Parents. You bother me.

You know what REALLY bothers me?

Parents.

For a few reasons. (I mean there are more then this, but currently, these are my Parent Pet Peeves)

1) Your kid is sick. Keep that child at home. Yes, you do have to use one of YOUR sick days, but guess what? Your child is nearly 3, has no social skills, and hasn't learned to blow their nose, or cover their mouth. They are going to spread their snot germs to, not only all the other children in the centre, but all the staff as well. KEEP. THEM. HOME.

2) Your child (children) is (are) in Daycare 10 to 12 hours a day. Um, why did you have a child (children)? Just wondering, since you know... you never see them. And FYI, they're behaviour is appalling because when you DO see them, you spoil them to make up for the time you SHOULD be, but aren't, spending with them. Congrats for adding to the futures bullies, druggies, spoiled princesses, and teen parents! WOO! Be SO proud!!

3) Yes, your 1 year old is crying when you drop them off, and they've never done that before! ...it's called "separation anxiety" and you looking all worried, and going "Oh it's okay baby it's okay" is NOT going to make it better. Leaving will make it better. Why? Because they DO know you'll be back, they just don't want you to leave. But guess what? 9 times out of 10, within 5 minutes they'll be fine, happy and playing. Sure you get a few kids who scream all day, but in all my years of working with kids, I've only met ONE who was like that for no reason (she was 3 and did it... the others who did it were refugees from camps in other countries who didn't speak english and were being left with strangely coloured people in a strange place - who could really blame them!?)

I'll admit my faith in today's parents, and their "parenting skills" diminishes with each new child I work with. Kids don't do things with their families anymore. They watch TV, or start surfing the internet at 3 (and have their own computer by 6)... they're put in all kinds of organized activities 5 days a week (after school when they should be at home, doing their homework, playing outside with friends, and eating a family meal). Parents work 60 hour work weeks, and live FAR beyond their means - when if they'd cut back on the "stuff" and "activities", they could probably quite happily live on 1 income (or 1.5 if whoever's at home wants a part time job), and then the children could ALWAYS have a parent at home with them.

But that's not how people think anymore. It's all about "Keeping up with the Jones's", or maybe it's better to say "Keeping up with your coworkers"... or "Keeping up with the kids at school". Children are taught from the time they are born that they are only important enough on certain days of the year to get gifts, and that those gifts have to be HUGE and EXPENSIVE and BETTER then ANYTHING ANYONE else could have POSSIBLY gotten on that same day.

And it upsets me, disgusts me and makes me sad.

Shouldn't our children know they're always important? And special? Without being THEE best at everything? Parents over compensate with praise, for the time they're not spending with their children.

I often wonder how many parents actually KNOW their kids anymore? Do you know what your child actually likes? Or does their Child Care provider have to tell you? Are their first steps in a Daycare? Their first words? First solid food? All potty training?

Parents are missing out on the good things, and only seeing the horrid behaviour because they don't know how to deal with their own children... and when the children get older, instead of spending MORE time with them, they buy them things.

I think even sadder is the fact that I've seen proof of the same sorts of things in households where there IS a parent home all day. Parent's have forgotten to put their children first.

Soon every house will have a nanny raising the kids, while the parents do... whatever.

Oh society, I'm losing faith in you by the minute.

My mother

This seems like a highly typical thing to talk about, one's mother, but I have due cause to do so.

I love my mother. I don't think she could do anything that would ever make me not love her. But like all mother's (or parents in general) she has her flaws.

To put it simply, had Facebook existed when I was born, I would have been one of those children who drowned in the bathtub, or choked on their food, because their mother was too busy playing Farmville to pay the correct amount of attention to their child during those activities.

My mother has the bad habit of starting something, but never finishing it.

Some examples are:
1) She will wash dishes, but not put any of the clean dishes away.
2) She'll do laundry, but not hang it out to dry - or she'll hang it to dry, but not take it off the line.
3) She'll make/eat supper but not do any of the dishes.
4) She'll start a project and then find an excuse to not finish the project.
5) She'll take the sheets from her bed to wash, and not put any fresh on her bed - for weeks.

From that list you can see what I'm getting at.

Now I live with my mother for financial considerations. Between the two of us we make less then the take home pay of the mom of one of the little girls I watch.

I had a sweet 2 bedroom basement suite in Regina, Sask, Canada (where I lived before I was forced to move to Fort Qu'Appelle, Sask, Canada to live back at my mother's house). I paid $600 a month in rent, with all my utilities included. The issue was I rented from my boss, and my boss was, in a word, a dick-tator... She had the bad habit of saying something, and the next day denying she had said it.

I decided to quit my job, and move. I could have found any number of Child Care jobs in Regina, but finding a rental for under $1000 a month (a.k.a. over half my pay cheque) where I could have my ferrets (because I have 2) was literally impossible. So out to mother's I moved.

And I can quite honestly say it is like living with a teenager.

I have to ask for assistance with household chores: cleaning, laundry, dishes, cooking... don't even get me started on outside chores (mowing the lawn, taking out the trash, etc).

