Our media is so sexualized, commercials to movies and news coverage, yet when our children wish to learn more about sex we shun them and refuse to talk. Granted, this is not the scene in every household, but many parents refuse to open the conversation and even advertisers for blogs do not work with “non family friendly” bloggers. I am not sure what every business defines as “family friendly” but most deem a site non-family friendly if it addresses anything to do with sex.

I personally think that is completely messed up, sure I can see a highly pornographic blog not being the best place for a professional business that has nothing to do with sex products, but in the long haul is a mom talking about sex in a blog post really non-family friendly? I mean maybe this mom is reaching out about the topic of teen sex, because they don’t know how to address it with their children and need tips. You see, bloggers have a huge community – we all support each other, provide tips, feedback, love and support to each other virtually.

When visiting my sons pediatrician for his five year check up I was provided this sheet about what to discuss/address with my young child and guess what? Sex was on that list, yes it was recommended that a child around age four or five is learning about sex education at their own level. Sometimes you can find good books to address the topic then other times, if your child is open to listening – you can just talk to them and answer their questions on their level.

Keep it simple, keep it open and maybe just maybe our children won’t be trying to get a bit of that forbidden fruit behind our backs to learn about sex from friends and the internet or worse yet, through practice at an age when they are too young to truly understand the consequences of their actions.

We have a local channel where you can watch the happenings around town but the channel usually has horrible audio quality so I just don’t ever watch it. One morning I was feeling lazy and while lounging in bed decided to flick channels when I happened upon a November school board meeting. Now there is a lot going on in the high school and with the school administrative unit that has me wanting to keep up with the latest and since the audio for this meeting was normal I thought I would watch it.

All I can say after watching this local school board meeting is that the tension within the room of students, school board members, administrators and teachers was so intense that I could feel it through the television. It appears that there is a lot going on behind the scenes of the schools, mainly the high school, that the parents are not aware of. Most recently the principal from the high school was arrested based on reports that he put his hands on a student, he is facing simple assault charges against a student.

My children are not in the high school yet but I will be honest that if the school doesn’t smarten up by then and get some organization going on then I would have no issues pulling my children from the public school environment and placing them in an online high school environment or even home schooling because I won’t put up with my children feeling intimidated at their own school by administrators.

This is really sad to see that the one place children should feel safe and secure is falling apart. As a teen I knew that high school was my safe heaven, I was an above average student and being at school was way better most times than being at home. I had trust in the administrators and had no issues speaking to them if something was going on. I can only hope that by the time my children get into high school that the school has it’s act together because this is so sad to see our future generation falling behind because adults can’t seem to get some organization going on in the upper level of administration!

There is this country song that has been playing often on the radio and part of the lyrics go like this “When I think about cheating, I think about you leaving”. It’s funny because when I had thought about temptation in the past I always had a similar mindset, although I didn’t think about the person leaving, I thought about the pain I would be inflicted upon another human being.

I am a person who feels if you are not happy with the person you are with, then you need to be honest with them and move forward. I have seen all too often what having another person on the back burner does, usually the back burner person doesn’t last in a long term relationship with you because you are leaning on them to move forward from another broken relationship.

Believe me, I have needs, wants and desires just like the next person, however, I think it makes a person stronger when they fight that urge or temptation to stray. Having a bit of self control makes you a stronger, more trustworthy person and in turn your life will be a lot happier.

Karma comes to mind with cheating, you see I believe in “what goes around comes around” and I have had my fair share of karma; both good and bad. I wouldn’t wish negative karma on any single person in the world so please think before you act and if you have children; think about whether you want them to take the easy way out of things or the more, lesson learned difficult way out of things? Doing things the right way doesn’t always mean easier. The next time you think about cheating, just think about that person leaving….

Image: twobee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Life is about to get crazy! Not only do I have one in school but come Fall I will have two in school as well as two in different age groups for soccer, which means four days a week of sports. Also my middle child wants to play t-ball if he is old enough so I am going to see about signing him up for that like now. I am about to be busy and had hoped that this wouldn’t happen until my kids were closer to their teen years.

My children are 8, 4 and 2 … why so busy already? I love being a mom but sometimes I wonder how do I ever keep up with the busy days of a mom, night working hours from home and extra curricular activities.

My children, mainly the two boys dislike riding in the car, rather they despise being placed in their seats in the car to go anywhere. It’s a battle to go to the store, to go to the bank …. it is a pain to get out of the house with them period! I am in a way looking forward to having my youngest all to myself next school session but at the same time not looking forward to the four days a week in the car and five days a week of pick up and drop offs for school.

The one good thing about the kids growing older is that maybe someday they will start having sleep overs and kids parties – I am so ready for that fun!

I was so excited when my four year old started “teaching” his brother things. For instance one night Baby K hurt AJ so AJ says “that hurts” then proceeded to say “that means someones hurt”. I giggled but gave praise to AJ for his efforts in helping Baby K with what being hurt  means. Now let’s travel into the evening hours, we had an early dinner so I let the boys play with my laundry basket, they love a good laundry basket race! I was watching them interact and at one point AJ pipes up and says “say dammit” so Baby K being the obedient little brother he is pipes up and says “dammit” then not even a second later AJ says say “dammit Mama” so of course the parrot Baby K repeats AJ.

At this point I tell AJ that dammit is a bad word that him nor K should be saying. They stopped and went back to playing. Enter the next morning … Justin let me sleep in and when I finally woke up I hear baby K saying “dammit” over and over again. I stumbled out of my bedroom and asked Justin if he was going to let our son run around saying dammit? Justin replied “I didn’t even know that’s what he was saying”. I laugh and say “yes of course that is what the little parrot is saying”. We both tell K that’s not a good word to say at that point.

I give Justin credit, because I am the primary caregiver of both the boys because he works well over a 40 hour work week outside of the home so of course I have learned the baby language better. Not that Justin can’t understand his youngest son, it’s just harder at times because he hasn’t been taught all the ins and outs of Baby K language! So the moral of this story?

Watch what you say as a parent because you never know when the munchkins are listening and will repeat what you say! Do you have any kid stories of those naughty words kids say when they first learn them?