I'm sorry but my soapbox was getting dusty....

This should probably be two separate posts but I’m just going to go ahead and combine them so I can get maximum rant-age and so that I don’t end up with two whiney posts in a row because the limited amount of people who do read this would probably stop. I can’t have that! My apologies in advance - stick with me if you can. Remember - these are just my humble opinions but lucky for me I have a venue in which to bring it to the world. Kinda scary eh?

Up first is the – Hey! Stop referring to your kid’s age in months for the love of the little baby jeebus! He’s FIVE!

Ok usually it’s not that bad, but I feel that once your child has reached one year of age, then you need to stop with the months. First of all – I do not feel like I should have to do math in my head and get a brain-strain trying to figure out how the hell old your kid is. Just tell me. It’ll be easier for everyone.

Second – how do you expect your kid to respond to the “how old are you?” question. You want them to answer in months too? Personally I’ve yet to hear that happen but I’m sure its not beyond the realm of possibilities.

Third - I have yet to see one card that says something like "Happy Birthday - You're 24 months!" Nope. Doesn't happen. The cards start at "Happy First Birthday" and go from there. See? Even the greeting card companies that are all about the benjamins don't want to acknowledge your kid in month age.

I’ve polled other, actual parents, on this and pretty much everyone I know feels the same way. This makes me feel like I have a valid point and would kindly ask that all parents with children over the age of 12 months knock if off already. I’m not sure if you’re doing this to be annoying, to further solidify your status as “yuppies”, or because you feel like we need an exact count of just how old your kid is.

Maybe you just can’t believe they are growing up so fast and talking about it in months makes it seem like it’s not happening, because referring to your kid as “years old” is just “too real” for you. Well suck it up buttercup. Everyone else thinks you sound dumb.

The second (and last) issue (thank God right?) – and this will probably get me hate mail. I don’t care. I worked in collections for two years I used to get death threats on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. Do your worst.

I read about this on another blogger’s site. Typically I like what she has to say and I sympathize with her family and their struggles as they have dealt with childhood cancer. I can’t even imagine what this would be like. That’s not the issue.

The issue is that apparently – and Katie Couric is in on this too – today’s children are all delicate and fragile flowers that we need to protect from the “big bad ugly real world”

**Shakes head** I’m just not sure how much longer we can continue to encourage a society in which it’s ok to stick your head in the sand. WAKE UP! If you didn’t notice – the sticking your head in the sand philosophy? Is EXACTLY how we ended up where we are.

Sure – historically speaking, it was time for the economy to be on the down side of a bell curve, but I don’t know that it necessarily would have had to be THIS BAD had people been paying a little bit of attention.

So here’s what Miss Couric (and this blogger) are all up in arms about: In this tough economy everyone is facing hardships (duh) some are worse off than others (right, got that too) health care is expensive and in some cases non-existent (yes I recognize that I am lucky to have affordable health care – yay me!) but the children are suffering!

Um – ok first of all, I cannot even imagine what it would be like to choose between stuff like feeding my kids and getting them medical attention. I agree that that situation is truly horrible. I also can’t imagine suddenly being homeless with or without kids. Again. Horrible. None of this is what bothered me.

What was upsetting was a statement along the lines of “the kids can’t handle all this pressure and stress and anxiety”. Really?? The kids??? Why? Because they can’t get as many video games as they used to? Because maybe mom and dad had to cut the 2,000 channel cable down to basic?? Because the parents surely aren’t under stress and anxiety and pressure. Because they don’t feel the weight of a thousand worlds on their shoulders while trying to make the best of it for themselves and their kids.

Also? Have you even met your grandparents, or, if you’re old enough, your parents?? It’s called the Great Depression people. There were thousands of people lined up for soup. They lived in cardboard shanty towns. Guess what? They also had kids! These kids might have been your grandparents or parents!!

Basically, my first reaction to this situation was – yes, it is hard, but guess what? We have so many more resources then they did back in the 30’s and 40’s. I just don’t feel like people should be using this economic crisis as yet another excuse for future bad behavior on the part of their children. I pretty much guarantee you that once a whole new crop criminals springs up the media will be all “Well you know back in ’09 (2009 that is!) his family’s house was foreclosed on and they had to downsize to an apartment and sell his Xbox. Oh the horrors”

**Ahem** I’m just going to go and push my soapbox back to the closet for awhile.