No big deal.  I know what’s in those paper bags I grab at the drive through are not the best choices of food for me or my kids.  I moderate it.  Happy meals are not staples – they are treats.  Doctor visits that result in shots, particularly great chore doing, wonderful school performance – these are all wonderful times to delight my kids with some golden arches.

When I take my kids to McDonald’s, I completely expect an unhealthy meal – I don’t care what kind of alternatives they offer. It’s not health food.

What I don’t expect are half dressed grown woman dolls to be the toy.  Think I am exaggerating?  Judge for yourself.

If you think I would let my kids out of the house looking like that, or with people that looked like that – think again and make a doctor’s appointment because you are obviously ill.

And please don’t tell me about having to let my children grow up and become their own person.  These are Happy Meals.  The target audience is birth through elementary school.  And allowing my children to become their own person does not include condoning trashy clothes.

And lest you think I am overreacting – I am not alone.

Marcie Press thinks like me

…and Chrissy

…and Beverly

…and Jessica

Misogynist Happy Meals - does a great job of taking McD’s to task over the “global mom network.”

I am trying really hard to be rational.  But, I am raising 4 daughters in a society that has gone from being angry when women are objectified to one that has women objectifying themselves.  I mean, really, is this what we want for our children – boys or girls?

We become aghast at Brittney, Lindsay, Paris, and Nicole.  We wag our finger, shake our heads, and wonder how they could be so reckless.  We hear of the young teenage girls with babies, diseases, eating disorders and wonder where her parents are.  Girls gone wild, underage activity, birth control in middle school and we wonder what’s wrong with other people’s children.

We just don’t understand how it had come to all this.  Meanwhile, isn’t it so cute that our little angel knows all the words to Fergalicious, has “Cheer” written across her bottom, rolls her eyes at the grocery store clerk, and knows we are going to buy her all the Bratz dolls we forgot about last Christmas.

Really…

If this is your first time here, you are obligated to go back and understand how passionate I am about children, lest you misunderstand…we will wait…

Speaking of waiting, I still have not heard from one person with a suggestion of one thing that the government has taken over and made better. You may continue to ponder and I am always open.

Everybody back? Great.

They took my baby’s cold medicine. They took yours too. It actually scared me a bit. Phone rings – it’s my very excited mother.

“Turn on the news. They have done a recall of the children’s cold medicine. They didn’t say what was wrong, they just went to a commercial.”

Ok – first of all, how in the world do you get away with teasing a news story about a recall for children’s medicine? That sounds like serious threat to life. That sounds like, “we interrupt this program for this breaking news alert” stuff. Not teaser material.

Except, there is nothing wrong with the medicine. That’s right – nothing. I asked my pediatrician myself, just to make sure. Nothing wrong with it. But, it’s recalled – you can’t buy it.

Seems as though some parents, some times, may have given their children overdoses of medication. So, because some parents may give some children too much cold medicine, I can’t give mine any. But, it’s all about the children.

No, it’s not. It’s all about politics. I can’t get cold medicine for my kids when they get coughs, runny noses, congestion, the like. I can use the vapors and saline and stuff, but I have not seen them to be as effective. So, in order to get medicine for my kid, I have to pay to go to the doctor. The doctor will run labs that will probably show up negative for everything – but you don’t pay for that based on the result – you pay for it period. Then the doctor will write a prescription – you’ll pay for that. Then the doctor will say he needs to see you back to check everything out – and you’ll pay for that.

• side note – Insurance, medicare, health clinic, military, benefits – whatever – you are still paying for that. It’s called taxes and insurance premiums. Increased health care cost will not equal decreased revenue for the government or the insurance companies. It will equal reduced care and increased premiums and taxes.

So now, health care cost for your family just went up. Nobody likes that. Now all of a sudden you hear about the fabulous “S” chip for health care…it will take care of the children and it won’t cost you a thing

• except taxes
• and it will include “children” up to the age of 25 in homes with an income of up to $82,000 a year.

Whatever. Give me back my cold medicine and you can keep your “free health care.”

Thought that occurred to me. Think about all the other things parents might sometimes do that some of the folks in the medical community may disagree with.

• Give cow milk before 12 months
• peanut butter before age 2
• eggs before 12 months
• rice cereal before 4 months

You gonna take all of that from me too? In the meantime, you’ll give my middle schooler birth control without my knowledge or consent. But, I can’t give her sister cold medicine.

Really…

Give me a freaking break! Today I am irritated.  And I have a sinus infection.  And the kids are congested due to the change in weather.  Add it all up, and I may have to take this post down after the pain and swelling goes away.

Those of you who know, know that I am passionate about children.  All of them. They did not ask to be here, they have limited ability, limited choice, limited resources. It is up to us to take care of them. This should be our number one priority.

Because I believe in this so strongly, I am immediately sensitive to those who use children to further their own agenda.

Hillary’s healthcare plan that is obviously socialized medicine was the first. I haven’t addressed it here because you know me and controversy on the web don’t mix – but I told you I was irritated.

The idea is to have government oversee the entire health industry. That’s a great idea. Name one program that has done better under the government system…just one…I’ll wait.

