One More Parenting Article . . .

. . . although this one would definitely fall under the category of "what not to do". I would entitle it "The World's Most Selfish Woman Discusses Motherhood" . Is it a joke? At first I thought it must be, since the picture of the author and her two boys shows kids who are clearly about 3 and 5, while the article talks about them being 10 and 12. But maybe that's the last time she bothered to sit down and have a picture taken with them. I guess that would be boring to her. Go ahead--read it. I'll wait . . .


Am I a lazy, superficial person because I don't enjoy packing up their sports kit, or making their lunch, or sitting through coffee mornings with other mothers discussing how Mr Science (I can't remember most of the teachers' names) said such and such to Little Johnny and should we all complain to the headmaster.

Well, in a nutshell, yes. She really is. But not because she doesn't want to play with her children all the time or center her entire life around them. I have often said that we consider our children to be welcome additions to our family, but not the center. Although I do play with them, I also teach them how to entertain themselves, and I expect them to do so, so that I can get done all the other things that I have to do, like cook, clean, blog, etc. LOL! I would certainly say that we include our children in our life and our activities, which makes the activities even richer for us, as we experience them also through our childrens' eyes. I simply can't imagine not being there to experience their joys and sorrows, and I would never willingly pass those moments off to a stranger becuase I thought they were boring, since they happened at a soccer game or whatever.

This woman seems to feel that nothing having to do with the raising of children is rewarding. ("And yet many women have spent years studying and then working so that we would not have to do a job as menial as full-time motherhood.") She thinks her kids are boring!! Wow. My children are many things, including exasperating at times, but they are not boring. It is never boring to see them grow and learn. We were playing with Anna a few nights ago. Bob was holding her and every so often he would tap one of her hips. You could practically see the signal traveling along the nerves up to her brain--"Hmm . . . something touched me . . . I should look and see what it is" and her head would slowly turn in that direction. We were cracking up, which made her laugh. No, that is not rocket science, but it sure is fun! This woman seems to feel that only she is interesting. Maybe her colleagues are secretly wishing they didn't have to go out to lunch with her and listen to her talk about her shoe purchases and her hair highlights!

You know, there is absolutely nothing that says a couple has to produce children. There are women who have decided that they enjoy their career too much and so have chosen not to have children, and again, there's nothing wrong with that. But to have not just one child, but two, and then to conclude, IN A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE for heaven's sake, that they are too boring to be bothered with, is so incredibly pathetic as to be beyond words. Maybe her children would have been more interesting if she herself has been more interesting. There's a thought I bet she never had!

This article, if it is in fact not a joke, made me so sad. If her children grow up and have normal family lives with children, I can imagine them telling their own children, "Yes, you do have a grandma. She's in a nursing home because it was boring take care of her. Now we don't ever visit her because it is much too boring to listen to her go on and on about herself and her problems. Without us there, we are simply forcing her to think of more creative ways to entertain herself." What a selfish, shallow woman, and I'm sure she will reap what she has sown.