Mean, Terrible, Awful. Mom.

Saturday, April 16, 2005

LF and the lefty factor.

I am not left handed by nature. I taught myself to write backwards in high school to irk teachers, and learned that in your brain, backwards and left handed are done the same for a right handed person. Now I write more legibly than some natural lefties I've known. In my family, left hand dominance is common. Out of my mother and her 4 siblings there is one, and out of my father and his four siblings there is one. I also have a left handed brother, and a left handed cousin. I have left handed friends, and LF's biodude was left handed. When LF showed signs of being left handed as a baby I was assured that it didn't mean anything. The first time he picked up a crayon and touched it to the paper, I was sure. Being as lefty savvy as I assumed I was, I didn't worry about the challenges ahead in teaching LF to write his letters and draw his shapes. If anything, this thinking made the actual teaching process harder. I may have started earlier, in hopes of having him ready for school had I not been so cinfident in my own left handed ability. It turns out that we are far from even making a semi-straight line. His letter "A" is all squiggly, as though penned by someone who had more than one too many drinks. I remember the challenges my mother had with my own left handed brother, and now I worry about him falling behind his classmates in kindergarten because things will be harder for him. I try to allow myself the luxury of thinking that things will be fine, and that there are plenty of left handed kids that do fine. Unfortunately, worrying is one of my strongest faults. I wonder how other parents do it. So, blogosphere, do any of you have lefty kids? How do you help them out?

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

A little about the Little Fascist....


Little Fascist at the Park of Terror. Posted by Hello

I never thought about making a post with his information, I guess in all the fun I just forgot all about it! Thanks to Ladybird for reminding me! Little Fascist is almost 4 1/2 now, and not in school. He does start school this fall, which scares the pants off of this mean mommy! He's left handed, loves superheroes, and has a "thing" for waitresses. He thoroughly enjoys watching Supernanny, because he likes to watch other kids misbehave. He likes to go shopping, loves shoes, has lived in three states, was born in a hospital in such a crummy neighborhood that his grandfather's van was broken into twice while I was in labor, and is subway savvy.

I also suppose now would be a good time to give you an idea about me, Mean Mommy. I think it's fabulously threatening with uppercase M's. Oh, now don't go closing the window, it's not bad, really! I had LF 10 days after my 18th birthday. His bioguy and I were crazy punk rock teenagers in New York City (though bioguy lived in Texas until he met me) and we weren't going to slow down too much just because we had a baby. We took him out all the time after he was two weeks old, and he had a lot of cool people around him in the beginning. As time went on I became less "PUNK RAWK!!!!!!!!" Bioguy and I parted ways when the powers that be threw Skabby into the mix and I fell for him. Bioguy became bitter, immature, and lazy. We've not seen him in 18 months or so now, and that is just fine with us. I do not abuse LF. I know someone was thinking it, and that's okay. I am mean though, I do terrible things that no mother should do, but I just can't help it really. If LF is throwing a fit at the park I turn and tell him that he can stay there, and I'll be going home. It's mean, but it works. If we weren't all cuddly and affectionate all the time I might be worried that I was damaging the poor kid. I don't go home without him. This may not be the kindest form of discipline, but it works for us. I also apologize any time I feel I went over the line with him. Sometimes a joke goes too far, and that is in order. No parent is perfect. I also call myself a Mean Mommy because I am not afraid to say "no." With so many kids running amok these days I think "no" is a necessary evil. It's healthier for him to go without sometimes. Without toys, or candy, or other frivolous items. He is not denied food, or love, or necessities. Really, I am just trying my best at this thing we do when we have children. Rest assured that my child shared in my quirky sense of humor, and is not being scarred by my hiding from him while he is in the restroom. We're having fun, and he is as well adjusted as any person from my lineage can be. So please, relax. Being mean isn't as bad as you thought it was. Now, please enjoy the rest of your visit, and do come again, we really like having you around!

Little Fascist carries the Plague

That's right, he has a cold. He normally fights off illness, and is rarely sick at all unless he caught it from me. I thought it might be allergies, but its less sneeze and more phlegmy cough. We're now blowing through boxes of tissues (only the ones in the boxes with the pictures of "The Incredibles" though, as superhero colds can only be subdued by supers, of course) and tearing our way though those amazing triaminic cough strips. It is here that I announce my love for Triaminic brand medicines. Like most children, LF hates medicine. That's just how it is. When he was two years old he got sick and needed fever reducer. We ran to the store and I hoped that he was old enough for chewables, and he was. Since then he gives us no trouble with ibuprofen. Then he got a cold. We scoured the store for cold medicines and stumbled upon the Triaminic chewable cold medicines. He was too young to take them, according to the box, but we were desperate and decided to try it anyway. It worked, he was now taking cold medicine with no fuss. Then, this past year, he gets sick again. The neighborhood drugstore is all out of all kinds of Triaminic chewables so we try the liquid stuff. No good. So we just rought it out through that cold. This time around, however, there are these new strips that actually work for COUGHS and not just everything else. So we shell out the $7.50 for a box of 16 of these bad boys and tear into one... he takes it, sweet pete he took it. Now his cough is drying down and his nose in drying up. Unfortunately, his sleep schedule is now all wacky, and he is still kicking around in his room. Ugh. We're fighting the plague though, and this time we might win.