Childfreedom?

Childfreedom!
February 28, 2009

I ran across a website yesterday while reading one of my blogs that I frequent and I have to say that this is a new thing for me. I don't exactly live under a rock, but I have to honestly say that I had never heard about this new underground group of people who are angry, fed up, and downright inconvenienced by people who have children and the children themselves.

I of course am not going to lose much sleep over the rantings of these particular blogs/websites but one post in particular actually made me laugh. This person is so upset over what she considers the "choice" of pregnancy. And she isn't talking about choice as in "pro-choice/abortion" but simply as "Yes! Paul and I chose to have children together, we CHOSE to have a family".

Here are the three articles that I picked out, but believe me there are many MANY articles on the one blog that delve deeper and deeper into her disgust of people who have or are having children. Childfreedom Blog , Parenthood doesn't lead to joy- Article. There is then an actually funny post on the same blog Uphappy Mothers which really made me laugh!

I will be the first to admit that I haven't slept well since I gave birth a year and a half ago, I will also tell you that I have days where I just wish that I could have 5 minutes to myself, and now that I am pregnant I can get very cranky. But I have NEVER regretted for one minute becoming a mother and if I did, do you think I would be pregnant again??? I don't think so.

I probably tell Jacob that I love him 100+ times a day, and give him even more kisses. What I miss the most about being a parent actually doesn't have ANYTHING to do with my decision to be a mother, it is the social aspect of being a full-time worker to now being a stay home mom who occasionally has no one over the age of 1 1/2 to talk to. But am I unhappy, HELL NO!

I guess the question is this? Do you have to have a smile plastered to your face 24/7 to be considered a happy mom? Do you have to never ever voice your frustration in order to be considered a happy mom? If this lady can complain about people who have children and she has the right to be "angry" or "discontent" with parents, aren't we as parents allowed to complain when we have had a bad day at home? Just because I chose to have children doesn't mean that my right to have a "bad day" has been taken away from me! But she seems to think that any discontent AT ALL instantly means that you as a mother have regretted your decision to be a parent.

I am a stay-at-home mom so THAT is my job. I know many many people who have bad days on the job and they tell me about it. I don't start a blog complaining about people who complain about their jobs.......how then do you categorize ALL MOMS as being unhappy. Does that mean I am allowed to categorize all people with jobs as unhappy people and that maybe they should choose to live a job-free life and that will fix their problems? She thinks that all mothers are unhappy and that they would be happy if they chose to live her life of being child-free...hhhmmmmm interesting.

I guess since I just went on a rant that makes me an unhappy mother.....I probably shouldn't have had kids! **just kidding** I think I am going to go look in on my sleeping son who I love more than life iteself! Good night everyone!!!

When animals attack!

When animals attack!

February 21, 2009


This week Jacob was maliciously mauled by an small innocent looking puppy and a wide eyed froggy. The attack was completely unprovoked and happened after Jacob helped the puppy after it fell down. I am just glad that I was there so that Jacob was not seriously injured in the chaos!

Jacob has never been very interested in his "pull" or "push" toys so it is funny that this week he has spent little time doing anything BUT playing with them. He has a few but not much since the interest was never shown. He has been helping me vacuum a lot this week with his small toy vacuum and has been keeping his pet puppy and froggy close by. He has even started saying "ribbet" in his own 18 month old way. I can't quite explain how he says it but it is just different enough from "ribbet" to be really cute but completely understandable.

We have had a jam packed week this week. Paul's sisters and their kids were out from California and between the crankiness and missed naps we have now come down with a cold. It isn't that surprising considering he was probably kissed 18,000 times over the course of the week. Of course the cold wouldn't be that bad if you could teach an 18 month old how to blow his nose so since that isn't happening anytime soon and since Jacob runs and screams everytime he sees the nasal aspirator we will have a few sleepless nights while Jacob's nose clears up! A few people have had this cold and it doesn't last long and isn't too dibilitating which is nice. He has a slight fever though which no one else had but hopefully that too will turn out to be nothing, it hasn't seemed to slow him down yet.

Do these make me look smarter?

February 10, 2009

Somewhere there is a Mr. Potato Head that is blind and stumbling around looking for his glasses!

Jacob walked around for over a 1/2 hour with these glasses on the other day. He was determined to wear them and thought it was soooo funny when he would bump into stuff because he couldn't see.......only my son!

Ladies Man!

Ladies Man!
(February 6-7, 2009)

Well it was inevitable, Paul and I have been trying to fight it for months now, but our son is a CHICK MAGNET!!!!

Jacob is the 32nd grandchild on Paul's side and 20 of those grandkids live within 50 yards of us. Paul's family moved out to Virginia from California in the early 90's and purchased a large chunk of land that was split between the family members that moved out. So all we have to do is walk outside and it is like we have a family housing development. Because of this babysitters come very easy and playmates for Jacob are never more than a phone call or yell across the yard away!

Last night I decided to have a sleep over with the younger girls in the family. They love to come over and the last time I had them over was when I was pregnant with Jacob. I realized that I need to get in a few sleep overs between now and August because if anyone even utters the word "sleep over" to me once the new baby is here I would probably cry!

Jacob has always loved the ladies!! There is a joke among the family that if you are under the age of 14 and a girl that you could pick Jacob up and take him away forever and he wouldn't even bat an eye. He honestly gravitates towards them. So I figured that having a sleep over with 5 little girls would be a great break for me because he would be so enamored with them he would be entertained for HOURS!! Well it didn't exactly start out that way.......

At first he was a little scared, the girls were VERY excited to be here so they were dancing and jumping and laughing which scared Jacob a little bit. He cried once or twice and lived attached to my one leg for about an hour or more. But then, well then the Don Juan in him came out the result is the following picture.......

Now please don't confuse his lack of a smile as him not having fun, he tends not to smile for pictures. But trust me, after the first hour he was smiling, laughing, and all around showing off. I have a feeling we have a little Casanova on our hands. I hope the teenage years are kind to us!