Why me? Oh yeah… I’m a mother.
Okay, people are probably looking at the title for this post and are struggling to see the connection between all three things listed. Teenagers and online gaming: easy connection. A large number of teenage boys are gamers. Teenagers and showers: well, if you have a teenage boy, you’ll understand. Online gaming and showers… Just wait. It’s social media at its best.
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Exactly 12 years ago today, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Unlike my first child, she was on time. Well, sort-of. My midwife was concerned about the increasing protein counts in my urine, showing signs that my kidneys were shutting down. I was referred to the maternity unit at the hospital. The specialist on call gave me two options: they induce me, so I could give birth that day; or they admit me and we can wait for labour to start on its own.
Umm… Such a silly question to ask a pregnant woman who was so over this thing called pregnancy. Eight hours later, my daughter was born.
My daughter CJ at four months old with her big brother Anthony, who was four at the time. (Sept 2005)
I remember like it was yesterday when my husband brought our son in to see his sister. “She’s tiny, mummy,” he said. “She’s tiny.”
“Yes, Anthony. All babies are tiny.”
Little did we both know that she was also cheeky.
CJ (Christa to those of us in the family) has always been a determined child, never letting anything stand in the way of what she wants. Never mind that she might not actually know what she wants, but that’s beside the point.
On the weekend just past, it was the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 disaster. Every year, for the past 15 years, I have been silent about my memories of that day, fearful that someone would get offended.
The events of that day had a global impact. So many things changed in an instant. The world was in chaos. No one knew what was going on and planes around the world were being grounded.Read More
Walking through the mall with my children, going to the grocery store, and one thing has become blatantly obvious to me: smartphones are everywhere. And it’s not just the youth.
Not that long ago, my husband, daughter and I decided to enjoy a nice lunch together out. At the table next to us was a couple in their 60s and both of them were busy texting, or doing whatever, on their smartphones. Even my daughter commented on how they weren’t talking to one another.
“Don’t they like talking with one another, mum?”Read More
It’s the life of every working mother, to become the taxi driver. Let’s face it, my son is currently 14, a freshman in high school, and fills his free time with swimming training, archery and scouts, and of course computer games, but I’m not going to talk about those. My 10-year-old daughter, just starting junior high, does ballet, contemporary, scouts, art, kapahaka, and until recently guitar and swimming. And this says nothing of my own activities: writers’ groups, committee meetings, scout leader… (Wait… I’m not a scout leader anymore. I have my Thursday nights back, but I’m sure I’m missing something.) There are days when I don’t know whether I’m coming or going.Read More