Nerd Dad

I’m a self-proclaimed nerd. This should be nothing new to those of you who know me…I was always much more likely to sit inside than head out for recess. I always loved studying and genuinely enjoyed going to class. Although I’m glad to be done with school, my inner nerd comes out every once in awhile.

I was in a training session for work the other day and we took a learning styles assessment. I love personal assessments, because they teach me to think about my own style in new ways. I don’t think I learned anything groundbreaking from this particular assessment, but there was a section about learning styles and parenting that I thought was interesting. Also, for other nerds out there, you can read more about learning styles and experiential learning here.

We all learn and make sense of the world in different ways. There are four learning styles (learning by doing, learning by experiencing, learning by reflecting, and learning by thinking). You can probably think of your preferred learning style just from the descriptions. When we parent, we will most often teach in the style that we prefer. But are we being sensitive to how our children would like to learn? Or should we try to strengthen weaker styles with our kids? Here is a brief description of the styles for kids:

After reading through the styles, do you have any inclinations about your kids? Of course, the best approach with your kids is using a blend of styles. Interesting stuff, huh? Told you I was a nerd.

 

Working Mom vs Stay At Home Mom

Naomi sent me this article to post on our Facebook page which I will do… but first I have some things that I would like to say on this topic.  I wasn’t planning on writing a post today so this might be a little ranty.

Working Mom (WM) vs Stay At Home Mom (SAHM)

I work.  Darby goes to day care that is about a half-mile from my office and maybe 2 miles from my house.  Before I had Darby I was 100% certain that I wanted to work after she was born.

My maternity leave was three months long.  When Darby turned two-months old it hit me that I’d be going back to work and would not be with her all day.  The thought of sending her to daycare made me cry — just, like, out of the blue I would think about it and cry. (You know you did the same…) I think there is often the assumption that moms who work want someone else to care for their baby for part of the day.  They want to be free of the responsibility and burden of caring for their baby 24/7.  Or they need the money.  For me that was not the case.  I loved having that time with Darby during the day.  Like any mom, I needed a break and having my husband come home from work gave me that.  Working had nothing to do with whether or not I wanted to be with Darby.   I love my job, I work for a very family-friendly organization, but mostly I wanted time in my day to be me.  And FOR ME, working was the best way for me to do that.

***Emphasis on FOR ME***  

I think a lot about how being a WM impacts my family and our future.  My salary is decent and is more than the cost of daycare but that may not be the case once we have two kids.  Should I keep working?  Is it about the money?  Is it about how much I love my job?  What’s best for my kid(s)?

Here’s the big picture FOR ME: I want Darby to be proud of me.  In seventh grade when she has to write a paper on the person she most looks up to, I want it to be me and for good reason… not just because I’m her mom and because that is easier than researching Abraham Lincoln.  I want her to recognize that part of being a good mom to her meant being good to myself.  FOR ME, being good to myself means feeding my brain and challenging myself by working.  I want her to know that being a good wife doesn’t have to mean being Donna Reed, but it can mean being a breadwinner while also being the bread-maker.

I sit around and think about what I want for Darby and it all comes back to one thing: I want her to be herself.  How can I give her the tools to always be herself if I’m not giving myself the tools to do the same?  FOR ME being myself means working.

Then there’s the whole Dad issue… this isn’t only about working/stay-at-home MOMS anymore.  My husband has a higher earning potential than me so he most likely won’t ever be a SAHD.  But… he also has a higher earning potential than where he is now.  We — together — chose a certain lifestyle in favor of money at least for right now.  He could go earn the big bucks but it would mean long hours which would likely mean missing dinner time and bath time and play time… FOR US, this was the right choice.  It has never been and most likely will not ever be an easy choice.

I did say that money isn’t the reason that I work.  But if money were the issue, rather than sending my husband off to earn lots of money and lose time at home, I would continue to work to pay for daycare so that my husband didn’t have to miss out on family time.  No question.

Now… I’ve stayed pretty cool through this whole post.  (Hooray, Me!) But I need to lose my cool for one second.  Few things make me more angry than hearing one parent judge another parent for making a decision that they think is best for their kid(s).  To the judgey WMs and SAHMs (both are guilty): You. Have. No. Right. SHUT YOUR FACE.

Ok.  I’m cool.

