Family life in 2005

Increasingly, more women are working out of the home to make ends meet in this economy. Well, at least I have re-entered the workforce after a 5 plus year absence. Today is one of those days I don't really feel like working. It is snowing outside and my youngest daughter has a slight fever and a cough. As I start to write this, I should be clearing off the car and finishing getting ready. I guess I better go do that. I'll write more of what I wanted to after work.

Update: It is now 9:20 pm, I am home from work, we have eaten dinner and the kids are in bed.

The February 21st issue of Newsweek has a cover story on The Myth of the Perfect Mother. You can get part of the main article here however, they require payment for the full text of the article. The article discusses how there is an epidemic of craziness that mothers feel now. We were raised with the ideal of what a perfect mother was and we fail to realize that it was an ideal and not easily achievable if even possibly achievable.

We feel like failures when our kids are not in enough activities and our houses are not clean and we are not putting dinner on the table for the family and we are not contributing to society ourselves. As women, we are forced to make a choice between spending time raising our children as stay at home parents or to pay someone else to do that while we work. With ever present financial concerns (a new focus in our household, like many others), the reality is that we must work to help support our families. In our house, we were lucky that Glenn was able to adjust his schedule so that we could split the childcare betweent the two of us, but many of our friends are not so lucky.

I want better for my daughters, I don't want them to have to feel stresses about being the "perfect mother" and feeling like a failure for the choices they make. I don't see their lives being substantially different (unless we manage to win the lottery without ever playing). Families need solutions, and as American families, we are some of the most overworked in the world. Good childcare is very expensive - how can one afford childcare that is several hundred a week for an infant and several hundred a month for a school-age child. Private schools are expensive - one we looked at when thinking about our options for Ivy was $8000/year for kindergarten! Public schooling can be risky from an educational standpoint, depending on what school district and the needs of your child.

I don't have any ready solutions, and I realize that many of these same issues apply to fathers as well. All I can say, is when you see the person next to you is a stressed parent, remember that it is not easy to bring up kids these days. Remember when you walk into my messy house that my kids are clean, well-fed and happy and that is what really matters to us. Remember when Glenn or I look like we are about to fall over from exhaustion that we are struggling to make our own solutions and that involves us pushing ourselves a little harder and getting a little less sleep on average.

Kids who should be asleep...

Ok, Rose was looking at the blog over her daddy's shoulder (when she should be asleep) and saw the map of the U.S. She asked "Where are we?". When Glenn showed her Wisconsin, she said, "But I thought our state was blue!"

Welcome!

Ok, now there is a tiny bit of content and I tweaked my template to be a tad bit wider. Welcome to those of you who are coming by way of the Junk Chest or anywhere else for that matter!

Expect there to be a few cute kid quotes, a brag or two, and maybe even a rant if I feel so inclined. You have been warned!

Much thanks to Glenn for helping me weed through the code to find what I needed.

Visited States

From Geoff's Blog an interesting diversion:

A map of states I have visited. I clearly have spent most of my life in the Midwest, with occasional trips elsewhere. I it is interesting that I seem to have missed Mississippi and Oklahoma, though. Note: I have not included states that I only drove through and not stopped other than restaurants and rest areas.



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

There is also a visited countries map, but this is MUCH less interesting for me. Again, I have not included countries where I stopped in the airport. I also left off the United States from this map as it highlights the entire US.



create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Introductions

Many of you have been reading my husband's blog, Glenn's Junk Chest. Under increased pressure, I have started this one. Be forewarned, this will contain much bragging about my children, as well as some rants on life and parenthood.