Are YOU a PTA parent?
I have to admit, I’m not a joiner. While I have what seems sometimes to be infinite patience with my kids (…that sound? Them laughing…) I admit that I tend to think most other people suck. Not very generous of me, sure, but when they’re always wrong while declaring how perfect they are… I get frustrated. And a little snarky. And a little bitchy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll wait while all of you stop laughing now. I’m never a “little” anything!
Anyway – this rule of not being a “joiner” has followed my kids through school. I don’t volunteer to chaparone on field trips because other people’s kids are not my kids and you have to be too careful not to offend the parents of those kids when I get frustrated and dump their “perfect lil Johnny” over the side of the boat into the perfect Glacier Bay. I don’t volunteer in the classrooms, because my kids always behave better when I’m not there, rather than when I am – and same rules of frustration apply to “perfect lil Susie” in the classroom. When it comes to PTA – I’ve never joined that either, because tha’ts where Perfect Lil Johnny and Susie’s Mom hangs out. It’s not to say I’m not involved, it’s just on a far less ‘in the open in your face’ manner.
Sometimes Parenting is all about knowing your limits.
All of that above, though, is not meant to suggest I don’t appreciate the PTA – both local and National – and what they do for our kids in school, and it certainly doesn’t mean I don’t applaud their efforts, and their progress over they’re 113 year history. Especially now… for the first time in it’s history, the PTA will install a father as it’s national president!
The lovely Julie emailed me recently to let us know we can be there during an exclusive Live Webcast Wednesday, June 24, 2009 – 2:00 PM Eastern, to see it all go down, and be the first to meet the new National PTA President, Chuck Saylors. You can register for the webcast here, and watch as Byron Garrett, the PTA’s first-ever male CEO, offers the parents that can’t attend the convention the ability to ask questions via email and have them answered live. Saylors and Garrett will focus many of their upcoming efforts on getting parents and teachers involved via Facebook, Twitter, and other Social Media platforms. They’ll also cover other important topics such as:
1. Strategic planning and priorities for the National PTA for the next two years
2. How National PTA is working with the Obama Administration and reauthorization of NCLB
3. Positive impact of male involvement and ways in which men can get involved
4. Summer tips to stay ready for back to school season
5. And so much more!
So what are you waiting for? Go sign up!
Thanks Julie for the heads up!
"Needless hugging"?!
This goes straight to the “WTF?” file. The Dayton Daily News recently published an article about “needless hugging” and asked what teens would think of next – stating that this hugging was another faction on the endless campaign to confound their elders. By doing the unthinkable – and hugging their friends. I dug up the NY Times article they referenced, to find that yes, indeed, this hugging thing is becoming an epidemic.
Hugging.
Epidemic.
Now, I was raised in a family of easy contact – from hugging to the occasional slap on the behind, or punch on the arm, to the knock down drag out wrestling matches with my sister. (Don’t let her fool you – she was PERFECTLY WILLING!) We, predominantly Irish and HillBilly, were as easy with our affection as we were with our ire. I hug my children, a lot. My husband did too before he passed. We will stop anything to give a brief hug to our kids, whether it’s a long involved snuggle, or a quick squeeze in passing. And of course, we often add a poke in the side, a tickle, or an eyeball lick.
(…what?)
So this whole uproar about HUGGING seems absolutely ridiculous to me. My kids hug their friends, too. I mean, EVEN THE BOYS ARE DOING IT! At home, at school, there’s a whole lotta hugging going on, and while people like Noreen Hajinlian are banning “needless hugging” in their schools, I’m sitting here wondering what the heck the big deal is. Many schools have various bans on PDAs (Public Displays of Affection) but even the teens themselves admit this is not something sexual at all, it’s just a way of greeting between friends. Good Ole Noreen there says that’s not the case, because greeting happens before school, not between classes.
(…did ya hear my eyes roll? Did ya?)
So maybe the kids like to hug, because most of the rest of the time they’re only connected by the thumbs and texting – or maybe they’re just overly friendly. Some school officials and parents though, are worried:
• A parenting columnist for the Associated Press admits that she is baffled.
“It’s a wordless custom, from what I’ve observed,†she writes in her book, “13 is the new 18.†“And there doesn’t seem to be any other overt way in which they acknowledge each other. No hi, no smile, no wave, no high-five — just the hug.â€
• Experts have been consulted to delve into what this threat of teenage hugging is all about.
“Without question, the boundaries of touch have changed in American culture,†declares a Virginia sociologist. “We display bodies more readily, there are fewer rules governing body touch and a lot more permissible access to other people’s bodies.â€
• Attorneys are standing by to fight for the constitutional rights of students who might feel pressured by their peers into hugging. The day after the Times story was published, a legal Web site in Michigan warned that parents “should be alert to the potential downsides†of hugging.