FOR YOU the best thing for your family might mean being a SAHM.  Everyone is different.  I would never say that being a WM is better or being a SAHM is better.  I know what was best FOR ME. It is a personal choice and, you know what?  Babies in BOTH situations turn out just fine… and if your kid turns out to be crazy, most likely your being a WM or a SAHM had nothing to do with it.  It may have to do with how you spend the time you DO have with your kid(s).

How do you feel about your choice to be a WM or a SAHM?

 

Overwhelmed

So, I’m a bit overwhelmed.  I have one of those email addresses where they give you the option to “prioritize” certain incoming mail, mark other mail as less important and put stars next to even more mail.  It is meant to keep one organized, but it hasn’t worked out so well for me.  Right now I have almost 150 messages in my “priority” inbox.  I have hundreds in my starred category and literally (I’m not kidding) thousands in my regular mail.  I’m the type that needs lots of time to sit and focus on a task so that I can complete it well.  I’m not a good multi-tasker and I have a hard time getting things accomplished when I only have time to complete part of it.  So, that explains why I have probably 25,000 emails.  I may have time to read the email, but if I don’t have time to respond or follow up on the email right at that moment, then it gets marked as unread so that I know to come back to it.  Invariably, it will be forgotten.  Then if I do come back to it, yup, I get overwhelmed.

At issue as well is my house.  We have had our fair share of school projects that have come home with both kids from preschool.  Most of it I keep.  How could I not??  Now that Seth is in Kindergarten, he is coming home with even more.  This is the real stuff.  Real School.  I can’t possibly throw any of this stuff out.  So my question is . . .now what?  If I can’t keep my virtual world clutter free, how will I ever succeed with my real life one?  Suggestions?  Oh, and when during my hectic life do you propose I find the time to organize all the stuff?

 

The Momitor and Competitive Parenting

We all know one, you know the mom that always knows best, whose child always does this and that at an advanced age and better than your own child. The Momitor. She hits you when you are down with a “well little Johnny can sing his ABCs and he is only 18 months. And did I tell you he started walking at 9 months?” Blah, blah, blah.

So are you one of these moms? Do you constantly put your kid up against your friend’s children? Can’t we all just relax and understand that each of us knows what is right for our own children?

As I sit here and write this I know I am a hypocrite. Over the weekend we ran into a child that was in the home-daycare with my son prior to him switching schools. I watched as the boys interacted and played ball but the Momitor in me noticed that this child, who was older than my son, was not talking. So here I am confessing to the fact that I had a Momitor moment! I mean hey, my son talks and most of the time it is English so surely that other child is delayed or isn’t engaged enough by his parents. Or maybe they are just laid back and they know their child best and how he communicates with them and I should just mind my own business.

I think all moms have a Momitor tendency. We compare growth chart stats, developmental milestones and the like, and at the end of the day we all want to know that our children are developing and growing the same as the rest of their peer group.

 

Late Day

When I was in Middle School we had something called “Late Day”.  Late Day happened twice a week and it was a day when we could choose to stay after school for an hour for an elective.  The best part was that we were old enough to buy a snack like Rolos, Twizzlers and/or a can of soda from the Student Council to eat beforehand.  The electives were varied enough so that everyone who wanted to attend a class could do so.  At 4:30 pm we would either take the late bus home or get picked up by our parents.  Sounds fun, and it was.

What reminded me of Late Days was seeing the parents that have been steadily streaming through my school’s doors today.  You see, many of the kids that go to my school also go to the after school program located at my school.  For some of them, Late Day isn’t 4:30 pm, it is more like 6:00 pm.  For many of them, Late Day is every day.  Now I know that many parents work 9-5 jobs, so 6 is the earliest they can feasibly get to their kids, but I just wonder how that affects the whole dynamic of family time.  I know that when my kids were at their old preschool, I was able to get to them and get home by 4:45.  Earlier if I wanted to.  Now that they are further from my school and it takes more time to get there, get them, get them to agree to come to the car, and get home, we get home later.  Getting home later means that things get pushed later into the night.  Things like dinner, showers (my kids aren’t much into baths), pajamas, books (Maya made a pile higher than Mount Kilimanjaro last night) and bedtime get pushed later because the time they used to have for things like free play, coloring, and riding bicycles is slowly ebbing away.  They need this time to decompress from their day, and frankly so do I.  So I wonder . . . how do the kids that are just leaving school at 6pm deal with it all?  Do they get any family time before it is time to get up the next morning and start all over again?  I guess this is what they call “the daily grind” elementary style.