Category Archives: kids

Reasons Your Child Is Not A Rodent

When you have small children along with pets running around your house, it is tempting to group them together. Especially for the following reasons:

They are both cute and cuddly

Just like your cats, your kids will make loud, shriek like noises when they want food or drink

You have to change diapers and litter on a regular basis

Toys for small children bare an uncanny resemblance to doggy toys

Your children may be biters

Once your children get teeth, early on they look a little like beavers

This may make you feel as if you are a bad parent. Comparing your kid to a rodent and/or house pet probably does not win you the Mommy of the Year Award. No matter how endearingly you may think of it.

Last night at bedtime as my daughter screamed like a banshee for several hours, I heard Samuel L. Jackson in my head. Again, no awards will be handed out here. Except to Samuel L. Jackson for a wonderful narration, and of course Adam Mansbach for writing quite possibly the funniest book I have ever read.

But really, what all this got me thinking of is how quickly my daughter is growing up. I no longer can compare her to the house pets or backyard pests. She is a person onto herself. A tiny force to be reckoned with. She is opinionated, vocal, and she can now crawl faster than I can run. She has a head full of hair (that she will absolutely not allow me to style). She tries to pick out her own clothes, and thus ends up wearing stripes and polka dots on a regular basis. She understands what my husband and I tell her, and then promptly disregards it. Her favorite word is “no” and will adamantly shake her head at everything.

Where is the chipmunk I gave birth to?

A Mother With Control Issues



We have all read the articles telling us that anorexia is not really about eating, but about control. Of course there is much more to it than my extremely simplified statement. But I am not here to talk about anorexia.

I am a self proclaimed control freak. I have dealt with the issue in various ways. Years ago in college anorexia was not off the table. Getting rid of my eating disorder did not eliminate my root problems regarding control. For years after finally admitting that I had a problem and working to solve it I feared relapsing into my old ways.

Having kids cured me. Once I was realized how much my kids depend on me I knew I could not become anorexic again. My babies depended on me in the womb for nourishment, and once born they continued depending on me for milk. I knew an anorexic, malnourished body could never hold up to their little demands. I needed to be strong for my children. Further, I needed to be a role model for my children, especially my daughter. Young children mimic everything they see in the home, and that is one behavior I do not wish for her to come into contact with at such an early age.

I no longer fear relapsing into anorexia, but I am still a control freak. Having kids has not cured me of it, but instead has helped me channel my control issues in a different direction. I compulsively clean. It is extremely difficult for me to not clean my house when needed. I have gotten better at it, restricting my cleaning compulsions to only once or twice a week. But I still cannot leave dishes in the sink over night. I have to clean the kitchen after dinner. I need to put things away after I use them.

Part of me wants to believe my cleaning disorder (which is what I am choosing to call it, and is probably not an actual diagnosis), will be beneficial to my children. Seeing their mom put things away and growing up in a tidy house will most likely teach them to be clean themselves. Part of me wonders what it will be like when they are teenagers throwing their clothes, along with everything else, on the floor. What will my reaction be? I would like to think that I will be somewhat tolerant and understanding. I want to believe I may no longer have such control issues by then and all out war will not break loose in our house.

My only solution now is to take it one day at a time. As long as all the cleaning does not drive me completely insane, there is nothing wrong with having a tidy home.

What have your kids taught you about your compulsions?

Would You Let Your Child Wear This?

When I see a leash, I think of a dog. Or at least I used to. If you asked years ago what I thought of children on leashes, I was armed with many quips and smirks about bad/irresponsible parenting. What, these people couldn’t control their own kid? Are they so horrible that they need to stick a leash on them? How demeaning to the child!

Fast forward about five years. Our oldest daughter is starting to walk. Our son will be born in a few weeks. Leashes are looking pretty good. Maybe it is just my curiosity. I have not yet done the research on child leashes nor have I looked at them in stores. However, I am not far from such behavior. I contemplate at least sneaking a peak tomorrow when I am running my errands. Just a look-see at what is out there, and what my options are, especially when there will be two of them, a mere fifteen and a half months apart in age.

I am sure you have all seen them. They are either little harnesses strapped to the kid, or a version I have seen lately that entails a mini plush back pack with a protruding cord for the parent to hold on to. Frankly, it is the back pack version that got me thinking down this path. What could be more innocent than having your child wear a cute little back pack?

Double strollers are great, and I love the one I just received (despite my rant against such contraptions just a few months ago), but if I want a free range baby (soon to be babies), maybe a leash will help preserve my peace of mind, or at least keep my kids in one piece as they run circles around mommy at the supermarket.

How do you feel about child leashes?