rainy days ahead....

and I am glad. Tomorrow is supposed to be a bit thundery and rainy, my favorite weather. Especially for what I am planning...a trip to the video store. Or maybe the library. And maybe to lunch with the kids, after Abigail gets home, of course. It is possible to go places with several small children, but it is preferable to have a helper. I read a really really good book recently, it is called, "FREE-RANGE Kids", by Lenore Skenazy. She discusses the actual statistical risks certain activities are verses the fear that surrounds them. For example, a child abduction by a stranger is very rare, a very small chance that would happen....In America, the chance of abduction and murder by a stranger: 1 in 1.5 million, or a .00007 percent. Yet we seem to think it happens all the time because of the publicity it generates. No one wants anything to happen to their child, but putting the fear in perspective and letting them live like we did when we were growing up, understanding that they are safer than the horror-story-loving-media wants us to believe.....it is a very interesting read. In fact, after I read it, I went to a small local grocery store with Suzanne, 8 years old, and Sonja, 7. To make a long story short, the salad mix I was buying rang up way more expensive than the sign said. No way. The manager came over and insisted I read the sign wrong. Here is what the sign said: DOLE SALAD MIX 2/$3.00 So, I picked up a bag of Romaine Blend. Salad Mix. Wrong, said the manager. Only the Iceberg Blend is on sale. I asked how people were supposed to know that. He said because it is salad mix. I told him he should fix the sign, and he just walked away. Oh yeah, I do have a point here. I told Suzanne and Sonja to stay with the cart in line while I went and showed the manager the sign. (which was a waste of time, I had to put back my Romaine and get Iceberg, blah.) Leaving the girls there with the nice cashier was a first for me. I usually would just take them with me or not get the salad (notice I didn't say I would pay the higher price, nah, I wouldn't do that)....but since I read that book, I realized that no one was going to butt in line, take my girls and run. I was gone all of 2 minutes. It is the fear of what others think about my mothering skills (or lack of them!), and/or fear of repercussion, like someone calling social services on me that dictates alot of decisions like that. It isn't really risky behavior. It was a very small store, with the produce section like 20 feet away. It would have been different if it was like a Walmart Super center, and I had to go across the store. Although they still probably would have been okay. And I do apologize, it is just not in me to make a long story short.

After reading the book, I did realize one thing. There is a huge difference in letting your kids do things because the risk is minimal and being just plain lazy. And it seems that there are alot of people out there who just love to jump all over someone for doing something they view as negligent. Wouldn't it be a wonderful world it everyone stopped judging and criticizing each other, and just judged themselves? Someday....

Well, Miss Charlotte Claire is still up, since she took a mega-nap today. She has been having fun. She has been sitting here in the living room with a pair of blunt-edge kindergarten scissors, cutting up a travel magazine. (hey, we aren't going anywhere!)....she cut little little pieces. Page after page, for well over an hour. I think it is good to let kids have scissors. Wait, a three year old, supervised, with scissors. It is good for their small motor control, and maybe someday soon when I am not looking and she gives herself her first hair cut, she'll do a better job than say, Mali, who butchered her hair....

goodnight