30 July 2008
The Pink Belt of Shame
29 July 2008
Helping Our Kids
27 July 2008
It's Muttering Time
- Memory :: Cats (it's a song!)
- Original :: dress
- Exclusively :: yours
- Listings :: real estate
- Bucket :: kicked the
- Knight :: in shining armor
- Dusty :: my house
- Choice :: cut
- Sunlight :: on my shoulders
- Change of plans :: irks me
23 July 2008
Mothering circa 1938
The first pamphlet, by the doc in Wisc. is just entitled "Postpartum Instructions." Some of the information was just common sense. I have pulled out the things that made me laugh or gasp! (I put my comments in italics : )
Here's what it says about going home:
3rd week: "Stay in your nightclothes and remain on one floor and be in bed at least half the day. You may get up for meals if you like." (Quite the life of leisure. Did these women have household help?)
4th week: "You may now go to the lower floor, but not more than twice per day." (Have they gone stir crazy yet?)
5th and 6th week: "You may go out and get fresh air and take short walks, but do not drive in a car. Your first drive should be to my office at the end of the 6th week." (It doesn't say do not drive A car, it says do not drive IN a car. Are we to assume women weren't supposed to drive at all?)
"You may take a shower anytime after the twelfth day and a tub bath when your discharges have ceased to be bloody." (TMI! No shower for 12 days?)
I've got to tell you , this first booklet was cracking my daughter and I up at the antique store.
Here's more concerning caring for the baby......didn't find this info quite as funny:
"Now on to care of the baby: "Keep to your schedule-Do not decrease the interval between feedings and do not feed for more than 20 mins. Do not handle your baby anymore than is necessary or let others do so. A baby must cry some and if you pick him up to stop him a habit that may take months to break will be quickly started. Turn the baby occasionally, but avoid picking him up too often. The less the baby is handled and stimulated, the better he will sleep, eat and grow. " (I feel sorry for those babies.)
Now onto the next booklet written by the female doctor in London. It appears there was a series of these pamphlets given out for each month of a child's development. I could only find the one concerning the babies fifth month. I can only imagine what the other pamphlets had to say.
This booklet was entitled "Baby Care, A helpful guide for mothers on the care of Infants, Fifth Month."
The book covers the basics. A lot is very similar to things we do today. I will touch on the things that made me open my mouth and go "wow".
Here is the schedule the booklet says the mother and baby should be following:
6am: Baby's feed. Change him and put him back to bed.
8am: Baby's orange juice. Sun bath for half an hour, if summertime. Mothers breakfast.
9:30am: Wash the baby's face, hands and buttocks and dress him for the day. Baby's Cod Liver Oil.
10am: Cereal feeding. He should then be put outdoors, given his half hour sunbath (unless he had it earlier) and then left in his carriage. Mother may find it convenient to take him for a short walk in the morning.
12noon: Mothers lunch. Offer the baby some water.
1pm: Mothers rest.
2pm: Baby's feed, breast or bottle. Change him and put him outdoors again. During the afternoon he should have another 1/2 hour sunbath.
4pm: Offer the baby some water.
5pm: Undress the baby, leaving on his diaper, and leave him lying on the bed for his daily exercise.
5:30pm: Baby's bath.
6pm: Baby's feed. This may be breast or bottle, or towards the end of the 5th month, a second feed of cereal.
6:30pm: Mothers dinner.
10pm: Change and feed baby, breast or bottle. He should now sleep all night, and if he wakes up, should be only offered water.
Here is some additional info regarding the schedule:
"Baby should be receiving 1 teaspoonful of cod liver oil once or twice a day depending on how much fresh air and sunshine the baby is receiving."
"Cereal should be thinned with milk so that it can be given in the bottle."
On weaning: "If the mother keeps well, there is no reason she should not continue nursing up till the 10th month. Nursing beyond the 10th month is unnecessary and may even be harmful as by that time the natural nursing period has passed and the milk loses it's nutritive value."
And this next part cracked me up:
"Taking baby to the seaside: When the family spends a vacation at the seaside, the mother should avoid taking the baby to the beach. Small babies, bare heads bald and wobbly, bright pink under a scorching sun, eyes screwed tight against the glare of the sand, fretting against flies, grit and heat, must be miserable at the beach. Even when the baby is placed in a bassinette, which is shaded by an umbrella, and covered with mosquito netting, there are still many objections to his being on the beach. He is in the midst of and surrounded by far too many people; he may even be jostled by them, sneezed over, coughed over by them, splashed with salty water dripping off their bodies, sprinkled by sand flung up in their games. He is exposed to too much heat, too much light, and too many germs. No, the beach is no place for the baby."
It must've been hard to be a mother 70 years ago. There were so many rules. How about one rule....ok, maybe two: Love your baby and follow your gut. The stuff about not picking the baby up makes me so sad. The schedule for feeding makes me sad. I can't believe those mothers didn't really want to pick their babies up. I wonder how many actually followed these booklets?
