All Day Kindergarten.....???

Aha! Just as I suspected, over 2 months since my last entry. Time to pick up the slack.....

So, some provinces want all day kindergarten. Um, why? (JustMom mocks in a high pitched voice) "I just want my kids to get the best possible education they can get" blah, blah, blah...Whatever..
I Do understand if you are a working parent. Finding that half -day day care is frustrating, but not impossible. Also, a little more expensive. But it's only a year.
Seriously, is all day kindergarten NECESSARY? Kids already spend at the least 13 years in school. Add college, that's another 2-3 years, or university and that's another 5. Not to mention pre-school, and even now you can enroll your kids in as young as 3. No wonder kids drop out. Who can blame them? And it's no wonder high school graduates just pick a college/university program without really considering their futures. They just want to get school over with and start life already! They're sick to death of school.  A number of kids drop out of college/university, change they're minds a million times or never even work at their "chosen" field. Why? Because those 13 years of school dont prepare you for what intrests you.
Here's an idea. Instead of all day kindergarten, why doesnt the government have half a day of school and the other half devoted to some form of child intrest government funded program. Like, karate, sports such as baseball, volunteer work, art, etc...I could go on.
Come on people, lets let kids be kids. Afterall, it's only for one more year. Think you can stand having your kids around for that much longer or deal with the "inconvience" of half-day day care for a whole 10 months more?...................Yea, didn't think so
P.S NOT sorry to offend

August 26, 2009

That was the last night my son had a decent nights sleep. We were on a plane headed to my home province of Newfoundland. He slept the entire 9 hour flight, never even woke when I changed him or fed him. Oh how I bragged about how good he was on the flight, and only 3 months old too! Life's funny that way...
In short, my son didnt sleep, hardly ever, for the next 17 months of his life. He would go to bed, sleep for maybe an hour then be up every 30-45 minutes screeching. This would last the entire night. Even when he did sleep he was completely restless. Constantly rooting around, never stopped. You'd think he'd be tired and cranky the next day. NO. The only tired and cranky ones were dear old Mom and Dad. The hardest part was we really dont think anyone believed us. Oh how we got tired of hearing "no child sleeps through the night." We didnt have a child that woke once or twice a night. We had a child who apparently didnt need sleep! Doctors were of no help at all. And since both sets of grandparents lived on the other side of the country we didnt even have anyone to pawn him of on for a night so we could rest.
We devoted our lives to finding a way to get him to sleep, even just for 2 hours. The internet uncovered nothing except other parents going throught the same thing looking for the same answers. We tried every old wives tale in the book, aside from giving him whiskey of course. In the end we decided to call it a form of colic and just learn to deal with it instead of trying to fix it.
Remarkably, that actually seemed to help. At 16 months old, over a year of no sleep, we decided to buy him a double bed. That way, we could take turns sleeping in the room with him and at least every second night ONE of us would get a decent nights sleep. What a difference it made to our lives! We became more clear headed and had so much more patience. We had fun with our son during the day instead of just floating through it all zombie like and not remembering how we did it.
Finally, around 20 months old we realized that our son was actually sleeping quite well. Maybe only waking 3 times a night and sometimes not at all. So we decided to sleep in our own bed TOGETHER. Something we had not done in forever. You have to understand of course, that this was a hard decision to make. Were we finally ready to sacrifice sleeping again? Amazingly, after about 2 weeks we found we were only getting up with him once a night! And now at 2 years 2 months sometimes we even get to sleep in our own bed the entire night!
What a journey it has been. That we survied it is a feat in itself. Are we in a hurry to have a second child? Not on your life. However, I am considering going around to the high schools and giving my story. Scare the pants of those teenagers. Can't think of any better birth control then that!

And here we are at the airport after just arriving! 

