Summer Musings...

It could be the incessant rain, or the fact that I may be feeling like I need some parental training, but I find myself wondering what I could be doing better as a mom to three young children.

Over the past few days, I have been looking at various friend's "Fun in the Sun - Summer 2009" albums and I find myself not having too many of my own to post or even share with others at this point. Yes, we are only a few weeks into the summer but if I had to name this summer so far it would be called 'The Summer That My Kids Decided They Don't Care to Listen To A Word I Say" or "The Summer I Looked Into Behavior-Themed Day Camps For My Children".

Don't they have an aisle in Barnes & Noble for this problem? I swear I have seen people crouching amongst "those" shelves as I walk by sipping my Chai Tea latte looking for the latest "teen" thriller.... (snickering to myself and lamenting that THOSE parents must not know the first thing about raising children or they wouldn't need a book...)

Well people, the time has come for me to buy up that aisle in full, in fact, I think I'll visit amazon.com later tonight and purchase anything with the keywords "Behavior Modification" or "How to Turn Your Kids Into Robots"......obviously I'm kidding, but you catch my drift......

I have a Facebook account and I love checking in multiple times during the day to see what people are up to etc. Many times, it's mom friends who are posting things like "Making homemade brownies with the kids - we are having so much fun licking the bowl together - LOL!" or "The kids buried me in the sand today and I lost my car keys - guess we are sleeping on the beach tonight - LMAO!" Most of my status updates involve booze, my lack of exercise or the fact that my kids have worn a spot in the carpet on the stairs because the "timeout fairy" has visited us again (you have to put a cute spin on it or people will think you are a monster) ...maybe this is part of my problem.....

So.....my husband and I just put the kids to bed (finally!), after multiple discussions about what things they "lost" today due to bad behavior and I have vowed to start over again tomorrow. I will try not to raise my voice before 10:00 a.m., we'll do a few worksheets together and then maybe we'll make a giant poster that counts down the days until school starts again.......now that sounds like a plan.......