Fanatics are Nuts!

Canada Day, Whyte Avenue, Silly Summer Parade.

Which of those makes you think of ABORTION?! I'm not thinking any of them do.

This Canada Day, I was with my mother and father in law, my sister and brother in law, my three children, aged 7, 4 and 1, and my nieces, aged 2 and 3 1/2 years old. We parked at Safeway, got a few groceries and headed down Whyte Avenue to watch a family friendly parade, the Silly Summer Parade. We were walking down Whyte, and suddenly, the crowd parts and we are walking in between a silent protest of abortion. BUT that's not even the worst part. The worst part was what they were holding: Five foot high posters of ten week aborted fetuses!!!

**INSERT DISGUST HERE**

As I walked past, I said "Yeah, just what I wanted my children to see on the street!"

Now...I'm a full supporter of the right to protest. I'm a full supporter of the right to believe what you wish. I'm a full supporter of your sexuality, your religion, your color, your right to publish, post...whatever. I get it. I understand that we live in a free country. Fair.

But, what I DO NOT support is your timing. You picked a FAMILY FRIENDLY event. A place where abortion is probably the least important subject at this point. I thought about it for a while, brooded on it, was pissed off...then I realized I wanted to go back. Ask questions of these people:

"What do you think you are doing? You are making it so that a poor parent out there MUST NOW explain to their child what this is about. Probably before either of them is ready!!"

"Couldn't you pick ANY OTHER DAY?! I mean, seriously. You have THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FOUR DAYS to choose from."

"A different location ever come to mind?"

Or as my black humor brought up "What are you trying to do? Make the kids who ARE here realize how LUCKY they are?!"

Unfortunately, by the time I'd had time to digest how I was feeling in a manner that would come across as semi-lucid, they were gone.

Please. You people give your cause a super bad name. There are far too many people who are so fanatical about their causes that they turn people off. I can name three causes off the top of my head such as PETA, Greenpeace and the anti-abortion cause. All of them take that one step too far, that one step that doesn't make any sense to their cause. I mean, I guess to them, it makes sense, and it DOES get them attention, but it doesn't give me any reason to follow these causes.

Greenpeacers, if you show up at the oilsands to protest, it's your right... But don't drive there. Walk. Ride a horse...well, maybe not the horse. You might piss off PETA. And I'm doubting that when you FLEW to Canada to protest, you probably didn't use your own wings. Just sayin'. Even if you biked there, your bike still uses petroleum products. Chain oil, rubber tires...<> You guys probably use nylon rope to put up your signs, not hemp. If you're going to be a fanatic and shove it down my throat, practice what you preach. Don't shove it down my throat and then drive there!!!

PETA, quit putting red paint on things. If we came to your offices and used black paint on everything, you'd probably get pissed off. I get that you don't want to eat animals or have them as pets. Fair enough. Don't. But quit defacing everything. It's really annoying. Honestly, I love my cat. I'm thinking that she's probably happier with me getting food, water and love daily than languishing in a cage at the SPCA. Not to mention that the REASON human beings are even able to protest is that we EAT MEAT! Sheesh.

Anti-abortionists, my problem with you is the biggest. I will not say whether or not I'm for or against it. I have three children. Draw your own conclusions. But here's my BIGGEST issue. Fine for wanting to preserve life. I'm all for it. But why in the WORLD do you kill someone to prove your point? No...really! I'm asking this. It's a ridiculous dichotomy. To preserve a life, you take a life? And yeah. I know. There are crazy fanatics in every cause, but let's look at it this way...if you post GIANT posters around cities with pictures of aborted fetuses on them, which is HIGHLY inflammatory, you ARE going to incite some crazy individual to do crazy things. You don't want to claim these nuts, but let's face it, this is a highly inflammatory subject on any side of it, and a person who might already suffer from an untreated mental disorder sees something like this, it could drive them to do something nuts, like kill a doctor.