• And school officials, naturally, are having trouble getting their arms around this latest form of teenage rebellion. Some have instituted a “three-second rule†to limit the length of a hug. A few years ago, in Bend, Ore, a middle school girl received detention for illegal hugging.
“Touching and physical contact is very dangerous territory,†notes the principal of a high school in New Jersey, where student — and, presumably, faculty — hugging was banned two years ago. “It was needless hugging — they are in the hallways before they go to class. It wasn’t a greeting. It was happening all day.â€
So here’s my question to you – where do YOU stand on the whole hugging debate? Is it really a gateway to bigger and harder and more dangerous drugs? (…I mean sex, ya’ll. *L*) Or is it as harmless as it seems? Do you think kids will actually feel left out if they choose NOT to hug, any more than they have before? Are you a hugger or non-hugger yourself? Is this REALLY something we need to be obsessing over when there are so many OTHER things that can go wrong? Sound off in the comments below!
TXT Speak!
If your teenager is anything like mine, then you never see them without a cell phone nearby. Even if they have the ringer on silent, at some point – several points – during the day you’ll hear the steady taptaptap as another message is sent out to their friends about who they’ve seen, what they’ve heard, and what are we going to do tonight?
(The same thing we do every night, Pinky – try to take over the world!) (Wow, that previous paranthetical aside totally made me old, didn’t it? Sigh. Pinky and the Brain, kids. Educate yourself! 🙂 )
Now, if your a hip parent (and I TOTALLY AM, though my lameness increases with each declaration of my hip status. This parenting thing is CONFUSING!)you text your kids, too, and your kids send you back messages filled with abbreviations and acronyms that you don’t understand. It’s ok. We’ve all been there and know there’s a learning curve. The Webopedia is even here to help with a list of 1,125 entries of what your kid might possibly be trying to tell you.
For the most part, it’s pretty easy to pick up – which is good, especially with the teenage “sexting” that’s going on, and how dangerous it is. If you happen to get a random text that was accidently sent to you (what? it happens!) and you don’t know what it means, Fox Atlanta has a list of some things you may want to be on the lookout for – just to make sure your kids are playing it safe. These are the top 50 text acronyms that all of us should know:
1 8 Oral sex
2 1337 Elite
3 143 I love you
4 182 I hate you
5 459 I love you
6 1174 Nude club
7 420 Marijuana
8 ADR Address
9 ASL Age/Sex/Location
10 Banana Penis
11 CD9 or Code 9 Parents are around
12 DUM Do You Masturbate?
13 DUSL Do You Scream Loud?
14 FB F*** Buddy
15
16 FMLTWIA F*** Me Like The Whore I Am
17 FOL Fond of Leather
18 GNOC Get Naked On Cam
19 GYPO Get Your Pants Off
20 IAYM I Am Your Master
21 IF/IB In the Front or In the Back
22 IIT Is It Tight?
23 ILF/MD I Love Female/Male Dominance
24 IMEZRU I Am Easy, Are You?
25 IWSN I Want Sex Now
26 J/O Jerking Off
27 KFY or K4Y Kiss For You
28 Kitty Vagina
29 KPC Keeping Parents Clueless
30 MorF Male or Female
31 LMIRL Let’s Meet In Real Life
32 MOOS Member Of The Opposite Sex
33 WYCM Will You Call Me?
34 MOS Mom Over Shoulder
35 MPFB My Personal F*** Buddy
36 NALOPKT Not A Lot Of People Know That
37 NIFOC Nude In Front Of The Computer
38 NMU Not Much, You?
39 P911 Parent Alert
40 PAL Parents Are Listening
41 PAW Parents Are Watching
42 PIR Parent In Room
43 POS Parent Over Shoulder or Piece Of Sh**
44 PRON Porn
45 Q2C Quick To Cum
46 RU/18 Are You Over 18?
47 RUH Are You Horny?
48 S2R Send To Receive
49 SorG Straight or Gay
50 TDTM Talk Dirty To Me
How many did you know? Pay attention to you kids – give them reasons to type out PAL and PAW more often, and as I ALWAYS stress – TALK TO YOUR KIDS.
In text speak, if you have too.
“RU SRS? GTYR, YG! 143.”
(Are you serious? Go to your room, you’re grounded! I love you.)
Final Week!
As is traditional, the Final HOH would be played in three parts, the first of which was endurance. It was Kyle vs. Mike and Jaym. Who would pull it out in the end?
When it came time for Part One, Kyle ended up with a Real Life Commitment, and didn’t show. However, speaking of shows, Jaym and Mike decided to put on one, and kept the contest going for 5.5 hours, before they agreed that Mikey should win part one, as Jaym had a better chance against Kyle in a puzzle Part Two. She “dropped” and Mikey advanced to part three.
