Posts Tagged ‘Parenting’
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Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
Last night Paige and I had this conversation about Communism, Denmark, the former Soviet Union and the Dalai Lama. I don’t know how we got started, but I know I pretty much blew her mind up with two words – BREAD LINES. The thought of having to wait in line for bread (when her mother bakes fresh loaves at home) is unfathomable. When I told her that bread lines were still relevant to the Soviet Union in the 1990′s, she had two simple words for me – NO. WAY.
WAY.
P: “I thought that only happened in ‘olden’ times.”
We then got on the topic of Communism and China. No one should start talking about China right before bedtime. It’s too much. You can go on endless tangents like – What do you think the factory workers are thinking about when they make those millions of rubber duckies? Do you think that they think Americans have some sort of weird duck fetish? Do they wonder what we do with all those rubber ducks? Or why we keep ordering more each year?
Why? Even I can’t explain why.
I went on to tell her that the government in China used to strongly discourage the practice of any type of religion. Her reaction – “What! What about Buddhism? What about the Dalai Lama? What do they do with him?”
M: “He doesn’t live in China.”
P: “WHHHHAAATTT?”
M: “His home is Tibet, but he doesn’t live there either. He lives in exile in India.”
P: “WHHHHAAATTT?”
M: “Tibet is currently occupied by China. The Chinese government is not fond of the Dalai Lama at all.”
P: “That’s crazy. Who doesn’t like the Dalai Lama?”
M: “That’s a good question.”
Next topic.
P: “Where is Amsterdam? I can’t remember.”
M: “WHHHHHAATTT?”
P: “I heard Amsterdam was a cool place to go.”
M: “Like what kind of cool? Who told you this? Why do you want to go there?”
P: “Geez. I just asked you what country Amsterdam was in.”
Change subjects.
P: “Where’s the happiest place on earth again?”
M: “Denmark.”
P: “Why are they so happy?”
M: “Well, lots of reasons. Free health care. Free education. There is this feeling of equality amongst the Danes. They have a saying ‘Jante-lov’ which means ‘You’re no better then anybody else.”
P: “They probably think the rest of the world is crazy”
M: “I don’t think they even care. But it’s not all great, they do pay a lot of taxes.”
P: “How much?”
M: “Between 40% and 70% of your income.”
P: “WHHHHHAATTT?”
M: “Yep – but they happily do so.”
P: “Mom?”
M: “Yes, Paige?”
P: “Can you please stop talking and leave me alone? I am trying to go to sleep.”
Tags: China, Communism, Dalai Lama, paige, Parenting
Posted in Daily, Parenting | 6 Comments »
Friday, January 16th, 2009
Paige came home the other day absolutely ecstatic because she got highest average score on her math worksheets (yes, beauty and brains). As a result, Mr. Lopez awarded her this Altoid tin filled with candy, a Guatemalan worry doll, a plastic dinosaur and a coupon for a 5% grade upgrade. How cute!
I want someone to give me one of these, but with a coupon for a 5% “pay” upgrade. Unfortunately, since I’m self-employed, I would have to give it to myself and that would take all the joy out of it. All that aside, don’t you think that all pay raises should be presented like this?
You know you do.
Tags: paige, Parenting, school
Posted in Daily | 9 Comments »
Friday, December 19th, 2008
I think that Paige and I are hitting some sort of musical kismet where are all of the stars are aligning and we suddenly like most of the same beats. This is common ground people. When you have common ground with your teenager, you grasp a hold of it and don’t ever ever ever let it go until it forces it’s way out of your clenched and white knuckled fingers.
When Paige was 7 years old I told her that when she turned 14 I would no longer censor her music. Censorship basically meant that I didn’t let her listen to anything too explicit or offensive to women. Or basically, shit that I didn’t want to listen to in the car while I was driving her around.
Back then making her wait 7 years seemed like an eternity, but it sure got here in a hurry. As soon as she turned 14 the first thing she said was, “NOW I GET TO LISTEN TO WHATEVER I WANT.” I had no idea that she had been patiently looking forward to her birthday precisely for that reason. Just another notch on the “neener neener, I’m becoming an independent person” post.
In order to make commuting in the car together more enjoyable, I decided to create an iTunes playlist where we both contribute songs to the mix. Surprisingly, this has been an amazing bonding point for the two of us. This is what I call “accidental genius.”
It all started with Hey Jude. You may have heard of that Beatles song. She would listen to it over and over again thinking that the Beatles was some sort of one hit wonder like Barry Mann or Billie Ray Cyrus. That’s when I started introducing her to the entire Beatles’ catalog. And where she was just AMAZED, amazed and dumbfounded that one band could come up with so many great songs and original music. In the day of remakes and sampling, it was almost unfathomable to her.
Since that day, she’s been adding to the playlist and I round out the mix with songs from the wayback machine that I think she might like. Sometimes I give her a musical history lesson. For instance, until recently, she had no idea that the Beastie Boys are Jewish boys from Brooklyn. Or that Reverend Run was the same guy on Run’s House. You should have seen her face when she saw before and after pictures of Lauryn Hill.
Sometimes she schools me on her musical repertoire too. Who knew she new all the lyrics to most of Johnny Cash’s hits? Or that she loves the Doors? And Bob Marley? She even introduces me to music like Estelle or Lupe Fiasco (For the longest time I thought Lupe Fiasco was a Latino rapper. He’s not.) I love it.
Here’s a samplin’ of what we were listening to on the way to the mall yesterday while stuck 3 miles behind a car accident with no where to exit. Oh yeah, it was snowing too. (more…)
Tags: atmosphere, beatles, britney spears, cold play, death cab for cutie, eminem, estelle, kerli koliv, lupe fiasco, mgmt, music, paige, Parenting, single parent, the killers, what i'm listening to
Posted in Daily, Parenting | 6 Comments »
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