragic Christmas morning fire left us all feeling completely stunned.
They were children. Lily was 9. Twins, Sarah and Grace, were 7. They were part of our community. They went to the same nursery school as our kids and played at apple seeds. Their father, Matthew Badger, started a foundation in their honor. The Lily Sarah Grace Fund supports what his daughters loved most - art. The foundation is challenging and empowering teachers at underfunded public elementary schools to use the arts in their curriculum. Their mission is incredible. Read it here. Stroller Traffic was the first to bring the foundation to our attention. Much more information can be found on the Lily Sarah Grace Fund site.
Take a minute to read about the organization. Take a few more to read about the beautiful girls.
Take a minute to read about the organization. Take a few more to read about the beautiful girls.
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2
Our first guest blogger (Craig Schlanger) is up this week. Here he goes...
Why they like Mom better...
Lots of reasons. Why not start at the beginning? In utero bonding, nutrition, and of course, the shared birthing experience. Standing next to them in the delivery room with a pit in your stomach really doesn’t put you in the game. You’re starting on the parenting pine (that is ESPN vernacular for “the bench”). You’re backing up Derek Jeter…which means barring injury or the more common “rest days”, meaningful at bats are few. Jeter plays tired and hurt…and so does Mom. Quite honestly, I really am ineffective when tired and quite difficult to be around. When I’m hurt or sick, I’m out. Chalk it up to biology or mommy wiring, but Dad has no shot at number one from the beginning. Its science and I don’t fight it, I accept this.
In the end, this wiring difference really manifests in one human character trait – Patience. Parenting is patience and Mom has more. It’s why she commandeers the art projects, bakes the cookies, tolerates the need to band aid a week old scratch (band aids are for blood) and responds to the 2 am calls for water. Sure, when healthy and well rested, I definitely pull my weight…but I’m not mom. I get it. I know my limitations and I actually profess to have commendable patience…for a dad. (I actually own a children’s play space.)
Here is where my occasional impatience gets us as a family. Make it work for you and your home.
My occasional impatience drives some order in our house. We move faster as a unit, we get to bed on time, we prioritize rest and sleeping habits (this is the key to life) and we work through some of our issues without mom’s “understanding and compassion”.
My occasional impatience also makes my boys happy. “Let’s just stop for pizza tonight.” “Who wants to skip brushing teeth and just jump into bed?” “DVD anyone?” At first, confusion, but now they expect some level of mischievous parenting from Dad and they think that is pretty cool…and “kid-like”.
In the end, Mom is Mom and she drives the bus. But Dad isn’t quite the pigeon…he gets to drive on occasion. Who am I to argue with human physiology? I’m never going to have the patience to make Oreo truffles, sing the ABC’s over and over to a crying baby or allow my iPhone to be riddled with kid’s apps. So I don’t get upset when our (almost) 2 year old cries for a minute when I grab him from my wife’s arms, or when my older ones ask for “mom to put us to bed”. I can’t compete, and in my mind, I’m not supposed to.
3
Here is what we want to write our next blog entry about…
The fact that we have no time to write our next blog entry.
Who has the time to write…for pleasure?
After 2 glasses of wine into the night (ok, 3) at least one of us is thinking that all of you parents out there are feeling the same thing.
We are so crunched for time.
Not enough time to exercise (aaaaah).
Brain is spinning with kid appointments and classes to remember -- Day. After. Day.
Husband asking why you are not focusing when you sit down for dinner.
Kids wondering why you didn’t hear them the first two times they called your name (ok you heard…you just didn’t have time to answer before they called your name again!).
TIME.
That is the theme.
When you look at either of our computers you find an outlook calendar filled with appointment boxes with almost no white space in between.
That means no time to actually get from one thing to the next.
The image of a hamster running on a wheel comes into one of our minds at least once a day.
And hamsters are like mice. We don’t like mice.
AQB:
This time last week...
My son’s 2 year old doctor’s appointment sort of melded in my mind with the an apple seeds interview I had minutes prior. So I can explain to Jack when he is older the reason his weight and height are not totally accurate is that I was thinking of whether we should hire Becky or Joyce.
Isn’t every mom thinking of 17 other things at any given moment?
AS:
This time last week...
I took some time to run some errands (alone) to get our family ready for our spring break trip.
Instead of feeling totally accomplished, I felt a tiny bit accomplished and…totally guilty.
Why?
Because Sam and Ari were off from school and I was not doing something (FUN) with them for those 90 minutes. (Somehow that fact that 3 out of my 4 errands were for them did not make me feel any better.)
So sometimes when we are (physically) with them we are not (mentally) with them and sometimes even when we are not (physically) with them we are (mentally) with them.
Either way – we are not ever physically or mentally alone.
Does every mom wait until the quiet hours of their kids’ bedtime to even think about themselves?
Does every mom makes the lists we make (that barely get checked off)?
Or is it just us?
Are dads better at finding time for themselves than we are?
Are we asking too many questions in this blog???
(Please say you did not come here for answers...)
How can we maximize the limited time in our day for us?
Who is that you speak of?
Oh, right.
Me.
Who has the time to write…for pleasure?
After 2 glasses of wine into the night (ok, 3) at least one of us is thinking that all of you parents out there are feeling the same thing.
We are so crunched for time.
Not enough time to exercise (aaaaah).
Brain is spinning with kid appointments and classes to remember -- Day. After. Day.
Husband asking why you are not focusing when you sit down for dinner.
Kids wondering why you didn’t hear them the first two times they called your name (ok you heard…you just didn’t have time to answer before they called your name again!).
TIME.
That is the theme.
When you look at either of our computers you find an outlook calendar filled with appointment boxes with almost no white space in between.
That means no time to actually get from one thing to the next.
The image of a hamster running on a wheel comes into one of our minds at least once a day.
And hamsters are like mice. We don’t like mice.
AQB:
This time last week...
My son’s 2 year old doctor’s appointment sort of melded in my mind with the an apple seeds interview I had minutes prior. So I can explain to Jack when he is older the reason his weight and height are not totally accurate is that I was thinking of whether we should hire Becky or Joyce.
Isn’t every mom thinking of 17 other things at any given moment?
AS:
This time last week...
I took some time to run some errands (alone) to get our family ready for our spring break trip.
Instead of feeling totally accomplished, I felt a tiny bit accomplished and…totally guilty.
Why?
Because Sam and Ari were off from school and I was not doing something (FUN) with them for those 90 minutes. (Somehow that fact that 3 out of my 4 errands were for them did not make me feel any better.)
So sometimes when we are (physically) with them we are not (mentally) with them and sometimes even when we are not (physically) with them we are (mentally) with them.
Either way – we are not ever physically or mentally alone.
Does every mom wait until the quiet hours of their kids’ bedtime to even think about themselves?
Does every mom makes the lists we make (that barely get checked off)?
Or is it just us?
Are dads better at finding time for themselves than we are?
Are we asking too many questions in this blog???
(Please say you did not come here for answers...)
How can we maximize the limited time in our day for us?
Who is that you speak of?
Oh, right.
Me.