Why There Should Be A Test or License to Be A Parent

It seems in the past few months, I've seen quite a few stories of terrible parents and wondered why is it we have to pass a test and get a license to drive a car but not to raise a child?

Some of the stories I've seen are listed below:

Florida Mom Scalds Baby  source: foxnews.com
Baby's Room Grow House  source: huffingtonpost.com
US Marshals Capture Des Moines Man accused of sexual abuse  source: desmoinesregister.com
Iowa mom accused of drowning 15 month old son  source: desmoinesregister.com
Woman Guilty of Child Abuse  source: 10news.com
Father killed three month old  source: dailymail.com

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are so many other stories out there of innocent children, murdered or abused at the hands of their own parent(s).  I just don't get it. Why is there not a class that we have to take at least stating the obvious ways to keep our children safe? Why is there not a test we have to take showing that we understand that it's not ok to punish your children by putting them under scalding water?  Yes, these are all things we should know but we should all know to stop at the red octagon sign as well but we still have to take a test to prove we know it.

Ok, reality is, I know there will never be a test.  I know that there are always going to be bad parents and unfortunately, more children are going to be abused and/or killed by their irresponsible parents but what is the answer then?  We've had awareness groups for years and I whole-heartedly stand behind them rooting them on but it seems that's not working.  What else can we do?  Tougher penalties for offenders.  Tougher laws on the books not allowing these parents to have more children?  What's the answer?

The Ultimate Blog Party 2012

Check out the Ultimate Blog Party 2012 at 5minutesformom.com.  If you have linked here from their site, a big Welcome!

I am a mom of 2 great kids who try my patience at times but I don't know what I'd do without them.  I am fairly new to the blogging world but love being able to put my own thoughts out there.  I'd love to have more feedback whether it's positive or negative as I believe everyone should be able to use their voice.

Thanks for checking my blog out!

What a pill.

A few months ago, my son was prescribed a pill form of an antibiotic.  I didn't think anything of it as this was the first antibiotic he'd been prescribed since he was a toddler and at that age, they get the liquid form.  What a nightmare it turned out to be for him.

As I gave him the first pill to take that morning, he gagged, threw up a little and finally, after 20 minutes of this, got it down.  That night, we tried it again only to have him again gag and spit the water out of his mouth he was trying to take it with.  Again, after about 20 minutes, he finally got it down.  At this point I'm thinking that he's just over thinking this and psyching himself out.  He's taking a small pill for crying out loud. We continue doing this the rest of the weekend (with the same results) until it comes to Monday morning.  On this morning it's so bad that now the pill is starting to break down where it gets chalky and I know there is no way we are going to get much further now.  I kept chalking it up to him being stubborn and just not wanting to take it.

Not my son but the same look on  his face when I handed him the antibiotic.

Then I talked to some friends.  Apparently there are many people in the world that cannot take pills. I never knew this.  So my question is, what do teenagers and adults do that can't take pills?  Do doctor's prescribe liquid forms for headache relief, antibiotics, or any other medication that typically comes in pill form?  Is this problem something my 12 year old will grow out of?

Our Understated Birthday Party

So, my hubby finally started feeling better and we were able to have my son's birthday party last weekend (I know, bad mom it was a week late).  We let him choose 6 of his friends to have over and then let his little sis have a friend over to keep her out of the boys' hair. The day was such a success.

The kids all showed up around 1:00pm and after a short "rules" meeting headed up by my hubby, they were off on their 4-wheelers.  The girls on the other hand, decided they wanted to do other things not with the boys.  Perfect, my plan actually worked for once!

The boys rode for the rest of the afternoon and since they were doing so well following the rules my hubby decided to take them to a different farm that he said they'd have even more fun at.  Little did I know the translation for "even more fun" meant a 10' x 15' mud hole.  As the girls and I made our way down there we quickly discovered just how much more fun the boys were having.  Most were already covered in mud from their helmets to their boots.  Good thing I told the parents to send a change of clothes.  The 5 other dads that wanted to supervise this party were having just as much fun as the boys I think.  They were laughing uncontrollably every time one of the boys would hit the mud hole.  Yeah thanks jerks, are you laughing because they are having fun or that I'll be the one cleaning this shit up?   The girls decided they wanted to get involved and off they went so now I have 9 kids covered in mud.  This will be interesting when we get back to our house.  All went well though.  We all made it back to our house and the other dads helped the hubby spray most of the mud off the kids before they were instructed to head into the house, one at a time to jump in the shower.  After everyone had made it back into clean clothes (thank goodness they actually brought some), it was time to start feeding these hungry boys.  We always take the easy way out and grill hamburgers and hot dogs.  It gets the boys fed quickly and clean up is a breeze.

This is not ours but looks very similar to what we saw!

Once everyone got done eating the boys disappeared to the basement to play some pool and darts while the girls decided to head upstairs to do their own thing again.  I couldn't believe how easy this was.  Why don't we always just have all of the boys over at once instead of having one over every other weekend?  Then I remembered why.  There was very little sleeping at our house that night.  Two of the boys decided they were going to stay up all night and most of the others didn't actually go to sleep until the early morning hours.  I got up at my normal time of 5:30am expecting to have a room full of hungry boys within the hour.  Yep, that didn't happen.  So I started up load #2 of muddy clothes so everything would be washed and dried by the time the boys left.  Around 8:00am I could hear them start moving around upstairs and knew that was my cue to start breakfast.  Yep, I took the easy way out again and made them bacon, pancakes and eggs. Quick and easy to fix and fills them up.  The assembly line of boys came down and within minutes were scarfing down everything I had made. Have you ever fed 7 growing boys?  Dear lord, I think every one of them has a hollow leg.  Crap, I've got the girls to feed still so off I go to make up some more.

We made it through breakfast and as I'm cleaning up I look in the living room only to see 5 of the 7 boys looking like they had just got done eating a Thanksgiving meal and about ready for their nap. Yep boys, that's what staying up all night (for the most part) does to you.  We let them boys hang out for a few hours in the morning and decided to start rounding them up to take them home around 11:00am. Of course, nobody wanted to leave but at this point, I'm exhausted, my son is about ready to fall asleep and the hubby looks like he took the red eye flight home last night.  Fortunately, one of the dads shows back up in the morning to help us get the 4-wheelers hosed off and loaded and volunteers to take a couple of the boys home for us.  Everyone is delivered home by 11:30am and as the boy walks back into the house, he doesn't miss a beat taking off his shoes, heading to the living room and crashing right there on the couch.

All of this fun and I didn't get any cutesy decorations, didn't need a 3 tier cake, didn't bother with gift bags for the boys to go home with, and didn't have catered food in the shape of any animal or character.  What I did do was just let them have fun and all for less than $150 for 9 kids - overnight.

So:

Drinks for the boys:   $30.00

Food for the boys:     $55.00
Gas for 4 wheelers:    $35.00
Laundry Detergent:    $10.00
Knowing that they couldn't stop talking about the party all day yesterday at school:  Priceless.