Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

All I Want for Christmas...Parents, You May Be Surprised
Momscape ^ | Linda Sharp

Posted on 12/18/2001 6:23:36 AM PST by SAMWolf

I am a huge advocate of parents getting into their children's schools on a regular basis. As a stay-at-home mom, I am able to assist in my daughters' classrooms each week. Whether helping with art projects, reading or spelling, it keeps me connected and allows me direct insight into my girls' day-to-day lives. It also affords me the opportunity to connect with other children. And connect I do. The hugs and openness with which I am greeted are huge indicators that I have broken through that Grown-up/Child barrier.

It could be that when I go into the school, I don't dress like an authority figure. You won't find me wearing Chinos, skirts, loafers, untouchable hair or any other spiffy adult attire. Instead, look for the person clad in sweatpants or jeans, a comfy sweater and a baseball cap . . . always a baseball cap. I come prepared to hug, get dirty on the playground and sweep the floor with my butt during reading circle. I also come with enough hugs to go around, twice. As a result, I have been granted access into the Inner Sanctum of the Schoolyard.

Last week while working on an art project with a rotating group of kids we talked about music, movies, swear words, parents, the holidays. As talk turned to what they hoped would be under their tree for Christmas or part of their Hannukah 7 Day Gift Haul, I decided to take advantage of my "non-threatening" status and pose the question: "Name one thing you would like your Mom or Dad to give you this season that would not cost a penny." You could have heard that penny hit the floor as silence enveloped them, and their young minds went to work. As they each took turns answering, I was moved to tears by their candor, their honesty and in some cases the heartbreaking realities revealed in their words.

It is my holiday gift to you all that I share what your kids REALLY want this year. And no, a Play Station 2 is nowhere on the lists of their hearts.

Listen To Me Please: At the top of their lists is for we parents to stop being so busy all the time and just listen to them talk. I know I have been guilty of this one. God knows, we really are not interested in hearing about the latest unpronounceable character in their Harry Potter books, but we need to stop, look them in the eye, and listen. If we don't, they will simply stop trying. And we all know that the teenage days will come when they won't want to discuss anything with us, be it Harry Potter or their newly hairy pits.

Teach Me To Cook: I was surprised by this request, but when I pressed for an explanation, it quickly became clear. We are raising a generation of Microwave Kids. They know how to use every button on the magic box, but have no idea how to simmer, bake or boil. Granted, there is great messiness in allowing your youngsters to cook with you, but take it from me, some of my happiest memories are in the kitchen with my Mom, dusted with flour and smudged with love.

Please Stop Smoking: One child spoke this wish and it was quickly echoed by many others. They have seen enough commercials to be truly concerned about your health and their own, but it goes a bit further than that. One young girl pulled me aside and whispered her reason in my ear, "The other kids say I always smell bad." I hugged her close and bent to kiss her head and she was right. Her hair did not smell of Johnson & Johnson's, but of Benson & Hedges. Not her choice and certainly not fair.

Stop Being So Busy All The Time: If guilt were a color, I would have been painted with it when I heard this one. How many of us use the phrase, "Just a minute . . ." or "Hold on . . ." too much? Personally, there have been too many times I have looked up after "just a minute" to find my child has given up waiting and is gone.

Read To Me: We tend to think that once a child can read, our job is done. Actually, these children expressed a desire to have Mom or Dad read a chapter book TO them each night. And while they would really enjoy the reading, it leads to a deeper desire . . . the other request that made me choke back a tear . . .

Hug Me More: I experience these children each week when I enter the classrooms. They cling to me tighter than a wet pair of Levi's. They are the ones that are not getting enough hugs and snuggling and attention at home. For them, I hug them not once, not twice, but as much and as long as they need. So while you are running around doing that last minute shopping, add some of these items to your own child's list. Rich or poor, they are all things that cost not a dime and we all have in endless supply. We just have to stop and open our arms and hearts a little wider.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-100 next last
To: zandtar;SAMWolf
My goodness gracious...who bit you in the hiney, zandtar?

It's good to be reminded of obvious things because even the obvious sometimes gets lost in life.

I don't consider this article a *do-gooder forcing what we should do* on others. I see it as an important reminder to value those things that are most important. Our kiddos are most important..the time we spend with them is priceless.

Now sit down and eat your peas, hon. They're getting cold. ;o)

61 posted on 12/18/2001 10:55:09 AM PST by homeschool mama
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: my_pointy_head_is_sharp
Actually, no, they don't. Funny............never remember having you over to the house. You sneak in or something??
62 posted on 12/18/2001 11:19:29 AM PST by RightOnline
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: RightOnline
I smoke and they still love me...........and they don't stink of smoke, either.

Yes they do. You just can't smell it.

63 posted on 12/18/2001 11:28:09 AM PST by ohioWfan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: RightOnline
Oops, I didn't see post 60 before I posted.

I've taught school and kids whose parents smoke smell. Period. You don't have to go to their house to smell it.......that is unless their clothes and hair are fumigated before they leave home.

64 posted on 12/18/2001 11:31:44 AM PST by ohioWfan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: widowithfoursons
I am merely stating that the Lord gave me a directive on this. I do not argue with Him. He always wins

Are you quite sure that it was the Lord giving you the directive?

65 posted on 12/18/2001 11:34:07 AM PST by ohioWfan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: ohioWfan
Funny, I came back from a smoke break once & asked the biggest anti-smoker in the office if she could smell it on me. She said, not on you, but (name withheld)? I can always tell.

