"Mom, have you ever heard of the store Aren't We Naughty?"
You're having a nice weekend, everything is moving along smoothly and all of a sudden Bam! Curveball. I choked down the coffee in my mouth, turned around and responded with the defensive move that should be in every mother's arsenal. I asked him a question back.
Once again I was on StumbleUpon—my time-wasting nemesis—and I stumbled across this problem that apparently can be solved by preschool children in five to ten minutes. I figured it out in four. Can you?
Aaaaand Go!
Scroll down for the answer.
Are you sure you want the answer?
You can do it!
No? Alrighty.... count the number of circles in each line of numbers.
For years I have put notes in my sons' lunches. For the most part they don't mention them. Quite frankly, I was never really sure they were even being read but I kept putting them in because that's what moms do, right? We do little things that go unnoticed until one day we don't do them and realize they have been noticed. So I continued to put notes of love, warmth, encouragement and humour into their little lunchbags. Notes that told them how proud they make me. Notes with knock-knock jokes. Notes that simply said "I love you".
One of a parent's biggest jobs is learning how to protect our children without enveloping them in a cloak of fear. We want our kids to be street smart but not afraid that every stranger they meet is a potential danger.
Unfortunately, there are situations where it isn't a stranger who can cause harm. In fact, random abductions are very rare and, in most cases, when a child is harmed or abducted it is typically done by someone he or she knows.
It's that moment when you realize with just the right head tilt and bad lighting, a photo someone took of you and tagged on Facebook resembles a celebrity only, you know, not Angelina Jolie or Kate Beckinsale.
Since Ali has become Editor-In-Chief I've had a lot of people ask me what I now do. The short answer is, as Senior Writer (although I also really like Senor Writer) at YMC, I write.
As a mom, it's part of my job to boost my kids up but apparently telling them "Great Job" when they do something Great! isn't the way to do it. Ironically, by telling your kids "Great Job" time and time again, it means you're doing a "Bad Job." Kids may not be so good with sarcasm, but they're great at picking up on insincerity. Also, apparently we parents are supposed to be celebrating the effort and not the end result.