This is something I just got in my email, which I had to share with you all. Read it and get a new perspective on the new millenium’s parenting - which suddenly doesnt seem so great after all.

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930’s 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank koolade made with sugar, but we weren’t overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING !

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day and we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD’s, no surround-sound or CD’s, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms…….

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned

HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

If YOU are one of them . . . CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as
kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it?!

The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:

“With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks….Are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?”

[tags]kids, growing up, survival, jay leno[/tags]

I hadn’t realized that the day of The Three Kings was so unknown in America (at least not in the non-Latino communities)and England, both of which are the cultures from my husband’s side of the family. And so, the o.c Mom that I am, I dug up some more on the three kings to share with my husband and kids (they should know why their shoes are getting filled with candy, dont you think?, and now my blog too…. next I’ll be reporting how the big festivities went.

Los Tres Reyes Magos literally means “The Three King Wizards”, but is usually interpreted to mean “The Three Wise Men” or “The Three Kings”. Their celebration day (January 6th) is refered to as “Three Kings Day” or just “The Day of the Kings”.

In Spanish tradition, on the day of January 6th, three of the Kings: Melchor, Gaspar, and Balthazar, representing Europe, Arabia, and Africa, arrived on horse, camel and elephant, bringing respectively gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus twelve days after his birth.

As such in Spain, this is the day that people give and receive gifts. And as children in the United States and other countries might wait with great anticipation the arrival of Santa Claus, in Spain the children await the arrival of the Three Kings.

On January 5th in most Spanish towns is the “la cabalgata” (the calvacade) which is a parade marking the arrival of the Three Kings. The Three Kings ride on floats throwing candy to the children. In the Canary and Balaeric Islands the Three Kings arrive by ship!

After the parade the children return to their homes to prepare for the arrival of the Three Kings. They place their shoes on the windowsills and fill them with straw, carrots and barley for the donkeys of the Three Kings. Sometimes they might also leave some food for the Three Kings. The next morning the children wake up early to open their presents. Although the children like all of the Three Kings, their favorite is Baltasar because he is the one who it is believed actually leaves the gifts. This is also the day that adults will get their presents although of course these are not delivered by the Three Kings.

And for my history-buff husband, heres what I’ll be telling him about the Feast of the Epiphany:

Epiphany (Greek: ?????????, “the appearance; miraculous phenomenon”) is a Christian feast intended to celebrate the ’shining forth’ or revelation of God to mankind in human form, in the person of Jesus. The observance had its origins in the eastern Christian churches, and included the birth of Jesus; the visit of the Magi, or Wise Men (traditionally named Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar) who arrived in Bethlehem; and all of Jesus’ childhood events, up to his baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist. The date of the feast was fixed on January 6. Ancient Liturgies speak of Illuminatio, Manifestatio, Declaratio (Lighting, Manifestation, Declaration); cf. St. Matthew’s Gospel (iii, 13–17); St. Luke’s (iii, 22); and St. John’s (ii, 1–11); where the Baptism and Marriage at Cana are dwelt upon. The Christian Churches have traditionally also talked of a “Revelation to the Gentiles”, where the term Gentile meant all non-Jewish peoples. The Biblical Magi represent the non-Jewish peoples of the world.

[tags]three kings, epiphany, magi, holidays, latin[/tags]

Growing up, my family always celebrated the three kings day, or the Epiphany. We knew it as the day the three kings (also known as the Magi) would be passing our home, traveling back from Bethlehem, and if we were good and left our shoes by the window, they would fill it with candy.

Aside from that though, it really marked the end of the holiday season, as the day after we would start packing away the Christmas tree, lights and all the decorations. Since we’ve had kids, its become another holiday passed down for our kids to remember, and this year, we’ve even been invited to a three kings party at the local Spanish club. Apparently in Spain, the three kings day (which actually falls on January 6th) is a pretty big deal. Heres how they celebrate it there:

” While most of the world has already begun packing up the Christmas ornaments, throwing out the tree, and finding a place for all of their gifts, Spaniards are continuing the celebration. January 6, Three King’s Day, is the long awaited day in which the three Kings bring their gifts. On January 5, children go to a parade where they see the three kings arrive to their city, and take the opportunity to ask them for gifts. Later, before going to bed, children leave their shoes out in a visible spot in the house or on their balcony, y go to bed hoping that when they wake up they will find gifts left by Mechior, Gaspar, and Balthasar. For breakfast or after lunch, families often have the typical dessert of the day, the “Roscón de los Reyes”, a large ring shaped cake that is decorated with candied fruits, symbolic of the emeralds and rubies that adorned the robes of the three kings. Somewhere inside the cake there is a surprise, and the person to find it will be crowned King or Queen of the house for the remainder of the day. ”

[tags]three kings, epiphany, Spain[/tags]

One of the best things I can recommend to each and every Mom out there, is to get a few days of “de-Momming” every year, away from the children, away from the spouse, and with your best girlfriends. If you havent done it yet, I urge you to to put all guilt aside and trust your kids with their Dad (who honestly will do an OK job, I swear). You’ll emerge not just refreshed but you’ll regain some of your old self too - B.C. (before children).

The day after Christmas, I did just that. It was the first time I ever did it - leave the kids alone with my husband and actually go on a mini-holiday without my young family. I was guilty and kind of nervous when I got on the plane, and when I got to the island, I was actually still wondering what the hell I was doing, leaving the 3 people who I loved most.

I met up with my two best girlfriends from high school, both of whom live miles away from each other, and from me. If we’re lucky, we get to see each other once a year, and not for very long, so five days together were a rare pleasure indeed.

On the first night there, one of the girls sweetly treated me to the spa for the best two-hour deep tissue massage I have had in my life. I dont know if it was the therapist’s expert hands, the sublime rose petal bath afterwards, or the open-air treatment villa we were in, but I was more relaxed than I had been in a very long time. After the spa, we met up with friends at beach bar and sipped “sea breezes”, chatting until the wee hours.

The rest of the trip took the same trend - sunning, swimming, listening to music, eating (lots of seafood!), drinking cocktails (not quite the same amounts as my B.C. days, but still a great deal more than usual!), shopping at the beach boutiques and chatting, chatting and more chatting. It was heaven!

Yes, it was admittedly a bit strange at first to switch off from Mommy-mode, not having to think about what the kids were doing, what they were eating next, or what I could do to keep them busy without having to resort to the DVD player (and you could say the same train of thought applied to my hubby). In fact, there wasn’t much thinking at all, which was just perfect.

So five days later (I extended a day, fully supported by my hubby - aren’t I lucky?), I returned home, tired from the plane and car journey, but feeling absolutely great. I discovered that sometimes our old selves tend to get lost in being a Mom, and that a few days on the beach with the girls is all it takes to regain some of it again.

[tags]beach holiday, girls trip[/tags]