Well, Well, Well

You know, life is a funny thing. One minute you're up and one minute you're down. So, Friday I found out that the DOD (Department of Duh) has chosen to take away school funding for a lot of military spouses. Why in the hell would they choose to hurt the people that, for the most part, are the reason most people join the military? I really think that they are blind to the fact that most people join not for love of country but for love of family and being able to support them. I guess you can tell by the rant that I am one of those spouses. It is ok, I will persevere! Don't get me wrong I do love being a military spouse. There are a lot of advantages and disadvantages. While I am on the subject, there are many people that have a misconstrued image of stay at home spouses of active duty members. The sad part is that it is some active duty women that tend to see us as weak or money driven. Evidently they get paid by a different government, because it is thought that we live high off the hog. That must be a skinny ass hog!

Staying home does not make you weak or lazy. As a matter of fact, it is a full time job. There have been times I did not know if I was coming or going. Stay at home spouses do not get "paid" in the sense of a traditional job, but we put in overtime on a daily basis. There are no set schedules or lunch breaks, and bathroom breaks can easily turn into a family affair. I once but up a baby gate in front of the door to keep the little ones out. My youngest,Natalie, was not having it. She took her push toy and rammed it into the gate until it fell and made her way in. Now can you imagine being in a stall at work and your co-worker walks in with a question. I think not!

According to a report on MSN.com, the annual salary that a stay at home mom would earn for all of their mothering work equals to about $138,095. WHAT!!!!!!!!!!! Looks like I should advertise to care for some other family as a business. In my opinion, military spouses would make more than that. It is one thing to just have to take care of home, but to have to learn a whole new language (acronyms,etc.) and follow rules that sometimes just do not make any damn sense is worth $10,000 a year alone. I think I should start a petition for Webster to change the definition of the word mom to " an all knowing, all doing species that keeps the world going round."(LOL) Well this is my rant for the night. I need to retire for the night so that I am well rested for the never ending swing shift that I work. Here is a little quote to make you giggle.

"Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain  they are their own."

 

Aristotle

 

Tis' the season.....

Now is the time of year for most parents to freak out out buying stuff that will be thrown away in a matter of months. I figured out a way to by pass all of this. The magic word is compromise. If you think about it, most adults become more excited about "Santa Claus" than the kids do. Thank God I only have one bubble to pop this year about that. I have started preparing my youngest for what she may see as the biggest betrayal in her life to date. So, this year I decided to tell her that Santa was not visiting this year due to the economy and he has to save all of his toys for needy kids and mommy and daddy would buy her gifts. She is not giving up! Of course, she still wanted to take photos with him at school. She told my husband that she knew he was the fake one because she had already seen the real one on a firetruck. (lol) Getting back to the original subject of compromising, I have started a tradition of only allowing them 3 gifts and a trip for spring break. For the past two years it has worked out great. Not only does it relieve the stress of buying a bunch of junk, it also makes it easier on the pocket. The moral of this story is that we as adults have the power to groom our kids to think and act a certain way and it is best to start while they are young. If you start off with a small amount of gifts and a family activity or trip, they will be use to it by the time all of their little friends try to convince them that more is better.