Introducing My Kids to My Childhood

My husband often laughs at me. Okay, not like I don’t give him plenty of reason. But. In this case, he’s consistently laughing at me for one thing. 

My incurable desire to share my childhood with my kids.

Tonight, we’re watching “Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?” It’s a cartoon version of the Carmen Sandiego game show I used to LOVE when I was a kid. Part of it was that I was your average trivia buff at a VERY young age-even though I was terrible at geography. More importantly, it was fun. Exciting. Educational, while making you feel like you were one heckuva detective.

Television is a big one for nostalgia-we have Thundercats and Fraggles on DVD-but that’s not all. I find myself almost compulsively driven to take my kids to the parks we used to haunt when I was a kid. To go bowling and ice skating (which we still haven’t done). To play Uno and Clue.

I had a happy childhood. I see nothing wrong with sharing it with the kids. Especially considering it seems like there’s so little quality entertainment for today’s kids. So we’ll keep making chocolate chip cookies and going for bike rides at the park and hitting the pool as often as possible. And I’ll think of it as sharing a cultural experience with my kids rather than reliving my youth.

More or less.

What one thing from your childhood can’t you resist sharing with your kids?

New Year's Resolution Time

It’s here. That magical time of the year where we make our resolutions, then go back to paving the road to hell with them as usual. (Thank you, Mark Twain.) 

Normally, I’m not a fan of New Year’s resolutions. They’re too easy to make, and too easy to break. This year though, there’s been a lot of change in the air. Things need to change for a lot of reasons. Not the least of which being that I need to reclaim a little sanity! 

Not sure how well I’ll be able to keep them, but I wanted to toss these resolutions out in the world to see if they’ll do better out there than trapped in my head. For starters: 

1)      I’m starting every day with a manageable to-do list. For me, this is a big one. I have a tendency to try and take life all in one bite. That leads to absolutely insane to-do lists that don’t leave me 5 minutes in a day. This year, I’m trying to find balance.

2)      I want to get back to my pre-baby weight. I was there once, but considering how sick I had to be to get there I don’t really want to go back there again. I decided, in a rare moment of impetuous behavior, to give Weight Watchers a try. I only have 30 lbs to lose, and I really like their system. We’ll see how it works.

3)      Time. Time for family. Time for fun. Working two jobs and trying to keep a house doesn’t leave me with a whole lot of time. But back to that to-do list I mentioned earlier. Time to make sure time for the kids gets worked into that. They’ve been the ones struggling to adjust to this new schedule of ours. And even though they’re slowly settling in, it needs some help.

4)      Patience. Especially with my oldest. Let us pray. 

That’s it. That’s enough, I think! Who wants to stop in below and share their New Year’s Resolutions???