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Christi Diggs
on May 23 2013 - 06:00 AM
A drop of spin, a cup of deception and tsp. politics=Apathy
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Lindsay Metcalf
on May 22 2013 - 06:00 AM
When that tornado siren sounds, I'm in the basement
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mara williams
on May 21 2013 - 06:00 AM
Summer break has this mom on a house upkeep war path.
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A little over seventeen and half years ago, my oldest daughter was born, with absolutely no parenting manual included. Sure, there are lots of books out there to help get through pregnancy, but there is no just-built-for-you book to help you get through raising your child.
But I went into this gig knowing that. I muddled my way through colic, milk and soy allergies and childhood asthma. Three more kids, all different as night and day. The beauty of it all is the brain absorbs each lesson and I have carried it through. When I am totally stumped-which has happened more times than I want to admit- I have a plethora of resources available to me. My wonderful family, a network of smart moms who have been there, teachers and when all else fails, there are tons of other professionals. No shame in using them as I have well learned.
Thank goodness I am not alone.
But what if one of these great aids is working against me? It is hard enough to deal with the pressure of society, telling my kids that they want this, they should do that. I set rules, for their safety and well being. Sometimes because they are just common sense rules, other times because they are hard life lessons that I had the opportunity to learn first. Then someone comes along tries to sabotage this.
Case in point. My daughter’s Personal Finance teacher, who shall remain nameless.
I am glad they are teaching Personal Finance in high school. My daughter is getting ready to graduate, go to college and this is great stuff. She will have a lot to handle, finances being a big one. She needs to know the evils of credit, how to budget and how to plan for the future. Between what she learns in this class and what I can teach her, we can’t go wrong. Or so I thought.
My daughter wants a checking account and we have talked about opening one up at a local credit union, which I believe are a better option than the conventional bank. I have evidence of this. If not a credit union, a local bank. I just like to support my local business. It is part of that union upbringing. Call me sentimental. The caveat is that she needs me on the account as well and I am hesitant. I have a hard enough time with my own finances. This is where the teacher brings in her wisdom. Or what I call un-wisdom.
Bank of America will allow my daughter to open an account, sans her parental unit. She only needs two forms of ID. And the teacher encourages this. But this parental unit says “You will not bank at that institution while you live under my roof. Period. If you want to do that when you move out, fine. But not now.” Call me crazy, but those are my views and they are pretty un-sway-able.
I thought this was the end of said discussion. Except it wasn‘t. The other day her teacher told her that she really should open that account. When my lovely daughter assured the teacher that her mom said “NO” the teacher said, “You don’t need your mother there. Just take two forms of ID.”
So, here I stand, feeling two things. I am absolutely PROUD of my daughter who knows that her mom means well, even if I am a little nuts at times. Then totally disappointed in a teacher, who still remains nameless. I would have thought she would be more supportive of a parent’s instructions, no matter how nuts that parent might seem.
So yeah, I didn’t get a parenting manual that beautiful day, about seventeen and a half years ago. But I think we are doing okay.
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