Candice has discovered a new talent that none of our other kids learned to do until at least the age of 2! Hopefully she will remember this one later when she is actually using the potty! If you listen at the beginning, you can hear her say “uh-oh” even though her mouth is full of pacifier!
About two weeks ago, Candice cast her cast aside and has been running (okay, crawling fast) ever since. I am not really surprised since the cast itself did not slow her down for long! I told you that she was able to crawl and pull up while wearing her cast. Today I have proof! 🙂
On Wednesday nights, most of our little charges are usually asleep when we get home. Phillip was hilarious tonight! I am amazed not only that he slept through being moved, but also that he was able to sleep in the position he was in!
Go ahead. Look closer.
Closer……
This is one tired little boy!
Today I received an email from the parentalrights.org blog about an issue that I had just barely been introduced to in the past. I was introduced to a threat to all parents across America that got my full attention and caused me to be afraid in a way that I have never feared in my life. This fear is caused by the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child. Please read the article. Please. Here is an excerpt.
Since its adoption by the United Nations in 1989, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has become the most widely accepted international agreement in history, ratified by every nation of the world except for the United States and Somalia. All signatories pledge to protect children’s rights, foster their development, and uphold their best interests by re-writing their national laws to conform to the standards set forth in the treaty.
While all this may sound harmless and even commendable, the reality is that the Convention allows and even demands that national governments interfere in the decisions of individual families and parents. By invoking the “best interests of the child ,” policymakers and government agents have the authority to substitute their own decisions for those of the child or parent. In short, parents lose their rights to be parents, and become merely caregivers. The result, as parents across the globe are now discovering, is that the family is being steadily undermined, often with tragic and devastating results for the very children who are supposed to be protected.
Without research and/or understanding of what “The Rights of the Child” refers to, the idea sounds like a great one. Everyone wants their children to have rights. Unfortunately the idea that the United Nations is pushing allows parents to take care of the physical needs of their children but takes away any other influence that the parents may have on their children. The children are expected to learn what the UN approves of and nothing else (including morals)!
Parentalrights.org is taking it upon themselves to keep track of countries who have already accepted this proposal of the United Nations and post about it every 2 weeks. Please go to their site regularly or put their posts in your RSS feed. Also, go to the site of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights site and read the declaration for the Convention for the Rights of the Child. The second statement in Article 2 was most disturbing to me. It states that
States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child’s parents, legal guardians, or family members.
Read that again and think about it. Think hard about it. It says that parents have no influence on the thoughts, activities, opinions or beliefs of their children. Is that what you want for your children? It most definitely is not what I want for mine. According to “Imagine If…” by parental rights.org, the Unites States is only one of two countries that have not accepted this. If you disagree with the things written in “the Rights of the children” please do yourself and everyone around you a favor and do everything you can to discourage America’s agreement to it. You might want to start by signing a petition showing that you are against the interference of government on your right to parent your children. Then you might want to consider getting down on your knees and having a long talk with the Person most able to prevent this intrusion on our parental rights.
Update (1/3/09): I now know that this convention was signed by president Clinton but was stopped by congress. Now president Obama is planning to get it passed. This is very urgent! Go here to do all you can to help.
Note: Although it was not my original intent when writing this post and it is a bit late, this post has a lot to do with the government. If Robert Hruzek at Middle Zone Musings is willing, please consider this my submission for this month’s “What I Learned From” project.
While my children were playing, I heard this conversation:
“He has the chicken pops.”
“No, he’s not a chicken. He’s a dog.”
“Oh, he has doggie pops.”
Candice found a gold mine, and she did think it was hers. Actually they were golden Malt-O-Meal honey nut Scooters. I believe she is the second of my children to discover this gold mine!
While trying to train my children on how to clean their room, I suggested that they pile everything in the middle of the room. Somehow they got the idea to be silly and tease me a little bit (wonder where they got that from?). 🙂
Here is what I saw when I walked in the room to check up on them. Don’t you think they did good job of piling “everything” in the middle of the floor?
We have developed a method to our madness! (sorry, I couldn’t resist). Seriously, we have found a way to help motivate our kids to help around the house. We give them money!
No, not real money; we made fake money that we call “wishers!” Whenever the kids do chores around the house, they get wishers. If they do a spectacular job or remember their chores without being reminded, they get even more wishers. If they fight or have a negative attitude while doing their chores, they lose wishers.
Now I am sure you are wondering why it is so exciting to have fake money. Well, they use the fake money to buy stuff! When there is one lone juice box in the refrigerator, they can buy the privilege of being the only kid to get a juice box while everyone else drinks out of a boring old cup! 🙂 When someone wants to sit in a favorite chair, he/she can buy the privilege of sitting in the chair.
So, you can see that wishers also come in handy for settling disagreements! For example, if Peter and Phillip both want to play on the computer, the chance to go first can be auctioned. If Peter wins, he feels good because he gets to play on the computer first and Phillip feels good because he now has more wishers than Peter and can win the “auction” next time (as long as Anna doesn’t have more than Phillip)!
Other examples of times we give wishers are:
Note: We are being very careful not to let our kids think they can “buy” anything they want. We are making it clear to them that wishers are pretend and are not to be used on their friends to persuade them to make a toy trade…unless it is unfairly tipped to their advantage. Teasing……just teasing! 😀
I had a lot of short but interesting bits of news that I wanted to share. Because not everyone who reads my blog also follows me on twitter, I decided to put them all in one “miscellaneous” blog post. Maybe I can make this a Monday tradition. 🙂
When I lived in Nashville, I shopped at Aldi’s, but when I moved to Rhode Island, I could not find one. Fortunately there was a similar store called Price Rite. Wal-Mart is usually my second choice for groceries. I have always wanted to do a price comparison between the two, but now I don’t have to. Someone else has done it for me. This comparison is between Aldi’s and Wal-Mart, but I am fairly certain that you would find almost identical results between Price Rite and Wal-Mart.
Bethany: (after getting on a bus) “We sit in Fire Twuck.”
Peter: “You dripped a little terihocky sauce.”
Tabetha: “She’s got her curls toed.”
Candice: “Canna.” (Her name)
Today Phillip understood the good news of Christ. Luke talked and prayed with him, and he asked Jesus into his heart! I am so glad!! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!! I get to see my little boy in Heaven!
We introduced our children to the game of gossip this week. While playing it today, Luke happened to put his hand on Peter’s other ear while he was whispering his “gossip” to Peter, I jokingly said, “You have to put your hand on his other ear to keep his whispers from coming out.” Luke jokingly said back, “Yep.”
A few minutes later, I noticed Peter making sure to cover the other ear while whispering each time he told his “gossip.” Once while I was whispering to him, he said, “Mom, you forgot to cover the other ear to keep others from hearing.” Luke and I shared a look and a quiet snicker. Kids are just so fun to be around!
I guess I’ll have to tell Peter that sounds don’t literally go in one ear and out the other, but if I tell him that, I’m sure it will just go in one ear and out the other! I guess I’ll try telling him anyway, and maybe he will remember what I have told him if I remember to cover his ear. 😀