As the Olympics approach I always tell myself that I won't watch them but then, like many others, get lured in. To the suspenseful world faces. To the competitive drama. To the shiny uniforms. To the euphoric winners. To the tearful losers. To viewing the best of the best.
And somehow the sound of the Star Spangled Banner never gets old...
The more I think about NYC Mayor Bloomberg "locking up baby formula" at the hospitals, the madder I get. Who the HELL does he think he is??!! How dare he tell these women that they need to breast feed. I thought he was a liberal! Don't they believe in "a woman's right to CHOOSE?" Yeah, what happened to personal choice?? I think it's preposterous!
My older daughter, Alex, just had her first child in March, and after 3 days was so stressed out in trying to nurse, that she gave up and went to bottle feeding. Which is just fine, thankyouverymuch. She was stressed out enough with a new baby, and new schedule, and no sleep, that it just sent her over the edge. And she has said many times since then, that there is such a HUGE pressure from society, other women, and even the doctors, to breast feed. And yes, there are radical activists for this cause. They are in La Leche and they disdain anyone who doesn't breastfeed, and want you to do it for a long time.
If you think about it, it's backasswards, since feminists are FINE with abortion and killing your child, but then once you have one, you're supposed to go immediately back to work AND nurse your child. Say what?! None of that makes sense.
As a Baby Boomer, my mother bottle fed me, and I made straight A's all my life, and went to the University of Texas, so I think I turned out okay. In my mother's generation, she said there was pressure to bottle feed and that it was considered lower socioeconomic to breast feed. When I had Alex and her brother, about half chose to breastfeed and half to bottle feed. And then when I had DD fifteen years ago, breastfeeding was encouraged but no one made a big deal either way. But now? Young women are shamed incessantly if they choose to bottle feed. But it is still the mother's CHOICE. (May I also add that spanking is now strongly discouraged, and young mother's are told that is archaic. If you spank your child, someone may call CPS on you, so hardly anyone does.)
Anyway I digress.
Mayor Bloomberg is creating a nanny state with smoking, transfats, salt, soft drinks and now breastfeeding. Oh, and guns. What a jerk. What a pompous dictator. He INFURIATES me. It makes me never even want to VISIT New York City. What an ass. I guess I'm fortunate to live in Texas.
Because we would run his pansy ass out of our state...
Yes, I've been to church today but that helped for, well, about 15 minutes... I guess it's all of the little things that are adding up to big things. And then I click on Drudge and, I don't know, it just all seems depressing. And then I think to myself, well then I just wont read the news, I'll just be uninformed. You know, "Ignorance is bliss" sort of thing. But then that drives me crazy too because I like to know what's going to happen -- or at least guess.
Drudge says, "Scalia warns, guns may be regulated" and that Homeland security is gearing up for civil unrest prior to the election. Yes, I'll bet they are... We are a nation out of control. It's like the family who didn't discipline their children, and now that they have grown up, there's nothing they can do but watch it play out.
And speaking of pissy, my 15 year old was supposed to go to our cousin's wedding last night and asked her boyfriend a month ago, and he cancelled at the last minute, and then today her closest friend had asked her to go to a state park swimming with their family, and they weaseled out at the last minute because her sister's boyfriend wasn't back from Houston yet....
Why don't people do what they say? Why are people so selfish that they will disappoint others just because they changed their mind? Half of my family weaseled out of the wedding last night and made some excuse why they couldn't go last minute. Aren't we supposed to be loyal to family? Aren't family the first ones asked to the wedding and expected to be there? I thought blood is thicker than water, or is it?
I'm SØ tired of everyone disappointing me...
Just read on Drudge that nearly half of high school students admit to having had sex. This did not surprise me... My youngest daughter is going into 10th grade next year, and I have heard over the course of the year from her of how many are bragging about it. One of her good friend's mother was telling a group of moms the other day that it was eye-opening for her husband when he started teaching at the high school a few years ago. She said he came home and said, "There's not a drug problem in this high school, there is a sex problem." Seems our local high schoolers are having lots of sex and with lots of people.
What with all of the media 'messages' that they hear incessantly, it is no wonder. It's in the majority of the songs they listen to, and in 99% of the rap songs, which are ever so popular. But they also see it on television, hear it on their radio stations, see it in movies, in magazines, in advertising, on-line (porn, ugh), on billboards - you name it. As a matter of fact, things have deteriorated a LOT since my older two children were in high school, and they went to our same small town high school too, here in a conservative area of Texas. MTV shows about teen moms don't help the cause either. Right now there are four or five sophomores in our small high school that are pregnant, and they are not from the poor families. Even the high school fashion magazines like Seventeen and Glamour are descriptive in their stories about sex techniques for their young readers. My mother never had "The Talk" with me, so I never had it with my older daughter, but I felt it very necessary to talk to my youngest. Even in our church-going town, morals are disappointing, to say the least. I can only think of one really great role model for this age group, and that's Tim Tebow. And he's mocked and ridiculed constantly. Heaven help us.
It's our only answer...
