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May. 29th, 2008
Emer's asleep so I can switch my other brain on.
Non-judgmental play supervision: How do you go about allowing your children to choose their forms of independent play when you know that they are acting out violent, gender-stereotyped, or other undesirable roles? I don't have time to go into much detail now but am thinking of stuff like Barbie, guns, etc. Some toys give me the screaming abdabs but I also feel I ought to allow them to play with them, so I try to keep out of it and let it go on around me without voicing a judgment, but there again, I'm fairly sure they're not dim enough not to realise when I'm judging my little heart out.
Property: My kids have SO MUCH STUFF and one of the ways Linnea expresses naughtiness is to destroy her own stuff. In general I either confiscate it and mend it or confiscate it and bin it. I do not replace destroyed stuff. There's too much already. What Would LJ Do?
Consequences: Linnea ate the icing off the defrosted cake in a box on the counter this morning. The cake itself is fine, though probably not fit to be given to guests, but I think she has forfeited her right to eat any of it now. Am I a tyrant or is that a reasonable, connected to the event, direct, comprehensible consequence?
Laundry: Do you think small spatters of orange turmeric staining on the front fly area of a pair of brand new beige trousers would be better or worse than small spatters of white marks where I failed to bleach it properly? I need to make this decision soon. I suppose I can always dye them brown...
Non-judgmental play supervision: How do you go about allowing your children to choose their forms of independent play when you know that they are acting out violent, gender-stereotyped, or other undesirable roles? I don't have time to go into much detail now but am thinking of stuff like Barbie, guns, etc. Some toys give me the screaming abdabs but I also feel I ought to allow them to play with them, so I try to keep out of it and let it go on around me without voicing a judgment, but there again, I'm fairly sure they're not dim enough not to realise when I'm judging my little heart out.
Property: My kids have SO MUCH STUFF and one of the ways Linnea expresses naughtiness is to destroy her own stuff. In general I either confiscate it and mend it or confiscate it and bin it. I do not replace destroyed stuff. There's too much already. What Would LJ Do?
Consequences: Linnea ate the icing off the defrosted cake in a box on the counter this morning. The cake itself is fine, though probably not fit to be given to guests, but I think she has forfeited her right to eat any of it now. Am I a tyrant or is that a reasonable, connected to the event, direct, comprehensible consequence?
Laundry: Do you think small spatters of orange turmeric staining on the front fly area of a pair of brand new beige trousers would be better or worse than small spatters of white marks where I failed to bleach it properly? I need to make this decision soon. I suppose I can always dye them brown...
Garden: Getting there
May. 29th, 2008 10:59 pmSadly, a lot of what I love most about our garden is stuff the neighbours will call weeds when it spreads to their gardens. We have forget-me-nots and a small purple thing called something like aubretia and a small tall pink thing which has been identified as "I don't know what it's called but it's definitely a weed" by two people, and a small tall yellow thing which I recognise but cannot name except that it's not a buttercup it's just almost as yellow as one. Less shiny, though. Similar leaves to the pink thing.
We also have one iris, purple with a yellow streak, which appeals to me linguistically but not visually, and some sharp grass which CUT me, dammit. And a huge pot of potatoes which we must eat soon. And lemon verbena and what is probably going to be a sunflower one day and some Mixed Wildflowers from a seed packet, so far forming sweet tender leaves with no identifying characteristics. Oh, and some strawberries. I dreamt about strawberries last night. And some feathery grass which I trimmed so that we could see the aubretia. And far, far too many large plastic toys we got for nothing - abandoned by the side of the road or in skips, most of them, and a few deliberately donated. Perhaps we'll get another chance to look at the garden this weekend and tidy up a little.
This evening we watched Dr Who in the 1920s with Agatha Christie and I laughed myself into a very very serious coughing fit. Laughing seems to shake up areas of my lungs which normally lie undisturbed, and bring out the worst in them. It's all very unpleasant. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel well enough to schlep the children to the doctor. If not I'll wait until the weekend and see the out of hours doctor when Rob can watch the children.
Also also, I need to talk to the True Food people about this ecobaby weekend and see if they want someone to sell slings rather than just demonstrate them.
We also have one iris, purple with a yellow streak, which appeals to me linguistically but not visually, and some sharp grass which CUT me, dammit. And a huge pot of potatoes which we must eat soon. And lemon verbena and what is probably going to be a sunflower one day and some Mixed Wildflowers from a seed packet, so far forming sweet tender leaves with no identifying characteristics. Oh, and some strawberries. I dreamt about strawberries last night. And some feathery grass which I trimmed so that we could see the aubretia. And far, far too many large plastic toys we got for nothing - abandoned by the side of the road or in skips, most of them, and a few deliberately donated. Perhaps we'll get another chance to look at the garden this weekend and tidy up a little.
This evening we watched Dr Who in the 1920s with Agatha Christie and I laughed myself into a very very serious coughing fit. Laughing seems to shake up areas of my lungs which normally lie undisturbed, and bring out the worst in them. It's all very unpleasant. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel well enough to schlep the children to the doctor. If not I'll wait until the weekend and see the out of hours doctor when Rob can watch the children.
Also also, I need to talk to the True Food people about this ecobaby weekend and see if they want someone to sell slings rather than just demonstrate them.