School "break"

The boys were all home last week on winter break. This should not exist! I think that they should keep the kids in school for that week, after all they are on a roll, why interrupt me? Oops I mean them. :) If you HAVE to release the video game addicts for a week, save it for warmer weather. Heck, release them a week earlier in June, when I can send them outside to argue and fight with each other. For the love of all things good in life, why give them a "break" when it's 10 degrees outside and we are essentally trapped indoors? Unless you want to spend a boat load of moola going to some over priced, over crowded germ fest of an activity. Do I sound jaded? LOL! Sorry, I do enjoy some parts of them having off. I do like not having to pack lunches at night and not having to stand in front of the cold door while watching to be sure they don't kill each other before the bus comes, but other than that, I have decided it just not a good idea.

The kids all being home all week gives me pleanty of time to readdress my parenting flaws and challenges.

1) My boys are ALL completely addicted to video games including PS2, Wii, Psp and Game Boys. When I just had Shane, I had made these time tickets and once they were gone, he was done. Now... well... now, they spend most of their free moments playing these games. I know it's not good for them, I feel though that it will be worse to stop them and have to deal with the "we have nothing to dooooooo" whines and the new game of choice to be rolling around on top of each other. Which I promptly halt, cuz you KNOW someone will get hurt. To which I then have to hear, " you're so mean, you won't let us play video games, you tell us to play and then you yell at us for playing, you're so mean!" The make sure they get that part in there twice for good measure.

2) The video games that I have allowed my kids to play have all turned out to be bad choices. Who knew that a LEGO game would have guns? I guess I should have, they all do after all. Due to my previous lack of Star Wars knowledge, I also thought a Star Wars game would consist of light sabers, not guns. Well, not the case. Turns out that not even an Olympics game is a good choise, cuz when the charactors loose, they pound their feet and get angry that they lost. Nice! And might I add that you think that these games where player 1 and player 2 have to work together towards one common goal would teach team work and cooperation. UMMMMM, not so much, it sounds more like this at my house, "STOP IT, COME OVER HERE, I SAID COME HERE, DROP OUT, D R O P OUT, HEY! WELL... YOU KILLED ME FIRST, I DIDN'T MEAN TO, YES YOU DID, STOP IT, COME HERE." Ahhhhh, team work, how sweet it is???

3) If the sun is even remotely shining, my children believe they do not need coats to go outside, despite the temperature of 24 degrees. (oh, and in the summer, when it's 80 degrees, I have to forse them to go outside??)

4) I am "The meanest mom ever" because I will not let them graze like cows all day long. We have meal times and snack times, just like at school, but for some reason the are always STARVING.

5) Yep, back to my commercial aggrivation. There should not be commercails for Erectil Disfunction on durring a children's program. This time... inquiring minds did want to know what ED meant. And thank you for using the word sextual in the commercail. UGH!

6) Why do they have to shower, it's not like they are going to school????

7) The playroom FULL of bins and bins upon bins of toys is essentially pointless, cuz there is NOTHING to do down there. HMMMM, I'm thinking I see a craft room in my future.

8) My opinion strongly differs from theirs in that they belive bed time should be extended by hours since there is no school.

9) Cats and Dogs should all be hairless (I know, not really a parenting issue, but it is one of my personal issues).

10) It is a mystery as to why my children wait until 7 pm Sunday night before telling me they can read over break and get a prize from the prize box, "so, can you sign my paper saying I read?" UGH...NOPE! I did suggest a number of times that we practice reading, to which I always got, "I don't wanna." Can you feel my eyes rolling??

So who do I talk to about this school break thing any way??

NOW what are we going to do?

So, my two older boys both have a sleep over on Saturday night. Shane going over to the neighbor's house with three of his friends. Sulli having a friend here. (Saxton of course feeling very slighted.) Sunday we meet up with the older boys and the younger siblings, totaling 10 kids, and go to a movie. We get home and I hear, "NOW what are we going to do?" REALLY??? REALLY???? Never enough from this meanest mom ever I tell ya!!

You might be....

If you expect your children to clean up their dishes when they are done with them...
You might be The Meanest Mom Ever!

If you expect your children to clean up their toys when they are done playing with them....
You might be The Meanest Mom Ever!

If you expect the the clothes your children peel off their grubby selves at the end of the day to get into their laundry baskets...
You might be The Meanest Mom Ever!

If you expect them to hang up their towels on the towel rack when they are done drying from the shower...
You might be The Meanest Mom Ever!

If you interrupt them from what ever they are doing to go back and do any one of those things they neglected to do...
You might be The Meanest Mom Ever!

I really am The Meanest Mom Ever!

Tampons, Teen Pregnancy and Fighting

Here are some things that I pondered about this weekend.

So, my kids are watching Full House this weekend on the FAMILY channel. Now to me the title of that channel would indicate that things aired on that channel will be family friendly. Not the case I have found out. As their 6 eyes are glued to the TV, a commercial comes on for Tampax tampons. REALLY??? Tampons? REALLY??? Not only do they show the tampon, they go on to describe how it expands and how much it absorbs. I'm sitting behind them, bracing myself for the what the enquiring minds will want to know. Surprisingly, they asked no questions. Perhaps they didn't need to ask any questions because the commercial did such a wonderful job of explaining it! Directly following the feminine hygiene product, the FAMILY network airs a commercial for a show titled... "The Secret Life of an American Teenager." As the extremely young teenager in the commercial debated the pluses and minuses of her PREGNANCY my three impressionable young boys sit staring at the girl who is too young to be pregnant. I tell my kids you have babies when you get married. Yet here's this show telling my kids, nope, you have a baby when you're a teenager. REALLY??? Great! Thanks FAMILY channel!! Oh and on top of it, let's stress the she's an "American Teenager!"

SO, the commercials on during the Superbowl are supposed to be great, right?? REALLY??? Thanks for all of the SEX ads for my boys!! So, no family channel, no sporting events?? What can I let them watch??? And when I restrict them from watching these shows, yup, I'm The Meanest Mom Ever! Can you see my eyes rolling from there?

Another thing I pondered this weekend (ok I ponder it pretty much daily), is if the fighting and arguing gene is attached to the Y chromosome? "He looked at me, " He didn't look at me," "He smiled at me," " He touched me," "I wanna play too," I don't wanna play," oh I could go on and on... and so could they.