Ramblings on a Sunday

This will be very stream of consciousness.

The weather people were SO excited about today, predicting a major winter storm.  Then apparently the temps shifted and now they are saying we'll mostly have rain today, shifting over to snow this evening.  Then we plunge into the deep freeze (they say) -- coldest temperatures in 20 years.

My sister-in-law is supposed to be induced tomorrow if the baby doesn't come before then. We are looking forward to pictures of the new cousin!

I was at the pediatrician's office on Thursday with Lydia.  She was having an asthma attack, which we prefer to pneumonia.  We have a family history of asthma (or to use modern parlance -- reactive airway disease) during respiratory illnesses. 

Anyway, I was watching a short medical segment while we were in the waiting room. The expert panel was trotting out the recommendations about "screen time", saying children in the USA are watching WAY too many screens.  I totally agree about that but my engineering mind is wondering, where's the data?  I hate it when someone says "pediatricians recommend..." but then don't say WHY.  I can guess why -- too much sitting around, rising rates of obesity, not spending enough time with others.  I can guess all that.  But how do they come up with the specific numbers in recommending how many hours of screen time to allow?

The cynical part of me wonders if they pick a number knowing most parents will go over that, but hoping the number will keep things down a bit.  The "no screens at all for kids under 2" strikes me as one of those things.  In our family, our little ones haven't been interested in videos until about age 18 months.  Daniel now enjoys watching videos and yes, I let him watch 30 to 60 minutes of videos a day, usually Veggietales.

One thing I definitely am unhappy about is that apparently many parents have no controls at ALL about how much their children are online, watching videos, using Iphones, etc.  They also have no controls about content.  Considering the truly horrible things out on the internet, every parent has a responsibility to keep close tabs on what their kids are watching and with whom they are interacting.  We talk quite a bit about internet safety with our oldest children, the only ones online chatting with friends.

Zigging over to talking about Daniel...wow, that kid is busy!  A friend commented on one of my Facebook posts that she lets her son (who is a few months younger than Daniel) wander freely through their house. I HAVE had toddlers like that.  Daniel is just impossibly busy. He loves to climb on tables.  He loves to find full cups of water and pour them on things.  He loves to swish toothbrushes in the toilet (seriously -- I caught him doing that yesterday, and had to throw away Angela's 'favorite' toothbrush, which distressed Angela greatly.)  He is one busy boy and usually need to be confined to 2 rooms that can be shut off with doors and a child gate.  If he is out of those rooms or the study (which is child proofed), he has to have someone responsible watching him.

I think our kids are getting better, thankfully. This has been a yucky illness.  We still have the hacking cough emanating from some children but they are all better.

I had an interesting talk with Lydia last night. She is not a lot like me.  She is very creative and right brained, an animal lover and truly phenomenal with young children.  We specifically talked about animals. She would really like an indoor pet right now. We have a host of outdoor cats and of course our famous chickens, but no indoor pets.

I have zero desire for an indoor pet right now.  We have indoor toddlers and that is enough. Even an indoor cat needs a litter box, and a litter box and Daniel is a frightening combination.

Our talk about animals morphed into a discussion about personalities and living styles.  I am someone that CRAVES order. Our house is not immaculate.  It would be hard for a family with 8 kids to have a truly immaculate house.  But it is in decent shape. The floors are never piled high with stuff.  The beds can be slept on.  Our dining room table gets cleared off completely before every meal.  I'm not bragging, just saying that I cannot function in chaos.

There are others out there with way more tolerance for disorder.  I think there is a place where disorder becomes hazardous, but there can be plenty of disorder in a perfectly operational home.  I wonder sometimes if my need for order is stressful to those who would prefer more disorder. I try to be somewhat accommodating with the less structured people in the family; for example, while I insist our big girls work on keeping their floor clear, I do let them pile stuff up on their bookshelf and dressers.  The jumbled mess bothers me, but I try to be mellow about it.

I guess a big part of parenting is majoring on the majors and minoring on the minors.  However, it IS our house.  Both Kevin and I are engineers and need some degree of tidiness and order to function well.  So our house does reflect our personalities and I think that is appropriate since we are paying for it :-).