Peer pressure in kindergarten... oh my!

I am sure I've blogged about similar issues before, but this one is more specific and distressing to me ... I hope I don't bore you before you get to my questions at the end ...


As a child, I had a few Barbies, which mostly sat around neglected unless I decided to take them for a spin in the purple Barbie Corvette.

I did have My Little Ponies, which were somewhat girly, but otherwise I just wanted to watch the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and She-Ra cartoons after school.

Rainbow Brite? Strawberry Shortcake?? Please. Whatever. I couldn't have cared less about that junk.

And now my daughter, of whom I have been so proud because she is just like me, is bending to the peer pressure of Hannah Montana.

Having only seen one episode, all Lillie really knows about it is that she is a cool rock star who wears a wig when she sings so people won't know it's her.

Having only seen one episode, all I really know about it is that she got a credit card from her dad for 'emergencies' and spent boatloads on 'emergency' clothing items and accessories at the mall.

I am not in favor.

But Shrinidhi, Karis and Molly (all in her class at school) have the backpacks. And the shirts. And they go around singing "The Best of Both Worlds" on the playground. And so Lillie looks at her purple backpack with flowers and decides she doesn't like it because it isn't a cool Hannah Montana backpack.

Now. I don't think that moms who allow Hannah Montana are bad; they are just different from me, and that is okay. But I have my own standards. And, being something of a hippie, I have my ideals that I want to pass on to my daughter. And I don't think they include Hannah Montana. So here are my questions, and I welcome your opinions on these:

1. Am I doing my poor child a disservice by keeping her away from the popular tv shows? I mean, almost every 4- or 5-year-old girl at the preschool has something Hannah Montana that I've seen. Am I alienating her from her peers?

2. Do you think I'm trying to force my own identity onto her? Just because I think it's silly, is it okay for me to tell her that without letting her form her own opinion?

3. Do you think she will rebel against me for this later? I know this is a small thing, but really ... think about it ... all of those 1980s yuppies -- who were their parents? You got it: the hippies. In my efforts to pass on my values to her, am I encouraging her to choose the opposite direction when she is older?

I am sure I am overreacting about this. But these things are really important to me. I want my kids to be able to relate to other kids their age without compromising their standards. I want my kids to share my vision. I want them to say, when they are grown, "I am who I am because of my mother," NOT, "I am who I am despite my mother."

Being a mom is hard! No thank you, Miley Cyrus!

Please comment!!

Parenting epiphany at the pumpkin patch

It's funny how sometimes we can have a valuable learning experience in an unexpected situation. Last week, I went with Sophie's class on their Pumpkin Patch field trip. We had a hay ride and saw lots of cool animals, and the kids got to pick pumpkins to keep. There was also a place for them to play with swings, hay stacks for climbing, and a small hay maze. Sophie loved the hay maze and kept going in again and again. Here is my lesson learned:

The first time Sophie went into the maze, she didn't have any trouble at all finding her way through. She maneuvered it easily, making her way quickly toward the exit. I thought that surely she would have more fun if she spent some more time exploring it first, so I encouraged her away from the exit and back into the maze. She walked around a little bit more before going back to the exit.


Then she wanted her assistant teacher to go through it with her, so she led and Betty followed. Again, Sophie went straight through the maze, but before going out the right way, she turned and went the same way that I had encouraged her to go before ... and she got lost. The third time she went through the maze, she was headed the right way, then turned again at that spot and had to find her way out.

So, here is my lesson learned from this experience: My kids watch everything I do, and they want to follow in my footsteps. I need to be careful where I lead them!! Also, even though Sophie was on the right path, it only took one little wrong turn to get her all turned around and confused. How easily we are led astray!

Maybe now that I have written this, I can stop feeling guilty about it!

Just in time for flu season!

Check out this article on CNN titled: "How Some Women Never Get Sick" ... there are some interesting ideas in here! And since I have already used ALL of my sick days at the preschool, I'm thinkin' I might have to implement a couple of these!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/10/01/healthmag.women.sick/index.html

CELEBRATE, good times come on!!

Three things to celebrate today:
-- I had a great day! One of the teachers I 'assist' was absent, and I taught the class all by myself from 8 - 2. I was nervous about it, but I felt like it went really well. It was easier than going back and forth all day between the two classes! THEN, after getting Sophie, I took the kiddos for a walk around the block. We saw some acquaintances of ours (a mom and her 3 kids) playing in their front yard, and we stayed for a little while and played with them. Then I came home and fixed dinner and did bedtime all by myself. Bedtime was great! The kiddos went willingly to bed (except Lillie, who I am allowing to stay up late and read), and I feel good about letting Wes sleep all afternoon to get rested for his 11pm - 7am shift in the ER. So, yay for me, doin' stuff today!
-- Lillie is about to hit her 100-book mark on goodreads.com! Woohoo!!! It is so exciting to have a little girl who gets so excited about reading!! She is reading book # 100 right now: "Trick or Treat, Danny!" by Edith Kunhardt. We will be putting it on goodreads when she is done. (If you want to be her goodreads friend, check her out! http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1311187
-- And last but NOT LEAST!!!!!!!!!!!! -- Wes got his first request for an interview today!!!! At San Antonio!!!!!!! We are thrilled! He is going to schedule it for mid-December, so hopefully he will have one or two other interviews to practice before it! ;) Oh, pray, pray, pray for this to happen!!! It's so nerve-racking and terrifying and exciting all at the same time!

Lillie is on the last page of her book ... gotta go post it!