For my part on the abortion topic, I have a daughter. I plan to teach her all sides of the story of sexuality, how to handle it, what's the important parts of it. Meaning, birth control. Does this mean I'm going to encourage her to go out and do it? Oh, hell no. I'll discourage that. I'm going to be a big part of my daughter's life, teaching her how to handle her thoughts and emotions in a constructive way that won't include putting herself out for a guy because she thinks that is how she is going to get love, or whatever other reasons girls do that for. I want her to be a secure individual, strong in her opinions and educated so that she can make these choices later in her life. And to teach her that there are ALWAYS consequences to her actions. Same for my boys...but with my daughter, it's important she understand that she's a person, she can be a strong woman who doesn't NEED to be beholden to a partner for any reason.

There are SO many other questions that go along with all of this, and you are free to pose them to me. I will answer them. I'm an open book. You can even ask me directly how I feel about any of these subjects and how I justify my opinions. But understand one thing...I will do the same to you. If you ask of me, I will ask of you. I want to understand the thought process of an individual who can defend what I saw on Friday afternoon on the streets during a family friendly event.

I'm really angry because it forces to me to think that there was a *chance* I would have had to explain to my SEVEN year old son what that was, if he hadn't been so oblivious to the situation. Thank GOD. It's the one moment that I thanked my lucky stars that he was oblivious to something. I'm angry FOR the parent who DID have to explain that to their child before their child needed to know.

My point after all that raging... Fanatics, think before you protest. Believe what you want, but think. Think about the audience that will observe your protest. Think about your own children. Come to think of it, I wonder if any of those anti abortionists had children, and if they did, would they want THEIR children seeing that? And if they were okay with it, why weren't the children there?

Hmm...

End of School Year

Another school year is gone. Wow. That went by so fast. It seems like just the other day I left Logan for his first full day of school. Grade one. All done.

So now, grade two. And Olivia will be starting pre-kindergarten. Exciting stuff. She's definitely excited.

But first, we need to get through the summer. Thankfully, we live in a city full of exciting events that happen throughout the summer. First is Canada Day. This Friday, we are going to go to a Silly Summer Parade, then a barbecue where the parade starts and then off to the Edmonton Garrison for a fun time and lots of things to see. We'll come home, have dinner, and put Grady to bed. At 11pm, there's fireworks at the park right close to my house. I don't like going to the park where they have the fireworks set from, it gets so busy, so I'm lucky that they are easily seen across the street. Friday night, however, I guess I'll be on my hill right in front of my home, watching. Can't leave Grady sleeping in the house alone while I'm across the street. Doesn't seem very responsible.

After Canada Day, it gets a bit crazy. Street Performers Festival, Capital Ex (and another parade) and that's just to name two events. They are always insane events and sometimes it's hard to keep track of three kids. Olivia disappeared last year at the Street Performers Festival, and it freaked the hell out of me. I'm not sure I wish to repeat that event by going again. Sometimes though, we just have to hope for the best.

Then...well, I have no idea. There are some camping trips planned, an overnight trip for me ONLY to Calgary (OMG! I can't wait) and perhaps a family trip to Calgary to take the kids to the Calgary Zoo. We have our own favorite things to do here, Fort Edmonton Park, the Valley Zoo, Muttart Conservatory and just generally going to parks and spray parks throughout the city. It makes for a busy life, but without a routine and schedule to work with, it's freetime all summer long!

But first...lets get over these colds... Then, let summer reign supreme!

Parenting isn't for sissies

Hm. I meant to just enter a blog. Not restart a whole new blog. Guess I screwed up somewhere. Whatever. I'll just blog what I was going to blog about in the first place. Make my first new one I suppose.

So. Like I said, Parenting isn't for sissies. Or at least that's what I'm learning.

Three kids. That's alot of work. I'm tired a lot. Like A LOT, a lot. I have my own things to deal with, health and mental things, but those tend to have to take a back seat an awful lot. Today is a good example.

