Hello? yeah, I'm here....um........nothing.

Two weeks later....

Ahem, am I allowed to tell you how busy I am? How I have tried to do more this year to make homeschooling more fulfilling and rewarding? How my house is a wreck and there are three kids in soccer, three in Scouts and I have to occasionally get food for the locusts that breeze through the pantry? Truth be told it doesn't take long to post and entry in my blog, the harder part is coming up with a topic to discuss which allows me to post a thoughtful yet admittedly bias opinion. Perhaps the key word is thoughtful, the mere fact that I am able to be thoughtful on occasion seems miraculous to me, so when I get the opportunity, I do take it, it just doesn't come along very often. So, may I use any of the above excuses? No? ah well, for what it's worth the frequency by which I claim 'busy' as an excuse is getting old to me too.

So where to begin? First with a clarification, ( my first evah!) I posted last time about day care kids, I know better than to stereotype families and kids and I thought I had qualified everything sufficiently, but evidently, I may have given a misperception about an important point that I need to clarify. I do not think that day care kids are sad....my point was that I am sad to think of day care kids. Yes, I know they are (like most all kids), as cherished and loved as my own, I simply was trying to post on my feelings about how I might react if I had to put my kids in day care, and feeling sad that there are sacrifices made to the importance of being together, that's all. It would make me so profoundly sad to have to turn my kids over to someone else as our time with our children is so brief on this earth anyway. I meant no offense or criticism of life choices, we all work with the hands we are dealt, as best as we are able ( well most of us). Okay? are we clear? Are we good? Terrific.

Now on to the post:
There I was, fresh off a grueling work out (ha ha ) showering at the gym. As I turned off my shower, I hear a woman next to me....(wait for it).....ANSWER HER CELL PHONE........IN.THE.SHOWER. Now I happen to be all about communication, I think cell phones are the bees knees, it is hard to imagine a device that is more convenient and helpful, yet pervasive, in our society. But frankly, I think we all need to take a huge step backwards. A woman answered the cell phone in the shower. Does anyone else find that.....unbelievable? Now before you pepper me with all sorts of reasons why she might answer ( awaiting a doctor's call, needs to pick up a child. etc) I get it, there are instances that having a phone is vital and so so so so helpful. But, this was the woman's entire conversation "Hello... yeah, I'm here... um nothing really, I am in the shower...oh about 20 minutes.. OK, I'll talk to you then....yup....bye" Now if she was awaiting a important call, that was NOT it, why did she answer, she must have looked at the number. I mean can't you wait a few minutes to finish cleaning yourself. Are you oh so important (or egotistical) (or needy) that you think someone cannot wait a FEW minutes to be graced with your response? that you might be able to get a message and perhaps call back? that maybe, a call could....WAIT??? gasp, Perhaps we need to place some limits on the intrusiveness of our cell phones and what we deem as appropriate.

Now, I own a cell phone, I occasionally use it. I received it 10 years ago when I was preggers with my first child (umm OK maybe 11 years ago) and I have upgraded the phone a few times but have the same plan: $19.00 a month, 60 minutes of talk, no texts, per month. I have gone over my allotment of talk only 2 months ( consecutive months in 2006 when my land line was in Verizon hell). I do not like my phone, rarely have it with me and if I do, chances are it hasn't been charged or I have forgotten to turn it on. I realize that as I have my children with me most of the time this is a luxury I am able to have and I understand I am on one end of a spectrum. I do not expect everyone to follow my oh so sage advise to ditch their phones and live more in the moment but please, can we come up with a few sacrosanct rules to follow ( unless we are talking life and death)?

1) No cell phones in bathrooms...that includes the toilet AND the shower.

2)No cell phones in restaurants (at the table). You really do speak louder when you are on them even if you don't think you do, ( you do!).

3) No cell phones while working out, especially while participating in a group exercise class. ( Yes, this happens way more frequently than you might imagine) Also, treadmill and other exercise equipment should be free of talk unless the person in next to you working up a sweat as well. If your call is important enough to answer, then move your lazy self out in a common area, I mean you ARE there to move about yes?

