Double Feature

My parents came to town for Christmas. When they visit, me and the hubby always try to squeeze in a "date night". This visit was no exception.

We went to a spontaneous Double Feature. We figured the money saved on a babysitter could justify the splurge.

After four hours in a movie theater seeing something that wasn't animated reawakened a distant memory of life before kids.

New Year's Resolution

I have only one New Year's Resolution this year....

To live a more Intentional Life....

The North Pole - Hostile Workplace?

Have you watched Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer as an adult? Those Elves have a substantial case for identifying the North Pole as a "hostile workplace". The elves of yesteryear just kept their nose to the grindstone and endured the abuse...no running to HR...no hiring lawyers. Think about it. Hermie the dentist was verbally attacked by his supervisor for proclaiming his dream of becoming a dentist. Santa basically told Rudolph's dad "I was expecting more from you than some freak reindeer kid" Talk about a town filled with intolerance!

Still, I love those old Christmas specials! I still watch all of them - but hold my breath as the kids from Charlie Brown throw out words like "stupid and dumb" without any thought. I narrate the side conversation with "Can you imagine talking to someone like that? Or "Now that's not how a friend talks, is it?"

I can't help but wonder if we are raising our kids to be complete wimps by refereeing each play date and banning words like Stupid and Fool? We can create our own kinder gentler household but how's my kids going to cope when he/she heads into the real world and receives their first real insult without his/her mother to soften the blow?

I also think about the hours of time I had to roam the neighborhood with the other kids...no parents voices chiming in until my dad used his best "Time for Dinner" yell to summon us home. We had to 'work it out'....for better for worse. There were some days we packed up our toys and went home, but more times than not, we swallowed our pride (probably after some verbal banter) and kept on playing, knowing the alternative was sitting home alone while everyone else was having a good time.

This also brings me to my next thought. How clean would my house be if my kids ran around unsupervised for hours every day? No more standing guard in the front yard watching for cars or stray cats or dogs or falling meteors. I could finish a project...even one a day would be better than my current record. The upside is it's not likely I'm suffering from Vitamin D deficiency due to the amount of time I spend outside and we've yet to make a trip to the emergency room in the last eight years.

All in all, I think we've made our world a little better for our kids, but at the cost of making them a lot harder for their parents.