"I Didn't Know I was Pregnant"

Have you ever seen the show? It's a television program that tells the stories of women who didn't have a clue they were pregnant until they are giving birth to their babies in the bathroom stall at Wal-Mart. Don't believe me? It happens, apparently. I've only seen the show once and vowed never to watch it again. Even to see the title on the guide turns my stomach. Curious? You wouldn't be if you had spent even 5 seconds with me while I was pregnant. I had the most miserable pregnancy in history. Ever. Ok, ok, I suppose I exaggerate. Those of you who feared for the life of your unborn child or who were hospitalized while pregnant undoubtably had it worse then I did.
I was 124 pounds the day I discovered I was pregant. The day I gave birth I had gained 108 pounds in total. Yup, I was a whale. I can still see the looks on strangers faces when they saw me and can still hear them mutter "God love her". People asked me if I were having triplets. Not twins, no, as obviously someone as large as me just HAD to be having triplets. One woman said I looked like I was carrying around a medicine ball. That's the biggest ball there is! My whole body was beyond swollen with water. My skin felt like it was going to rip apart at any second. But nothing compared to my feet. There is not a shoe designed for the convenience of the poor fat pregnant lady. Balls do not fit into the holes of shoes afterall. Every step I took was agony. It felt like I had the worlds worse sunburn and every step I took made it worse.
I couldnt put on my socks, get in and out of bed by myself and could barely reach myself after using the batroom to "wipe". I developed some pretty crazy moves to solve THAT dilemma, let me tell you!

Yup, it was crazy. But being a colossal being was only ONE of the many pregnancy horrors I encounterd. It is easier to tell you the one thing I didn't have: Heartburn. I have never, ever in my life had it and didnt experience it while pregnant either. Funny how God decided to spare me that one. He has quite a sense of humor.
But in the end it was all worth it when I finally gave birth to my 11 pound 7 oz "little" boy. And would I do it all over again knowing what I know now? You bet I would! A million times over. The only thing I WOULD change is having the knowledge that there are woman out there who didn't know they were pregnant. Ignorance is bliss!...........(the picture is me at 26 weeks)

The "Look"

Ah the look. If you are a mother I guarentee you have recieved it and most likely have given it. It's a look we dread to recieve but are too quick to dish out. You know the one I'm talking about. The look we are given when we make decisions about our children that other people find, well, stupid. And usually it is given over the smallest little things. For instance, I prefer not to give my son juice. Not that he NEVER has juice. He has it at birthday parties and occaionally at home. It's just a choice we made. We dont freak if he gets his hands on juice or strictly forbid it. But tell ONE person he dont drink juice and look out, you recieve the "Look". A friend of mine decided not to give her infant son sweets until his cake on his first birthday. The way people looked at her when she said it you'd think she was denying the child food altogether. We get the "Look" for how our children dress, what they eat, how much television they watch, what toys they play with, etc.. How these decisions affect anyone else, I've no idea. But there they are judging us. What I find ironic is that, even though these decisions are in the best interests of our children and do not harm them in any way, it is taboo to tell a pregnant woman off for smoking while pregnant. Shocked to hear women still do that? You shouldn't be, it's everywhere. But, no, we mustn't tell them they shouldnt do it, but we must always criticize them for denying them juice. Oh yes, THAT is an important issue.

Why a blog?

Well, here I am, writing a blog. Why? No clue really as I am by no means an author of any sort. Not the best speller either. Grammer? Forget about it. I guess I just wanted to share my life as a mother. I am sure there are an infinity amount of "mom" blogs out there but this is mine. Read it if you like. If not it will be a sort of journal for me. Something I get the urge to do every now and then but never stick with. I probably wont stick with this either.Guess we'll have to wait and see...
To start, I guess I'll explain "Just Mom". Well, that's exactly what I am isnt it? Just Mom to a son of Just Two years. I dont expect someone who isnt a mother to understand but I know those of you who are will understand %100. To our children we are nothing else. You might think that bothers me but it doesnt. I live and breathe motherhood. I decided I wanted to be a mother, I did not get pregnant by accident. It was what I wanted. I do not work outside my home, social interactions are scarce as are babysitters. My day revolves around trains, cars, pre-school cartoons and never resting for a moment. Being Just Mom is a 24 hour a day job with no days off or sick time. I do not mind one bit as I know it will not last forever. Someday, in too short of a time, my son will be of to school. He'll make friends, get involved in after school activities and as the too short years go by I will see less and less of him. One day he will move out and I'll realize it's been over a week since I've seen or heard from him. So until that day comes I am quite content being "Just Mom".