I don’t see lines of people ready to praise the ease of obtaining social security, medicare, or VA benefits. I don’t see anybody giving up their health insurance so they can go down to the government run clinics. Oh – you think that under this social medicare program you’ll get to go to the big fancy places those other guys get to go. Fat chance. They will all become government run clinics – under funded, under staffed, and over worked. I am still waiting for you to name the one program…

The biggie is the babies…but what about the babies.

Look, I have four of them. I have had military insurance, business insurance, private insurance and no insurance. Guess what? Kids have always been taken care of. Always. Without this government program. In fact, they probably got taken care of better when I had no insurance. Why? I dunno – but my guess would be that the doctors actually wanted my children to be healthy. Because I had to pay out of pocket, they assumed I would not be quick to bring them back in. So, they made sure they checked out everything. Time for the medicine – I got the name brand stuff, no generic for me. Bunches of the free samples that the pharmaceutical reps bring in.

Speaking of medicine.  They recalled lots of the cold medicine for children.  They want to recall more.  Know what’s wrong with it?  Nothing.  But, that’ll have to wait for tomorrow…

Read a great post the other day by one of my JJL friends, Tim Milburn.  It was all about candles…well, maybe not all.  He did a fantastic job relating it to leadership.  Read the comments, too – incorporates the Law of the Lid and everything.

Reading the post, I couldn’t help but think about how his points concerning the candle burning and leadership related to raising children as well.

Let them burn to their edge. Let’s see how far they can take things. Let’s give them a task, a project, a job and see what they can do.

As parents, it is our primary responsibility to keep our children safe and protected. A lot of times, we go a bit overboard and cut them off right before they realize greatness. Watching a child climb a tree, carry groceries, work out a difficult math problem , or struggle in anyway can make that momma or poppa bear in each of us rise up. And it should. But that doesn’t necessarily mean we should immediately come to the rescue.

Maybe they don’t need rescuing.

Maybe they need room to stretch – lift their own lid.

But what if they go to far?
Well, my candle’s in a glass jar…and it even comes with a lid. So set your boundaries.

Boundaries are a great thing. Believe it or not, your child thrives on them. Knowing how far they can go gives them freedom to move freely about the cabin. They are not hesitant to try new things, fail, or try again.

By the way, failure for children is not a bad thing. It’s a growth thing. It is hard to watch our children fail, but it is necessary that they do. It is not our job to keep them from failure – it is our job to teach them how to come back from it.

When you get to the comments, Tim has reposted some other “candle tips” from his friend in Singapore.

Never leave a candle unattended.

Like that time you figured they would be okay in the backyard. I mean, it’s your backyard – fenced and all. Then came back to the water hose induced lagoon complete with reptiles and mud mountains. Who needed a landscaper anyway?

Keep your candle away from air drafts.

Kids love box fans. They have no idea that fingers, crayons, legos, or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches do not belong in there. Even once those boundaries are set, they will still drive you bonkers after they have sung the theme song to “Sponge Bob Squarepants” into it for the eleventy billionth time because it makes their voice do that funny thing.

Burn your candles no longer than 4 hours

Naps are great. Take them with your kid…don’t feel guilty.

Candles need to breathe.

After nap, go outside. Kids find the darnedest things under rocks. In the process, you guys will have the best conversation you’ve had in a long time.

Enjoy your candles.

*Photo credit Andrea Hillis

“The mail must go through, the mail must go through. No matter if it rains or snows, the mail must go through.”
- Larry Groce and the Disney sing along gang

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.
- Inscription on post offices

That last one is not the official motto of the US Postal Service. I know you thought it was – I sure did. But come to find out, they don’t have an offical motto.

No matter – until they add “the plague” to their list, the US Postal service has nothing on mommas.

Started Sunday – not terrible, just uncomfortable.  Terrible came later.  I won’t even go into all of it…why?  You already know what I am talking about. 

The neat thing about a momma getting sick is our first thought – Please don’t let the kids catch it.  Sounds noble, doesn’t it?  It’s not.  Granted, part of it is we love our children dearly and hate to see them feel bad.

The most of it is – I really can’t take feeling like this, with them home from school, cleaning up kid puke, taking them to the doctor, and nursing them while all I want to do is crawl into bed.

But typically, the kid gets it too.  Then sick momma takes care of sick kid.  Fun.

The truth is, if the kids don’t get sick, you have well kids to contend with.  This has it’s own set of issues. 

Bless the sweeties – they try really hard to be sympathetic to the sick mommy.  There is the initial, “Oh, poor mommy.  Let me kiss it.  Do you need some medicine?  Let me bring you breakfast in bed.”

That last one jolts you up as you swear you are fine and, no, breakfast in bed is not necessary (can you just imagine that carnage?!?) 

Well, if you don’t need breakfast in bed, then they are ready for you to make theirs, and pack their lunch, and iron their clothes, and find that library book they lost, and oh, did I mention that you are supposed to call the teacher today – something about a frog and a milk carton…

 *Photo credit sisudave and Ted Meyer