I really don't want to hear your birth story

I live in a world of church ladies and home schooling moms and families that make my own look small, so I'm very likely to hear about doulas and encapsulating your placenta, and water births, and home births, and a bunch of stuff that I don't even want to know more details about (definitely putting that placenta thing in this category) and the beauty of it all.  Birth stories are a mixture of "it's great to be a girl," "the beauty of motherhood," "badge of honor," "I survived," and one-upmanship  (with the most horrific story being the winner, of course), but I think it's fair to say I've never, ever heard this perspective on the "birth story" topic before.

I laughed, I cried, I agreed (although probably not so vehemently).  It certainly is a refreshing take on the whole thing.

My own birth stories all go along the lines of "the doctor barely/did not make it in time," and "I'd offer to go through labor twice if I could skip the last chunk of pregnancy," and if pressed that's exactly how I tell it.

CoffeeCoffeeCoffeeCoffee

We're well into summer, so iced coffee has been a topic for a while now.  I used to store it in a half-gallon pickle jar, but this looked a lot better from a pouring standpoint.  Unfortunately, I didn't think it was worth it to spend $16 on a jar, so I started looking around for a cheaper option.  (Someone must bottle apple juice in something like that, right?)  Anyway, enter an impromptu trip to Festival Foods where we happened to find unhomegenized milk in these wonderful half-gallon bottles!

Washable, with a decent plastic lid;  the milk was more than I'd normally pay, but it really was notably delicious and the bottle deposit was only $2!  Anyway, it's easy to fill and has a nice grippy hand-holder part so it's easy to pour.  AND it has kind of a nice vintage look and fits in my fridge door.

A bit of one-size-fits-all advice

If I had to sum up my parenting advice in one sentence, this might well be it:

Mean what you say.

Kendra wrote about it very eloquently here and that's what got me thinking about the whole topic.  More and more frequently (now that I'm the older woman category and have produced a proven product*), some nice young mother will ask me for parenting advice.  It's a ridiculously complex topic and there is rarely a quick answer, but I'm convinced that so many problems can be avoided by simply meaning what you say and following through on it.  

It establishes parental authority and builds trust.  It clearly defines expectations and provides the boundaries kids are looking for.  Self discipline on a parent's part helps build the same virtue in children and that leads to behavior that is worthy of my trust which allows me to comfortably offer more freedoms - a very rewarding outcome for children of all ages.  Like Kendra, I agree that this is in no way a statement on obstinance or a means to shut down discussion - in fact, I think it produces the opposite effect of real conversation with people mature enough to talk to - it's simply a way to move through family life without constant negotiations, whining, and desperate stopgap rewards for undesirable behavior.

*Thanks for making me look good, guys!