I woke up this morning in a reasonably good mood and at a reasonably good time. We are late plenty enough and now Logan has a friend who walks him to school in the mornings. Good for me stress-wise because I don't have to get the little ones ready to go right away. Not so good because this little guy shows up around 755 almost every single morning. So...sleeping in past 730 is not a good idea. Hell, sleeping UNTIL 730 isn't probably a good idea. But we make it manage, with a little stress on my part and a little fighting on Logan's part.

But today, we managed to do it reasonably well. Good for me. I had started some of Olivia's laundry last night and put that into the dryer, started a new load, got the baby fed, changed and dressed, then after 9 we went upstairs to clean up Olivia's room and put Grady down for a nap. That was the easy part. This afternoon, I had to take Logan to a doctor's appointment. We've encountered an interesting issue that I didn't realize was an issue and really, I guess, isn't a real issue... But...it is an issue. Are you following me? I'm just as confused. Trust me.

Logan hasn't had a dry night in seven years. That's right. Never, ever ever...not once. Now, I suppose that if a child isn't fully potty trained, day and night, around four years old, most parents would question it and probably try to solve the issue a lot sooner than I have. I'm not saying I'm a bad parent, lax or anything...but I didn't really see this as an issue. I saw it as him. Just a glitch in Logan's otherwise normally perfect persona. We haven't had any famillial traumas, no big changes in life since he was born, we're reasonably stable, only having moved twice in his seven years and both of those moves happened in his first two years. No biggies. So, I didn't see an issue. I just continued to buy his nighttime pull up diapers monthly and shrugged it off. Jeff's been going on about it for a while I keep brushing it off, until the last rotation he was home. I guess maybe it started to strike me that most, if not all of his friends, are no longer in nighttime diapers and this WASN'T "normal". I called our Health Link line and asked them for what is in their consideration for "normal" and was given good information. They suggested trying to get him into an anuresis clinic (new term for me too) which is a clinic designed to help children with bladder issues, like nighttime wetting. I promptly made an appointment to see my family doctor and was waiting breathless to see her, knowing her well enough to know she was going to check him out first, do some tests and try other methods before the clinic.

I was right. She did exactly those things. So now, our new "mission" shall we say, is to get him to NOT drink after six pm, no mean feat, that's what we've been doing for ages, then he MUST pee before bed, and when I go to bed myself, I wake him and take him to the bathroom. Whereupon if he gets dry diapers in the morning, he gets a sticker. At this point, seven stickers in fourteen days gives him a "prize". (We're working on a similar method for Olivia's tantrums...another thing altogether)

After the doc appointment, we went for a pee test for Logan to rule out any issues that could be underlying, such as diabetes, which I highly doubt, but you never know. After that interesting experience (I had to "help" him with some of the logistics) we went to our neighbourhood mall, got a few groceries, went to the little play area they have there and came home. We ate cold Chinese food and that was that. Baths, cuddles, bedtime.

Now...I'm sitting in my living room and I hear all sorts of noise coming from the boys' room. Turns out, Grady's happily playing in his bed after messing his diaper. So...I'm exhausted, on my way to bed, with a baby happy and smiling in a dirty diaper and I need to wake his big brother. I get Grady changed and then try to get Logan up. HOLY CRAP MAN! The kid sleeps heavier than a log! It took me probably TEN minutes to get him up just to tinkle! And I have to do this NIGHTLY?! Oh man. But hey, it gives me some insight into the issue.

We have a month to see some form of improvment. A month. God, I hope this works. It will save us at least 15.00 a month in just what we need for Logan, but I'm not pinning my hopes on a quick fix here. And considering the magnitude and what we believe are the reasons for Olivia's tantrums...no quick fix there either.

So I guess that's why I say that parenting isn't for sissies.

It's gonna be an interesting month. Wish us luck!