CurrentMom

On Missing My Daughter's Preschool Graduation

Family Friday

Well, it finally happened.  Before going back to work full-time last November, I envisioned heart-wrenching scenarios in which I miss all of the important events in my kids’ lives, become less familiar with their friends and teachers, and generally isolate myself from their everyday existence.  For the most part, none of this has come to pass. 

Until now, that is.  Seven months after I started working, I missed my daughter’s preschool graduation on Wednesday morning. 

The obstacle involved a meeting, which a co-worker would have cheerfully covered had he not been out of town.  If this had been a true emergency or once-in-a-lifetime event, my boss or someone else from a different office could have easily taken my place. 

Using my working-mom cost-benefit calculus, however, I had to determine if the event was truly worth this level of effort.  If I cash in my chips too quickly, I worry, they may not be there when I really want or need them.  And mind you, the children "graduate" every year.  My daughter graduated last year, and she’ll graduate again next year.  

Too Much Tech on Travel

Image by Lyn Millett via Flickr

Technology Thursday

Technology Thursday is on a short break as I've been traveling. But I'd thought I'd share the absurdity of just how much technology my husband and I thought we needed on our recent 7-day car trip with our almost-one-year-old. Let's see... For my son we brought:

• a baby monitor and two receivers
• a breast pump and all the accoutrements

For us, we had:

Blogging In Search of Sanity

Work Wednesday

 

I've now been at this for a little more than two months - ten Wednesdays of bloggy musings on friendship, relationships, work, technology, parenting, current events, and personal memories - all from one working mom's perspective. But I may not be blogging much longer. Not because of any quitting intentions on my part. Just because the numbers aren't in my favor.

To adventure or not to adventure, that is the question!

well it certainly is for me... and the answer is always a resounding YES!

Hi, I'm Denise Hall of www.theentrepreneurialmother.com.au/blog fame, and travelling the world with my now 11-year old is what we do best. Having just returned from our latest adventure to Spain, Morocco, Portugal, France, Brussels and the UK, I am now trying to get my life back into some semblance of order, but it's always tricky that's for sure, especially when you're head is still swanning around the Sahara!

On the weekend, I read a rather thought provoking book, called "Dumbing Us Down" by John Taylor Gatto, and in it he makes the following comments:

"Independent study, community service, adventures and experience, large doses of privacy and solitude, a thousand different apprenticeships - the one-day variety or longer - these are all powerful, cheap and effective ways to start a real reform of schooling." (p33)

He also says "Children learn what they live." (p68)

I must say, I've been raising my daughter following this formula for as long as she has been around, but I didn't know quite how to articulate it so succinctly, until now (thanks John). And a key component of that for us is definitely the adventures. Of course they don't have to always be big and expensive ones like what we've just done. They can be as small as they need to be, but they must be out of routine, and most certainly something not done before.

So over the forthcoming "Travel Tuesdays", I will be sharing with you different adventures that we've had, that we'd like to have, and that we'd rather we hadn't! I look forward to hearing from you also. I will not be the only one with stories to share on this topic that's for sure. After all, we all have tales, and I given you permission to share them (should you need it). Any questions, feel free to ask...

Organic and Chic Baking

Meal Monday

A mom with two young children has just published a dessert cookbook called Organic and Chic: Cakes, Cookies, and Other Sweets that Taste as Good as They Look.The author, Brooklyn-based baker Sarah Magid, specializes in creating custom cakes and sweets from organic ingredients.

With a background in fashion design, Magid is all about high-style looks. But, she has a sense of fun and whimsy.