"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.
"Why do you want to know, honey?"
It seems that a friend of my two boys told them about the store Aren't We Naughty. When I asked my older son what he thought the store was for, he said "It's for couples who want to have fun."
Which, kudos to you, Aren't We Naughty for a memorable tagline. Well played. Well played, indeed.
I'm open with my kids about pretty much everything. When my older son came home with misinformation about where the seed comes to plant a baby, I went out and bought him this book. We talk openly about sex in an age appropriate way and if he ever asks a question I feel he's not ready to hear the answer to, I let him know. His little brother hasn't been given the book yet so I was quite surprised when he piped up with "
They sell plastic penises called dodos so women can practice having sex."
People should never be worried about how much I drink; they should be shocked I don't drink more.
Needless to say, after I added some Baileys to my coffee, we had a nice little conversation about plastic penises, sex and what a good age would be to start having sex.
And how under no circumstances should they be having real or pretend sex with a Dodo bird. Ever.
I'm not a big shoe fan. When my friends Connie or Dee twitpic pictures of shoes, I'm mostly left wondering how one walks in them. Then I StumbledUpon these shoes and fell in love. They're made by Kobi Levi, a shoe designer who creates shoes that are art.
These were just a few of my favourites but if you want to check out more of his design, visit Kobi Levi here. And if you are a shoe porn fan I'm just going to warn you that you may end up losing a few hours of your day if you click on this link.
Note: There has been some not so good shit going on in my life lately--nothing I want to talk about right now--and as such, I have a spent an inordinate amount of time on StumbleUpon. Like. Stumble. Like. Stumble. Don't Like. Stumble. It's almost hypnotic and is a way too easy way to forget about other shit in your life. You, the readers, will now reap the rewards of my hours of mouse clicks.
Coming next? Making your stick drawings come to life.
A few months ago we were driving home from running errands and Son No. 1 said, "Mom, let's adopt a park."
To which I replied, "I don't think you can do that."
To which he countered with, "Yes you can, I just saw a sign in a park that said it was adopted by a family."
And so I was all, "We'll check it out when we get home," but in my head I was thinking it was (a) going to be forgotten or (b) cost money.
As usual, I was wrong. Son No. 1 made me go on google right away and it turns out adopting a park is not only free, it was super simple. I downloaded the form, filled it out and mailed it to the address indicated. Three weeks later we were proud owners of a park.
You make a commitment to:
But it's so much more than that. While my kids often clean up the park by our house on their own and participate in earth day events, adopting this park is teaching them to be responsible on an ongoing basis and they are learning to care for their community—plus it's something we can do together as a family.
There are adopt-a-park/trail programs in many communities across Canada. Do a google search and adopt one of your own and teach your kids how easy it is to make a difference.
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