Difficult discussions

"So, what did spitter do?", asks K, my 4-year old son. The hazards of ubiquitous TV and passing grown-up conversations is that sometimes, the ugliness of public behavior is suddenly thrust on the consciousness of lil' ones. "A bad man", I said, then, "a man who did a bad thing"... clearly not thinking that one through. Of course, that meant that the kids followed up with, "what kind of bad thing." I was able to end the discussion by saying, "he made a lot of people feel bad that they trusted him", and then I challenged them to a race to the toy cupboard, and spent the next hour playing I Spy.

There are the giggles in staff meetings about what Specter paid for his trysts, but it's hard for me not to think about the awful stories of young girls plucked from their families and forced into prostitution. The horribleness of this upsets me, especially as it gets to be discussed more as some kind of antiseptic step in the political chess game. My years serving on the Sakhi board has sensitized me to the many ways that abuse happens. Some day, there's a conversation to be had with my twins, about right and wrong, about victims of crime who become part of the crime, and abuse. I don't want that day to come!
Roopa (http://rooparecipes.blogspot.com/)

Desperately Seeking Advice

Hi ladies,

Sorry for not contributing more often, but I am currently going through a divorce and so have been on an emotional roller-coaster over the past few months.. I didn't want to touch on it in my food blog (because my husband is a fan of it), and I don't really want to dwell on it here either, because it's not the reason for my post today, but I thought it was worth mentioning since I'll definitely be posting more about it in the coming months.

Err, see, my son (I call him "Jojo" all the time) just turned 4 in August and until now, still refuses to eat anything but mash even though he has 18 beautiful little teeth!! Anyone has this problem, too? The strange thing about him is that he displays ZERO curiosity about food, and strangely, the only things he deigns to bite are M & Ms and gummy candies (I know I shouldn't be giving him too many of them, but there are days bribing as a last resort gets the better of me, haha)... if anyone has had the same experience as mine with their kids, I'd like to know how they managed to "convert" their kids to solids. :) I don't want to use heavy-handed tactics, but my kid is terribly stubborn and I suspect only reverse psychology will work on him! And he's only 4! Yikes! :)

Thanks in advance for your help!
Hugs!

sigh..

Today I realized how Ive lost track of time after Ive started full-time work again. For the past few summers, Ive prided myself in being home with the kids and summers have always been organized and perfect. At least that's what I think. The kids would rather sleep through brunch and feast on junk all afternoon, but I kept them on their toes half the time with some crazy summer camp schedule.

As organized as I am [or thought i was] I'd made a note of all the good [and quickly filling] camps around the area, created reminders for the start of registration at my home computer and armed myself with all paperwork necessary in a binder.

You'd think with such precision I'd put the staff secretary at the White Hosue to shame, but no, right there I made a huge mistake. How good is a home computer when you don't use it?! I don't pour over it anymore checking mails, doing my documents, or browsing happy sites or shopping online . All those exciting tasks have now been shifted to the system at work. So yes, whats the point in having a reminder when it's blinking away to glory, and no one notices it?

And thats the short version of how I missed all deadlines.

Ive been kicking myself ever since I realized over the weekend, that I may for all you know be booted out of the 2 main camps that I so badly want my tweens to go. Not just coz it's good for them, but it would solve my anxiety on leaving them alone at home while I schlep myself off 20 miles to 'work' !

As if I am not miserable enough, one nice mom calls me up to say " so did you get the confirmation yet? I got mine last evening. Boy, they get filled so quickly don't they? Hope you get yours, you sent it only on Friday. Maybe in the next couple of days. Hopefully. "

Sure. I feel like a complete bumpkin now.