“Be thankful for what you’ve got” We all know the phrase, we’ve all said it before in some form to ourselves, to others, to our kids. Thing is, we don’t get it. We don’t really get it until something punches us in the gut. Sometimes it’s something that happens to us, sometimes something that almost happens, other times it’s what happened to family or close friends and every once in a while you get a glimpse of it’s true meaning through the words of a stranger: “We’re all terminal” she said to me.
I met her a few weeks ago. She had won an award and was visiting Baton Rouge from across the country to receive it and be celebrated....
He can’t wait to get home. To pull on his boots. No time to change out of the already stained and spotted school uniform. I get to slip his polo off occasionally. If I can even beat him to the door. Out he runs in his undershirt. “Mommy, let’s go!” he yells as he shoves his styrofoam sword down the back of his shirt. He runs to the backyard. The stray kitten that showed up under our porch this summer, Batman, tags along.
There’s nothing else on his mind. No room to be an adult now. Only room to be a kid. Absolutely zero awareness (and that’s what’s wonderful) that the car is still loaded down with the morning’s breakfast, his...
I spend roughly eight hours a day with teenagers. Most days of the year. For ten years. As a high school teacher I have watched many young people grow and mature. The majority have been blessings, but some have been challenges. I have also endured the students that remained, dare I say it, immature. Over the years I have had some moments in which I saw young men, 17 and 18 years old, portray chauvinism, racism, superiority, and entitlement. Not my favorite days. But, on the other hand, I have taught some young men that I proudly have said, “I hope that one day my sons can be like him.”
Because of these experiences, I frequently consider what type of young men...
Oh, the things we say before we have kids. We stroll past kids throwing tantrums or baby-sit our neighbor’s bratty children and say to ourselves, “When I have kids, I’ll never do ” So easy to say those things before we actually have a screaming child melting down in the grocery store or one who won’t sleep more than two hours in a row or who has a weird-looking number two diaper. Here are a few things that I swore I’d never do as a mom, before I had a child:
1. Let my child sleep in our bed
I haven’t totally gone off the deep end here, meaning that my husband and I don’t spend every night with our son...
Moms, we’re all guilty. Of putting ourselves last. Every day and all day long. It happens. It kind of comes with the territory, right? When we become moms, self-sacrifice stares us in the face stating, “I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere for a while. So I suggest you put any sense of yourself aside.” How easily we sink in the quicksand that is self-sacrifice. And sure, with the rush of hormones and bodily changes, not to mention the emotional rollercoaster that is motherhood, we sometimes convince ourselves that giving all of ourselves to our children and families is a decision not to be compromised.
I’m not saying that self-sacrifice is entirely a bad thing either, for most of us...
Around Baton Rouge
Oni225 :: Baton Rouge’s New Japanese Street Food Pop-Up is Worth...
Oni225 :: Baton Rouge's New Japanese Street Food Pop-Up is Worth Visiting
Oni225 came to fruition in February at the Asian Night Market when two...