22 July 2008
The Shack
But there are also plenty of positive. This book really made me think. It also made me feel loved. At times it brought me to tears and really touched my heart. I have been questioning my faith lately, well, not my faith really but religion. What I have been told, what I have been taught. I have never doubted that God or Jesus existed, just wasn't too sure what man turned him into.
I highly recommend everyone read this book. Religious or not, believer or not. It will give you a new fresh perspective on things. It isn't new age, it isn't trying to teach a new religion. It's a fictional book, showing how we can all get back to the most important thing, a relationship with our Lord.
Some links to look at: The Shack Book, You may want to save this one for after you read the book: Is The Shack Heresy?
20 July 2008
Muttering Again
Want to mutter unconsciously?
18 July 2008
Hanging with my Daughter
16 July 2008
The Daily Groove
THE DAILY GROOVE ~ by Scott Noelle
www.enjoyparenting.com/dailygroove::
Growing Down ::
Phrases like "child's play" and "cry like a baby" and"grow up!" expose an unspoken belief of our culture: children are expected to have fun and express their feelings openly, while grown-ups are expected to accept that life is mostly a grind with little room for authenticity. Perhaps, then, our desire for our children to be happy and authentic is partly a wish for ourselves.
Luckily,*modeling* is the most effective parenting tool, so let's model authenticity and lightness today by"growing down"...
*Eat spaghetti with your fingers
*Wear shoes that don't match
*Wear no shoes at all... in the rain
*Don't delay gratification
*Scream when you feel like it
*Pee in the grass!
No need to worry what other grown-ups might think. Just tell them you're sacrificing your adultness for the good of your children. : )
http://dailygroove.net/growing-down
Feel free to forward this message to your friends!
(Please include this paragraph and everything above.)
Copyright (c) 2008 by Scott Noelle
13 July 2008
(Anti?) Education Quotes
It is... nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wreak and ruin. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty. ~Albert Einstein
I was happy as a child with my toys in my nursery. I have been happier every year since I became a man. But this interlude of school makes a somber grey patch upon the chart of my journey. It was an unending spell of worries that did not then seem petty, and of toil uncheered by fruition; a time of discomfort, restriction and purposeless monotony.
~Winston Churchill
Schools have not necessarily much to do with education... they are mainly institutions of control, where basic habits must be inculcated in the young. Education is quite different and has little place in school.
~ Winston Churchill
Meanwhile, education--compulsory schooling, compulsory learning--is a tyranny and a crime against the human mind and spirit.Let all those escape it who can, any way they can.
~John Holt Instead of Education
Schools and schooling are increasingly irrelevant to the great enterprises of the planet. No one believes any more that scientists are trained in science classes or politicians in civics classes or poets in English classes. The truth is that schools don't really teach anything except how to obey orders.
~John Taylor Gatto
My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself.
~George Bernard Shaw
My grandmother wanted me to have an education, so she kept me out of school.
~Margaret Mead
Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education.
~Bertrand Russell
The purpose of Compulsory Education is to deprive the common people of their commonsense.
~G.K. Chesterton, 1929
I'm sure the reason such young nitwits are produced in our schools is because they have no contact with anything of any use in everyday life.
~Petronius (d. circa 66 CE) The Satyricon.
A tax supported, compulsory educational system is the complete model of the totalitarian state.
~ Isabel Paterson
The education of all children, from the moment that they can get along without a mother's care, shall be in state institutions at state expense.
~ Karl Marx, "The Communist Manifesto"
Unconscious Mutterings
- Intimated :: announced
- Brush :: off
- Masquerade :: ball
- Procedure :: medical
- Tattoos :: cool
- Square :: knot
- Tuck :: nip?
- Boyfriend :: girlfriend
- Badass :: badlands?
- Thousand :: million
Want to have some mindless fun? Unconscious mutterings
08 July 2008
Nightline
~Lucretia Mott~
It's very sad to see how children are still treated around the world. My 13 year old watched this with me and was shocked. She asked how come the children had no say in what was happening to them. I didn't know how to answer that. Because people don't care? Because poverty can be so overwhelming people can't see the big picture? Because children have no value in these environments?
There is so much talk about Parental Rights in the US right now. I know many people are against the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. But how can one be against allowing these children some rights? Do these parents have a right to sell or give away their children to be abused and used as slaves? I don't' think so.
I'd like to know what everyone else thinks.
I am so glad I allow my children to have rights and to have a say about what happens in their lives.
~Mikhail Bakunin~
I Think I Need To Move....
......to where it is perpetually summer. I'm having so much fun enjoying my summer, I only have time to post stupid quizzes to my blog : ) You Belong in Summer |
You're not going to let anything hold you back, especially a cold day. Whether you're chilling out at the beach or partying all night, you live for the warm weather. |
I Didn't Need A Quiz To Tell Me This.......
You Are a Summer Person |
You are energetic, outgoing, and active. |
The only part I might disagree with is the energetic and outgoing part. My favorite summer activity is lying in a lounge chair lake or poolside. Not sure that requires any energy or outgoing-ness : )
06 July 2008
It's That Time Again!
- Notification :: Letter
- Cheat :: Openly
- Top Ten :: List
- Draft :: Notice
- Unbelievable :: Weight Loss
- Cheap :: Thrifty
- Spontaneous :: Combustion
- Harass :: Provoke
- Lipstick :: Dipstick?
- Transpire :: Perspire?
I tried to do this early today.....maybe I should let my brain wake up first next time!
Want to try? Unconscious Mutterings
02 July 2008
Don't Blink!
We watched some old home movies a few weeks back. Darn if my kids weren't so darn cute! I do remember thinking how cute they were at the time, but it was always a fleeting thought as mindless tasks would begin to fill my mind instead: They need their diapers changed, they never ate lunch, Carley shouldn't watch so much Barney, Catherine needs to nurse, AGAIN! It seems there was always something I had to do FOR them. I didn't spend enough time just being WITH them. I mean I was with them all day, everyday, but I wasn't really present. I was in survival mode. I'm sorry about that now.
My girls are now 11 and 13 and I am enjoying the heck out of them. I know to a lot of people this is a horrible age, especially for girls. But I think this is why I am enjoying it so much. I was just like them. Their little snarky comments, the rolling of their eyes, the look that I must just be so dense, how could they have a mom like me? They make me laugh. Plus, as their bodies change, and they become more like me (a woman instead of a girl) we have more in common and more to talk about. I can try to share some wisdom in those rare moments when they actually want to listen to me. I really feel like I am PRESENT with them at this time. I like to go places with them and I like to do things with them. I am relishing these moments because I know they will be gone in the blink of an eye. Just like when they were 2 and 4 and I was so wishing they would just get a little older, a little faster, so my life would be a little easier. Well they did get older, and it came a lot faster than I expected. All of a sudden my little toddlers have become bright, beautiful young women.
I look forward to watching the future unfold for them. I wait in anticipation to see what they choose to do with their lives. But I don't wish for it to come too quickly. I want to stretch out this time with my girls as long as I can. It is time I will never get back, so I better not miss it.
RANT!
I just got home from the grocery store. Before I begin, let me tell you we have many shopping options in our town for groceries. There are 2 major grocery chains which focus just on groceries. Jewel and Dominick's. Jewel is owned by SuperValu (used to be Albertson's) and Dominick's is owned by Safeway. Then we have Wal-Mart, Target, and a fairly new local grocer, Joseph's, whose main focus is on ethnic foods, fresh produce and deli. They have pretty good prices on most things.
I was at Jewel. I have done my research and Jewel is tied with Dominick's as having the highest prices around. I try to shop at Wal-Mart for most of my groceries, they are by far the cheapest. But I just can't get everything I want at Wal-Mart, particularly "Jewel Chef's Kitchen" frozen pizza. My youngest DD's favorite kind. So I had to go to Jewel today because I needed to get more frozen pizza's.
As I was checking out, a Hispanic man came in line behind me. He had food stamps or whatever it is they call it nowadays. He was buying cereal, milk, juice, bread and some meat. All of which I know is almost 1/2 the price at Wal-Mart vs. Jewel. Then he had a 12 pack of beer he was paying cash for. Too poor for groceries but we have money for beer? He left the store behind me and I saw him get into a very nice, fairly new model, Ford Taurus. He wasn't old, probably in his twenties.
So now to the rant: First, as I watched this man, who looked very able bodied (and could very well be working for somebody "off the books") paying for his groceries with food stamp money, I began to wonder why he was on them in the first place. He probably could have paid for everything except maybe the meat with the money he used for the beer. It enrages me to realize how I now need to keep close track of what I can spend at the store, and have begun to forgo things as food prices have risen. And yet, this man was getting his food for free off my dime. Off your dime too. And the kicker was he didn't even have the sense to go to the cheapest store in town so his free money could stretch farther. I guess when you are living off someone else's dime you don't need to worry about stretching your money further. You'll be getting another check next month.
I am disgusted by what we let go on in this country.
I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.
Another Quiz!
You Are An ISFJ |
You have a strong need to belong, and you are very loyal. A good listener, you excel at helping others in practical ways. In your spare time, you enjoy engaging your senses through art, cooking, and music. You find it easy to be devoted to one person, who you do special things for. In love, you express your emotions through actions. Taking care of someone is how you love them. And you do it well! At work, you do well in a structured environment. You complete tasks well and on time. You would make a good interior designer, chef, or child psychologist. How you see yourself: Competent, dependable, and detail oriented When other people don't get you, they see you as: Boring, dominant, and stuck in a rut |
01 July 2008
Who Knew?
I'm a Dodge Viper!
You're all about raw power. You're tough, you're loud, and you don't take crap from anyone. Leave finesse to the other cars, the ones eating your dust.
Who knew a little quiz about cars could describe me so well? : )
Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.