Blog

This one comes as a forwarded email from my brother and sister-in-law:

Mom and Dad decided that the only way to pull off a Sunday afternoon quickie with their 8 year old son in the apartment was to send him out on the balcony with a Popsicle and tell him to report on all the neighborhood activities.

He began his commentary as his parents put their plan into operation:

“There’s a car being towed from the parking lot” he shouted.

A few moments passed.

“An ambulance just drove by”

A few moments later, “Looks like the Anderson’s have company” he called out.

“Matt’s riding a new bike…..”

“The Coopers are having sex!!”

Startled, Mother and Dad shot up in bed!!!

Dad cautiously asked, “How do you know they are having sex??”

“Jimmy Cooper is standing out on his balcony with a Popsicle too.”

Student: Couldn’t once it just be easy?
Master: Would you appreciate it?

Stress down… My accountant said, “It’s going to be ok!”

Those things need gas to keep puttering. Who woulda thunk!

No alcohol, no soda, no chips…

So far the day has included phone calls regarding insurance and other bureaucracy including calls about the elementary school bus. Knoxville needs to own their own buses. Contracted bus service is pathethic.

Use them both!

An old favorite! Lemmings!

What I should be doing:

• Invoicing clients
• Emailing clients that would have liked to have heard from me Monday morning
• Picking up two powersupplies from a client
• Talking to the IRS
• Balancing the books
• Programming for Client A
• Documenting for Client B
• Programming for client B
• Calling the school to make sure the bus is not causing my son tardys
• Calling the transportation department to find out why the school bus is picking up after school has already begun
• Arranging for the hospital for the baby that could come at anytime (ie. Medicade/TNCare etc)
• Cleaing the house

What I am doing:

• Trying to figure out why the car won’t start

Fifteen-year-old girl throws out-of-control party, destroys house. Man-on-the-street interviews suggest her punishment:spank her, twice So this girl throws a spring break party after her parents leave town. Much more than the 10-20 high school students invited show up. She hides in her room while the party smashes her windows, front door, and flat screen television (which they were trying to steal but it wouldn’t fit through the front door so they attacked it with golf clubs instead); And "they carted out more stuff than the Grinch on Christmas Eve."

I’m stunned just trying to imagine it…

A very thought provoking article on MSN today.

This generation has sworn they wouldn’t hit their kids. The problem is, the same anger and frustration that fueled the old model of corporal punishment didn’t magically vanish merely because a generation of well-meaning parents wanted it to. Instead of letting anger lead to hitting, it now often leads to shouting. But that simple act of raising our voice, depending on what we say and how often we do it, can hold the potential for long-term harm, says Murray A. Straus, a sociology professor at the University of New Hampshire.

The article asks the question “would you yell at a co-worker or a bumbling bagger at the grocery?” Our society allows for yelling at children but in other circumstances that doesn’t apply. Why not extend this courtesy to children? I like their “9 Anti-Yelling Tips”:

1. Defuse with humor (and that doesn’t mean sarcasm)
2. Sing
3. Send your kid outside
4. Whisper
5. Invade your child’s space (I don’t like this one although I’m employed it)
6. Insist once, act immediately
7. Put yourself in time-out
8. Create a key phrase
9. Create a no-yelling rule

You can resolve a conflict without yelling in 15 steps:
Thinking Steps

1. Assess emotions
2. Accept anger, behave well
3. Gauge intensity
4. Who and what?
5. Perspective check

Talk/Listen Steps

6. Time and place
7. Avoid coalitions
8. Express appropriately
9. Listen actively
10. Admit fault

Solving Steps

11. Brainstorm solutions
12. Pros and cons
13. Decide and plan
14. Do it
15. Review/revise

Resources:

• Parents Anonymous – It’s ok to seek help
• Tired of Yelling : Teaching Our Children to Resolve Conflict by Lyndon D. Waugh, Letitia Sweitzer
• The Encouraging Parent : How to Stop Yelling at Your Kids and Start Teaching Them Confidence,Self-Discipline, and Joy by ROD WALLACE KENNEDY PHD

So the first 45 minutes of my day, begun at 4:30–almost 3:30!, have been spent confirming a quote, backing up a database for a client and beginning documentation for the client, posting lottery results, email, and some blogging. Now I’ll spend 15 minutes puttering about and making some tea.

No coffee today. Maybe a coke or two.

Stephen R Covey encourages 30 minutes to an hour of stretching and cardiovascular exercise as a step toward effectiveness. I want to exercise. I like it. I have more energy and less stress. Despite all that, I can’t justify it until I get a couple of things off my plate. Oh the dichotomy!

When a plan or a schedule slips I start to stress. When they slip badly I get a bit beyond crazed. I need today to go well.

"I love it when a plan comes together."
  

Unsafe health care in Seattle.

“The male patient, who was not identified, went up in flames after alcohol poured on his skin was ignited by a surgical instrument.”

And now for bureaucratic cya and spin:

The patient died after the surgery but that was due to heart failure and not the fire, said Dr. Robert Caplan, medical quality director of Virginia Mason.

Dr. Caplan. Don’t you think, in your professional opinion, that perhaps, just maybe, the patients heart failed because he was ON FIRE!?

Student: The mower fails.
Master: It has not been maintained.