I think it's something to do with the brand - I started stuffing my own this past summer

66 posted on 12/18/2001 11:43:08 AM PST by nina0113
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: nina0113
It could be the brand that stays on the clothes, but the smoke always stinks no matter what.
It's a smelly, nasty habit, and it's a rotten thing to do expose your own kids to..........and that has nothing to do with being PC (which I am decidedly not).
67 posted on 12/18/2001 12:00:54 PM PST by ohioWfan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: japaneseghost
Kids like someone who will get down on the floor and play with them. When my nephew was a kid, he would get upset if I showed up in a dress. He said, "Now you can't play with me." and "I don't like it when you where a dress cause then you are no fun."

A child's idea of pretty is very different from an adult's.
68 posted on 12/18/2001 12:09:55 PM PST by Chess
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: ohioWfan
"Yes they do. You just can't smell it. 63 posted on 12/18/01 3:28 PM Eastern by ohioWfan [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies | Report Abuse ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: RightOnline Oops, I didn't see post 60 before I posted. I've taught school and kids whose parents smoke smell. Period. You don't have to go to their house to smell it.......that is unless their clothes and hair are fumigated before they leave home."

Well, you sanctimonious little nosy pri*k. The nerve of a**holes like you and the twerp above telling me my kids "smell like smoke because I smoke". You haven't the slightest freakin' clue what you're talking about, you've never met me, you've never met any of my kids, you've never set foot within 100 miles of my home. You don't know how I smoke, where I smoke, their proximity to that smoke, their bathing habits, our laundry habits........nothing.

Who in God's name told you that you had the right to talk to me that way???

Get bent. Take your little friend above with you.

69 posted on 12/18/2001 12:50:27 PM PST by RightOnline
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: homeschool mama
Now sit down and eat your peas, hon. They're getting cold. ;o)

No way, peas are yucky! Now Spinach is the good stuff! 8)

I don't have a problem with the notion of remembering the little things that sometimes get pushed aside in our busy lives. However, I do take objection with the way this article was written to make it appear to be something it really isn't. I don't like the notion of some adult manipulating children into giving conditional answers, in order to make her point. While the article might be "cutsie" to some, I find that sort of thing disgusting for any adult to do.

70 posted on 12/18/2001 12:53:37 PM PST by zandtar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: ohioWfan
Are you quite sure that it was the Lord giving you the directive?

Actually that was me driving by with Mr. Microphone, but don't tell them.

71 posted on 12/18/2001 12:59:26 PM PST by zandtar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: zandtar
I agree. I think it's the tone and the way the article was written that got under my skin. The basic idea the writer is trying to get across is good. But it sounds like she pulled it from her own head. I think if she did, she should come right out and say "This is what I think you should get your kids for Christmas" instead of setting up this absurd scenario.

And I think she gave herself away when she mentioned the Playstation. She forgot her own instructions.

And I still think she talks about herself more than was nessessary at the beginning.

Good idea...bad presentation.

72 posted on 12/18/2001 1:03:32 PM PST by 2Jedismom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: RightOnline
I'd say that your smoking is the least of your personal problems.

Lighten up. Smoking stinks. It's a fact. You're free to do it whenever, and wherever you like.
It's still a nasty habit, and it smells.

Now go call someone else names. I am unaffected by your abject rudeness. Have a nice day.

73 posted on 12/18/2001 1:06:57 PM PST by ohioWfan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: d4now
I guess your homepage says it all.

Thanks for reminding me. I've updated it to something more season appropriate.

74 posted on 12/18/2001 1:07:29 PM PST by zandtar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: zandtar
LOL!
75 posted on 12/18/2001 1:07:32 PM PST by ohioWfan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: SAMWolf
Isn't that precious!!!
76 posted on 12/18/2001 1:11:41 PM PST by Whilom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SAMWolf
thanks
77 posted on 12/18/2001 1:12:48 PM PST by wjcsux
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

I caught myself saying, "Dad needs to wrap this up..." twice in the past week when my six-year old son asked me to play catch with him. Harry Chapan's tune "Cats In The Cradle," a poem written to him by his wife, kept playing in my head -- haunting me. Reality check. I vowed before he was born that I'd be 180 degrees different than my father, a strict disciplinarian who was also emotionally distant. I remember once when I was about 12 Dad came out of the house and for the first time in my life threw me a football. I was on top of the f'in' world. Never happened again, though. It's sad now, really, 30 years later with this 65 year-old man who desparately wants to know his son (me) but I feel nothing for him.

Time to go play catch.

78 posted on 12/18/2001 1:13:56 PM PST by Orbiter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: ohioWfan
YOU tell ME that MY kids "stink"...........and I'm rude???????????????

I will meticulously follow the letter of JimRob's posted laws around here, and you're go**amned lucky. Let me just tell you plainly to f**k yourself.

I have a reasonably long fuse, but you burned it up quick. Stay out of my way 'round here from now on.

79 posted on 12/18/2001 1:25:29 PM PST by RightOnline
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: SAMWolf
The hugs and openness with which I am greeted are huge indicators that I have broken through that Grown-up/Child barrier.

How in the world have you avoided child molestation charges with all that hugging? In many schools an adult can't so much as touch a student without a law suit on the horizon.

80 posted on 12/18/2001 1:27:05 PM PST by varon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-100 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson