It's Muttering Time

1. Memory :: Cats (it's a song!)
2. Original :: dress
3. Exclusively :: yours
4. Listings :: real estate
5. Bucket :: kicked the
6. Knight :: in shining armor
7. Dusty :: my house
8. Choice :: cut
9. Sunlight :: on my shoulders
10. Change of plans :: irks me

Want to mutter? Unconscious mutterings

Mothering circa 1938

So while I was at the antique shop with my daughter last week I stumbled upon some old pamphlets. I found two that I just couldn't resist buying. One was written by a doctor in Wisconsin, and mostly concerned mothers postpartum care. The other was written by a doctor in London, and mostly concerned the baby. Both were dated 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 : )

"Now that your baby has been born, you need and deserve a good rest. You may turn onto your stomach 24 hours after delivery and should do so at least 15 mins everyday. (do you think that was to help flatten her stomach?) You may use a backrest for meals by the 3rd day and you may sit in a chair on the tenth." ( You may sit in a chair on the tenth day? How many days did these women stay in the hospital?)

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?

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.

~Rajneesh~

The Shack

I must admit, I was hesitant to read this book. I am one who easily falls prey to the naysayers. There are a lot of negative comments about this book in Internet land.

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?

Muttering Again

This a late night muttering.......it's after midnight and I should be in bed!

Flicker :: ing light

Styling :: my hair

Episode :: I'm having one

Sexier :: I used to be

Studious :: nerdy

Mushroom :: hallucinogen

8 minutes :: too long

Bald :: eagle

Immunity :: isn't catching

Sectioned :: off

Want to mutter unconsciously?

Hanging with my Daughter

This past Tuesday I had the opportunity to spend some quality time with my youngest daughter. First we went to a neighboring town to check out their Farmer's Market. It was kind of lame. Seeing as this is only July in the Midwest most of the good veggies aren't ready yet. There were potatoes, onions and lettuce. But no berries, no corn or tomatoes. So nothing that interested us. I thought my daughter would want to head right home, as it was pretty hot out and she wasn't overly thrilled coming with me in the first place. (But she did come willingly!)

Imagine my surprise when she wanted to stay and walk around the "Square". The Farmer's Market we went to is located in a historic part of this neighboring town. They have an area in town set up as a square. There are many shops and an old theater. It has cobblestone streets. Very cool area of town. If you have seen "Groundhog Day", then you have seen this square. It was filmed there.

So anyway, nothing exciting at the farmer's market, so we hit the stores. There is a great little candy shop which we hit first. They have the most delightful malted milk balls you have ever had. They are like triple dipped in chocolate....delicious. So of course we bought a pound of those. Then we continued on and ended up at the bakery. (Can you tell we were hungry?) We each got a donut. Then we went to a local Hallmark store and looked at Croc's and Webkinz. Isn't it funny how Hallmark stores sell Croc's? Then it was on to a mini indoor mall. There was a school/office supply store, I bought my daughter some pastels. There was a fabric shop and we looked around at all the fabric. There was also sandwich shop, but we decided the sandwich's looked too expensive and fancy for our tastes.

Outside the mini mall, back on the square we hit a book store. After that we realized we had "done" the square. We were back where we started. We still had our donuts, so we decided to venture into the park in the middle of the square to eat them. In the park area there is a gazebo where bands can play. There was a family band (mom, dad, daughter and what looked like grandma up there), they were playing mostly 60's hits. So we sat on a bench in the park and just enjoyed the atmosphere for a little while.

We decided to hit the road and head for home. On the way out of town, I remembered there was an antique mall that we would pass by. I figured dear daughter was tired and would just want to head home, but imagine my surprise when she was excited about going to the antique mall.

The mall is a collection of consignors so there is quite a variety of things to look at. It's all one space, so you don't leave one store for another. Once you are in you are in. It had an upstairs and down. We spent 1 1/2 hours wandering around this mall. My daughter is enamoured with all things old. She loves old sitcoms, she loves old history. She was just fascinated by some of the antiques. I guess I should have taken her to an antique store before now. We looked at furniture and toys and books. We spent a lot of time looking at old books. We looked at jewelry and old clothes. I saw some things that were around in my youth, and I had fun telling my daughter how I used to use some of the things. I showed her things I remembered my grandmother owning. And she actually wanted to listen and hear about it. (Not everything in the mall is a true antique, but it's all older than her).

Finally in the end, after I told her I would buy her something if she wanted, she settled on a piggy bank. She has decided she wants to start collecting piggy banks. This is only her second piggy bank, so we have more piggy shopping to do. There is a town about 1/2 hour north of me that is known for it's antique stores. I mentioned to my daughter that we should go sometime and she was excited about it. She wants to spend another day antiquing with her mom.

I feel like the days of my kids wanting to pal around with me are waning. As I said at the beginning, when we first set out on our adventurous day, she wasn't too keen on joining me. She actually tried to bail at the last minute, but then I think she felt bad because she had told me she wanted to come. But in the end I know she had a really nice time, and so did I. We didn't play video games or watch TV or even see a movie. We walked around a historic square, looked in shops, talked to each other. We explored other people's old stuff and talked about what their lives must have been like. We made plans to do it again. Man I love my kids.

The Daily Groove

I subscribe to the Daily Groove. Some of them just seem to "click" with me, and today's especially did, so I thought I should share it. I highly recommend subscribing to remind yourself how to be the best you can be for your children.


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

(Anti?) Education Quotes

I have begun to notice that the stores are gearing up for the start of school. With that in mind, I thought it would be a good time to re-read some old familiar 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

I seem to have little time to post anything worthy lately......but I always have time for mindless fun!

1. Intimated :: announced
2. Brush :: off
3. Masquerade :: ball
4. Procedure :: medical
5. Tattoos :: cool
6. Square :: knot
7. Tuck :: nip?
8. Boyfriend :: girlfriend
9. Badass :: badlands?
10. Thousand :: million

Want to have some mindless fun? Unconscious mutterings

Nightline

A child, like all other human beings, has inalienable rights.
~Lucretia Mott~

In case anyone missed Nightline tonight, or if you don't watch Nightline, this is one that needs to be seen: How To Buy A Child In 10 Hours.

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.

Children do not constitute anyone's property: they are neither the property of their parents nor even of society. They belong only to their own future freedom.
~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

Energetic, creative, and very curious about the world... 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.

What Season Are You?