Basically if I want something done, I have to do it myself. Which gets very tiring. I work a 10 hour work day watching three children 5 days a week (yes, I work a 50 hour week and make $1,500 a month.. WOO! *headdesk*), needless to say I'm very tired by the end of the day, and the last thing I want to do is go downstairs and do ANOTHER load of laundry, and then hang it on the line to dry (our drier is buggered at the moment, and trying to get her to call someone to fix it, well let's just say I've given up, and will figure out how to do it myself!).

I do feel guilty at times that I don't make more money to help her out more, but even when I was living on my own and working I was helping her financially - we set up a bank account we could both transfer into for that very purpose.

So while my mother acts like a teenager, who chews ice on a regular basis, and snaps their gum and takes 30 minutes to answer a call for assistance, I do love her, and will for the foreseeable future be living with her.

Hell, we're even in the midst of planning a move to Las Vegas.

It's been a LONG time

I want to revive this account. I've been using LiveJournal but I'm finding I have so many "friends" and communities on there that I can't really keep up with them.

A brief update of my life:

I'm 24 (the last time I used this Blog I was 21! yikes!). I have my level 2 Early Childhood Education. I thought I was going to enjoy working with kids, however I have slowly grown out of love of working with kids. For the most part I don't mind the kids, but I'm sick to DEATH of the parents.

I currently run an unlicensed (thinking about getting licensed) Daycare out of my home. I have three kids attending:

AL - 11 months (I went to high school with her mother - parents are N and L)

D - 2.5 years (I worked with him at the last daycare I was working at - parents are C and A)

Z - 3 years (I also worked with her at the last daycare I was working at, and I used to babysit her older siblings - parents are T and C)

I am currently going through the process (with my mother) of moving to the USA. This is a decision that has been long in coming, and will hopefully be executed before the end of next year.

I live with my mother for financial reasons. I was working a good job in the nearest city, and had an excellent apartment - however my boss was also my landlady and was really good at saying one thing, then denying she said it the next day. Needless to say between her and the hostility I was facing at work from my coworkers, I quit for my own sanities sake.

I moved back in with my mother after living on my own for nearly 3 years - I was helping her out with money anyways when I was living on my own, so it just made sense to move back in with her.

Dude to the stress I had undergone at my previous job my anxiety level was so high I couldn't leave the house (literally) for 6 months.

I finally got a job at a local daycare centre (and not for lack of trying to find something NOT childcare related... no one would hire me) but only stayed there for 6 months - the wonderful director who had just been hired quit, and they ended up hiring someone who shouldn't have even been working. I quit and 2 weeks later they fired her. They offered me her job, which I refused.

At the same time I opened my own home daycare.

Meanwhile, while all this is going on, my older sister is kicked out of the house she was sharing with her long time boyfriend and their then 2 year old son.

She had been cheating on him with several different guys she had met online. My mom and I gave her the benefit of the doubt and "rescued" her, even though this was a pattern that had been happening since about 2005.

She found a place to live in the city (with Z's dad's ex-wife - mother to 2 of Z's older siblings), and a good job at a local hotel at the front desk. She was making almost what I made in a month. A month later that roommate kicked her out.

From what we understand it was from lack of paying bills and rent, adding to grocery money and not doing any cleaning.

So my sister was back at our house... though she kept insisting she needed to be in the city. All this time her son is living with her ex-boyfriend, who she claimed is his father (never mind she was sleeping with at LEAST 3 other guys at the same time).

Mom and I help her find a place in the city with a male roommate. He was on disability waiting on back surgery.

She's there for maybe 3 weeks, then disappears.

Changes her cell number, get's a brand new Android phone... and just.. POOF gone.

Mom gets a phone call from the roommate, Colin, only to find out that my sister owes him nearly $700 in rent and bills... left all her stuff behind minus a few clothes... and that as far as he knows she's living with some guy she had met on FaceBook a week or so earlier.

Mom tries to contact my sister via FaceBook (we got her cell number from Colin, but didn't call it as SHE didn't give it to us - she still hasn't)... and it takes several weeks and several messages before she responds.

Well, she accuses Colin of attempted rape.

My sister is a pathological liar, and she is, of course, the only one who doesn't see it. She believes all her own lies.

Mom asks if she went to the police... did she go to a doctor... did she do ANYTHING? ....other then of course, moving in with some stranger.

She never called mom... nothing... and this is the person who after getting kicked out called mom before 7AM in tears... you'd think if you had just almost been raped, you'd call your mother.

She didn't.

Then in her latest correspondence - via mom's work email - she tells mom Colin DID rape her (from attempted to that he actually did... fishy, eh?) and she's pregnant.

*sighs* My sister isn't very smart. She takes too long to come up with a lie, and so when she does finally get worked out what she's going to tell you, you KNOW it's a lie.

So now she's pregnant with a child she says so does not love, and has no feelings for... She already has one child who she never sees - or sees very very rarely...

It's frustrating to get in the middle of her shit... and mom has agreed... there will be no more bailing her out of her own messes. She's 26 years old, it's time for her to learn how to deal with it.

So... it's been a very very stressful few years... I put on 60lbs that are very very stubborn and don't want to come off...

Life hasn't exactly been roses... but I'm hoping it'll get better!