I was browsing other parenting blogs and I just found this post by Daring Young Mom hilarious. She was sharing an experience with her daughter wherein she withheld TV privileges for a while. Instead of throwing a temper tantrum, her daughter put her creative juices to work and went on to make a TV of her own out of crayon and paper! Imagine that!

It made me think of the times when the creativity of children come out because of “adverse” situations. I remember one time when my sister and I were kids and we wanted to have a Power Wheel. Yeah I know this was normally for boys but they looked like a lot of fun. Anyway, our parents would not buy us one no matter how much we asked and begged. Our solution? We got this tiny coffee table in our living room, removed everything on top of it, and turned it upside down. We both got in and took turns driving our “home made Power Wheel!” Lucky for us the coffee table was light enough to push around.

Sometimes, I think that not giving everything our children ask for is a good thing. Just because they want something does not mean that they should have it. They may be disappointed at first but with their resiliency, I am sure that their creativity would surface and they would come up with something that would make them quite content.

How about you, any “creative” stories that you might want to share?

Ok, I admit that maybe I am a teeny-weeny obsessed with pirates these days. My sister insists that I am, and although she was down with a nasty bug, managed to send me this email about the “Pirates vs Ninja” debate.

Its rather interesting if you asked me. The pirates are winning, with 263 votes, as opposed to the ninjas with 258. Here are some of the insightful comments on debate:

For the Pirates:

” Ah, the anachronism that is the ninja! Are there even any ninjas
left in the world, to fight the pirates? I am pretty sure that
the true ninjas went the way of the samurai (speaking of which,
in the movie THE LAST SAMURAI, ninjas and samurais duke it out,
and I am pretty sure that was anachronistic too) I say NAY!

Yet modern pirates abound! See The Outlaw Sea: A World of
Freedom, Chaos, and Crime by William Langewiesche. Pirates still
kick trash, even in a world of atom bombs and blackberries. In
fact, pirates probably use blackberries. Blackberries, eyepatches
and parrots. Yar, matey! “

For the Ninjas:

“Ninjas have the advantage on land. I mean, you can’t even see
them until it’s too late, and then you’ll never see them because
you have no head.

But on sea, pirates are dangerous. But a ninja could sneak on
board. And pirates are too loud. Yell and say yar, and are
usually drunk, so it is all ninja!”

[tags]pirates, convince me, pirate vs ninja, debate [/tags]

If you’ll notice from my previous posts, despite my pirate-fervor, my ability to “piratespeak” is simply pathetic. I can muster an “aarrgh” or a “shiver me timbers” with as much pirate gruff as that chap Orlando Bloom….which is no way the mother-pirate of the pirate lass celebrant is meant to be.

So getting into the spirit of things, I started doing more research on brushing up my “pirate”, and just discovered that “Speak Like A Pirate Day” occurs on September 19th, the day after my birthday! Lovely. Why have a holiday for these romanticized skurvy-ridden criminals? Heres what the folks at International Talk Like A Pirate Day convincingly say:

Make no mistake. We do. But it’s a little hard to articulate why, especially when you’ve made the mistake of referring to your wife as a scurvy bilge rat and tried to order her back into the galley.

Talking like a pirate is fun. It’s really that simple.

It gives your conversation a swagger, an el�n, denied to landlocked lubbers. The best explanation came from a guy at a Cleveland radio station who interviewed us on the 2002 Talk Like a Pirate Day. He told us we were going to be buried by people asking for interviews because it was a “whimsical alternative” to all the serious things that were making the news so depressing.

In other words, silliness is the holiday’s best selling point.

Before we go any further, there’s something we need to be clear about. Pirates were and are bad people. Really reprehensible. Even the most casual exploration of the history of pirates (and believe us, casual is an accurate description of our research) leaves you hip deep in blood and barbarity. We recognize this, all right? We aren’t for one minute suggesting that real, honest-to-God pirates were in any way, shape or form worth emulating.

So what is it exactly that we’re celebrating here, if not pirates? What, you’re wondering, is the point?

We’re going to be painfully honest here, perhaps fatally so.

The point is, there is no point.

Its the last line that sold me. I love a little nonsense in my sometime serious world of parenting. Besides, it will thrill my little sea urchins em sure. Next post get ready for my favourite pirate lingo.

[tags]talk like a pirate day, pirate talk[/tags]

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]