Part Two was a puzzle I felt SURE I had made more difficult than ever, and there would be no 7 minute solving it THIS time! It was a Color Step Sequence Maze, and I had solved it in a mere 54 moves.
…..they solved it in 36.
Bitches.
But it DID take them almost an hour – so THAT made me happy. Who won? Jaym, by barely beating out Kyle by 9 minutes to get her solution in first. Kyle was thus out of the running for the final HOH, and Jaym and Mikey would battle it out in a contest that effectively meant nothing, as we all knew they’d take each other.
In a blindingly fast “finish the statement” contest pulled from a Jury Questionaire, Jaym toppled Mikey off the hill and became the final and most powerful HOH! She promptly evicted Kyle, sending him to the jury house where they began to put together their questions to decide on the winner of BBE. The power was now in the hands of the Jury.
They asked some tough – and some confusing – and some hysterical – questions, which were answered quickly by Jaym and Mike. They debated, and while most felt that Jaym played a more competitive game, they seemed more upset that Jaym and Mike stumbled over themselves trying to prove the other person more worthy of the grand prize by being uber nice. Not saying they should have thrown each other under the bus, but a little fight would have been fun!
In the end – JAYM was voted the winner of Big Brother Experience: Season 1 by a 6-0 vote. (Jaym’s self-proclaimed biggest fan didn’t bother to vote. As it wouldn’t have changed anything, we simply ignored it.)
Congrats Jaym – you certainly fought you way through it! 4 POVs in a row, and 2 HOHs – she was the BBE Competition Queen!
Now, all the houseguests have been let out into the forums, to learn all the things they didn’t know, thought they knew, what we knew and said. Feel free to pop into the forums and check it out, and congratulate Mikey and Jaym for a game well played!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While we don’t have time for another season of BBE before Big Brother 11 starts and my focus becomes Big Brother Craze, I had an idea of what should come next. The viewer’s are all for it, so it’s time to let you players in on the plan.
The forums are still open – including a section dedicated to Big Brother 11 – you’ll be able talk shit about the BB Houseguests anytime you want, and generally dish about the season while keeping up with all the goods at Big Brother Craze. Even BETTER though is this….
We’re going to run a BBE Pool Party!
Here’s how it will work:
— I’ll post a signup thread, and we’ll have as many pools as we need to make sure everyone gets a shot. You can even sign up for more than one, as long as you are committed to seeing it through, and willing to pony up your part of the prize.
— Once the houseguests are announced, we will assign each member of the pool (or pools) a houseguest via Random.org to cheer and/or jeer for. You can chatter and discuss and tear apart your houseguests strategy, attitude and/or hygiene all you like.
— If your houseguest wins Big Brother 11, then each member of your pool commits to sending $10-$20 USD to the winner in the form of Amazon gift cards, or some other form of gift card if the winner prefers somewhere else. Let’s say there’s 13 houseguests again, at $10 a person, that’s $120 of new books or something for the winner! Definitely nothing to sneeze at, and it isn’t too difficult an amount to come up with.
— We all have fun!
So that’s what’s coming up from Big Brother Craze, Reality Daze, and The Big Brother Experience! We look forward to a GREAT Big Brother 11 Season!
Week 8 Roundup!
When we left the BBE houseguests, it was time for the Week 8 HOH. Dru was ineligible to play, which left Kyle, Jaym and Mikey to fight it out. The object of the game was simple – correctly guess who said the given statement – all of which were said by their fellow houseguests in either Diary Room sessions or Private Messaging. None of the statements would affect the end game in any way.
In the end, it was proven that none of them knew their fellow houseguests very well, as Kyle became the Week 8 HOH with a score of THREE – out of a possible 15. Tsk! Of course, it’s a possibility that Jaym threw it, as she got both of Jake’s wrong. Who knows though…
Anyway – that left Kyle with a tricky decision – which of his allies to put up against Dru, who was obviously their target for the week. Jaym threw herself at the block, saying it’d make her fight harder for POV, and Kyle agreed, and put Jaym and Dru up for Eviction.
During the POV, the houseguests were asked to complete the puzzle BBE DNA. I had spent over an hour on it and…. Jaym solved it in 7 minutes. OY! I would best her yet, if it KILLED ME. (and it might!) Be that as it may, it mean Jaym was the winner of POV, and naturally saved herself, which put Mikey up against Dru for eviction.
Jaym, being the only vote, obviously voted to evict Dru, sending a bitter Brit to the Jury.
It was time for the Final three… Who would win the most important HOH of the season?
Stay tuned!
