I vote Green.
Every year, I am told that my vote is a “throw away” vote.
This year, I have been following the #MomTheVote hash tag on Twitter, and there are so many people who are unhappy with their choices. So many people who vote against, rather than for, a party.
People feel they can’t vote for the Green Party because if they don’t vote Liberal, The Conservatives will win.
I understand your math; I understand your concerns. I don’t follow your beliefs, and I don’t believe that my vote is a throw away either.
When you vote for a party, you are telling them that you believe in what they are saying. If you just voted for them to oust the other party, they don’t know that you are still not satisfied. They assume that a vote for them is a vote FOR their policies.
When you vote for The Green Party, they get $1.75 for every vote and that will help to support them and make them stronger for the next election. When you vote Green, you are telling the big parties “I’m not happy with you”. When you vote Green, you let people know that green policies are important.
How can we expect them to ever edge out the other parties if we continue to give our votes to a different party because it’s stronger?
In my opinion, if you are tired of what has been happening in Canadian politics, if you are unhappy with the big contenders, if you really want to see change, vote GREEN.
Have you ever said this to your kids?: “It’s not a race” or “It’s not a competition”
Wether it’s scarfing food/drink or shoving past one another on the stairs, you will find me there (pulling my hair out) telling my kids “it’s not a race, it’s not a competition.”... or is it?
You see, my step son is a very competitive person. He loves sports, he loves winning and he loves to be the best. (That said, I should mention, he also takes losing very well.)
At one point last year, I thought maybe being on every rep team was getting to his head because he said that if he couldn’t play rep soccer he didn’t want to play. I thought that he was getting a little uppity, but then when we talked about it further, he said that in house league the kids didn’t take the game serious enough for him. It wasn’t that he felt he was better than other kids, it was that he wanted to learn and get better.
So, what’s my point?
Well, competition drives Ethan.
He once failed a recorder test at school... once! After that he practiced every morning and learned every song till he knew it perfectly. In the end, he was the only person in his class to learn every song and be awarded the “black belt” in recorder.
He has a crush (shhhh) and now he takes great pride in beating her on every test at school.
So, maybe next time he is taking 5 years to eat his mash potatoes, I should tell him there is a prize for the first one done.
Balance... it’s the new buzz word. It makes the best of moms cringe.
If you look up the word balance there are several definitions, and I think the reason moms get so crazy about work/life balance is because when we are trying to achieve that kind of balance, we think of this definition: Equal distribution of weight.
In our minds, we see a scale teetering, and we are trying to place an equal amount of family on one side and an equal amount of us on the other.
This sort of balance is nearly impossible, and so we feel we have failed.
I would like to propose that, instead, we choose to think of this definition: A state of equilibrium.
Instead of a scale, imagine yourself walking a balance beam, carefully choosing your next step and trying to get from point A to point B. Should you fall, here and there, just get back up and keep on going.
The judges, they may dock a few points, but the good news is, it’s not a competition.
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