4) Doctor offices or perhaps waiting rooms in general ( please get up and walk away).

5) Please, never answer your phone while you are in the middle of a conversation with someone else. Basically, you are telling that person that a new, more important, interesting, person has come along and you prefer to talk to them.

and finally, I know I will get some flack for this one but what the hey:

6) Driving. I mean really, how often is that conversation worth the risk? Yeah Yeah I know, you are careful, you slow down, you drive fine, you pay attention, it is no different than any other distraction. I get it, we all rationalize this one. But I doubt anyone can honestly tell me they have never drifted off and lost attention during a call, (yes, only for a moment and nothing happened) but please, I run, and I almost get nailed every day I am out there... Odds are that luck will run out eventually. Hang up and drive your car.

Life is too short to ignore your surroundings, to navigate this planet plugged into another realm where the people you talk to are not around you is really bad. Being impolite or rude is one aspect of the overuse of cell phones but do we not lose a bit of ourselves and our lives and our experiences as we fall into an electronic void? Life is too short and life is too fun. I mean really, is that call SO important that you must answer it? Cell phones (all phones for that matter) ought to be there for OUR convenience, not the other way around, you do not HAVE to answer the phone when it rings. Now don't even get me started on texting....

See you later dear….

Well I sit here in the library of my local Elementary School, yes they do allow homeschoolers in the doors, we aren’t contagious as far as they are concerned (if they only knew). I am coming to you tonight from my daughter’s Daisy meeting. For the uninformed, Daisies is the first level of Girl Scouts. After 2 years as Daisies they become Brownies, for 2 years, and then the final exalted position of Girl scout. Now Jenny being the first girl in the family this is a whole new world, I have had years of Cub Scouts. For the equally uninformed, Cub Scouts is the first level of the Boy Scout branch. They start as Cubbies in 1st grade ( or 6 years old to be more specific) and progress through Tiger, Bear, Wolf, then 2 years of Webelos ( I know crazy right but it means: We'll Be Loyal Scouts).



At any rate, I am rambling tonight, appropriate I guess as I have been totally crazy today, but I walked into the school ( 6:03pm yes, I was late- ugh), and there was a dad picking his kids up from the afterschool YMCA program and there was one lone kid left in the cafeteria. Now, I know that many, many kids are in daycare. In fact more than not I would wager, but…. I admit, I was a bit struck. Today, like most days, I have spent the entire day with my kids. (Yes I know, to many of you this is not a palatable choice, and I myself can wax poetic about the drawbacks of this but,) tonight, I began to realize this thing, that is so often required of families, this…… sacrifice, that happens every day, is terribly sad. I understand that many families have no other choice. Through circumstance, or luck, situation or misfortune, there are many single parents who must work full time to support their families. Other families need both salaries, and some families choose to work to get the extra benefits of more money. But looking at the real life result of day care I was profoundly affected. This child went off to school by 8:30 ( most likely earlier, perhaps as early as 7am) and then had a full day of school, followed by a couple of hours after school , in day care, before being picked up to go home. Maybe 10-11 hours a day spent away form the family. How many hours are actually spent with mom and dad?......three, four? and what gets squeezed into that time? Eating, bathing, homework? On an average week they spend what, 15 hours with their awake child? Maybe 20? Wow. What has happened to our society to where we must outsource our children to other people? Don’t get me wrong, many families do not have another choice, but it doesn’t mean it is not a profoundly sad fact that it is so very common. I may resent my children at times for their demands on my every second; I may complain at the intrusiveness of their ever present needs; I may rue the day I decided it is good policy to try to answer every endless question, but I simply cannot even image handing them over to someone else to do all these things. The day will come soon enough when my children will be off and gone. I want to put that off as long as possible. Children need their parents, and need to be able to learn from them. Childhood is too short to miss out on and once it’s gone, you can never get it back. I feel blessed that I can make the sacrifices rather than making them sacrifice me.