Raising children takes a village ...

Ahhhh, thank goodness I am not raising my children alone (alone refers to the hubby's influence too, but let's be serious, I usually tell him what/how he should be parenting....and yes he goes unsupervised at times and I am still fixing those moments...just kidding, not kidding). 

Spelling

Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl taught my then three year old how to spell 'bananas'. Yup, hooray! Let me hear you say "this shit is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S".  And recently, my 4 yr old has learned to spell a popular rapper's name: who dat? Who dat? You ask? I-G-G-Y of course! Who needs the Electric Company and Sesame Street when mainstream music has it covered!? 

Wildlife 

Did you know that there is an animal with Owl like eyes, a loooong middle finger, runs amuck at night, killing grubs in trees like a woodpecker and is evil (well, omens suggest it is)? Neither did I. It came up at dinner. My lack of familiarity with the Aye-Aye has dropped my value as a trusted source for information. Thanks Cat in the Hat. 

Navigation and landmarks

Are we there yet?! How much longer? I'm hungry! All lovely melodic questions asked by the peanut gallery (not real peanuts of course, cuz those are life-threatening).  If you were to answer, 'soon' or '20 minutes' or 'we will eat when we find a grocery store' the response would likely be met with: 'Are we there yet', 'How much longer' and 'I'm hungry'. However, if you suggest that there may be a treat for those who could exercise patience, then you will find that you have very keen guides. They will point out burger joints, donut distributors, and dealers of ice cream.  (We go to the SAME grocery store once a week, and maybe a crap food joint a couple times a year, yet they recognize the Golden Arches miles away and ask 'where are we?' in the parking lot of our grocery store). Tip of the hat to you evil genius marketers. 

Second language

Ok, I may have some responsibility to shoulder here...but I shall shirk it like any good mother and place the blame on my older children. Child #1 (1st born, not necessarily ranked first) was shielded from inappropriate language. Sesame Street was deemed riské when he was a babe. Now with experienced school yard children now being in the presence of the younger siblings, interesting language gets introduced at an earlier stage. "Douche bag" has been translated to "Shower bag" a term used by child #4 to call out child #2. It is usually fitting, but not necessarily appreciated by other mother's who are parenting only one child.  

I certainly couldn't do it without all this help. Raising children takes a village... 'Get yourself off the ground, Y.M.C A'...

Stay happy & healthy

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