Pansy: February 2006 Archives

Why is it so hard to admit you are having a hard time raising kids 24/7? Because it means you probably don't love your children.

A year ago, I had a really nasty bout of postpartum depression.The most common remark I got was "well, it was your choice to have 5 children..."

Recently, my grandmother told me how she said to my father "even your daughter is smart, I don't why she didn't finish college, but she is actually kind of smart, believe it or not..." I am not sure the purpose of her remarks.

If I went to these family members who made these remarks while I was in let's say medical school instead of being a SAHM, and mentioned "Oh yes, school is good, it is difficult, but going well..." which I could see saying about my life as a SAHM, I would get tons of sympathy, and praise for doing the right thing.
Not so with being SAHM. Why on earth would I mention I had a rough day when all I get is laundry list of how having 5 kids is about the dumbest thing I could do?

I am digressing to my usual whining about my family's foolishness. But I don't think I am alone in this sort of pressure form family and peers. All of my energy is exhausted on justifying my choices, and none is left for simple admissions of "I had a bad day," without feeling like an utter failure.

On Sundays when I work at the diner, my boss plays the top 40 country countdown. I don't get country music. I appreciate the talent involved, and the sentiments expressed in the songs, but it doesn't really do anything for me.
What I do find interesting is the number of songs that I know that have been either remade, or made first as country songs. There is "I'll Always Love You" sung by Dolly Parton. There is a group that sings a BoyzIIMen hit "I'll Make Love to You". Yesterday I also heard Dolly Parton singing John Lennon's "Imagine" and it sounded a bit better that the original.
But there was no excuse for what I heard next. Faith Hill singing Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart". My boss told me she released that in the early 90's which shows how much I knoew about country music. But oh no, you don't remake Janis Joplin. You don't turn classic hard rock hits into country. I wanted to ask "hasn't anyone who was in on this adaption even heard the original?" I almost threw something at the radio. Aye yiy yiy.

is Simon a nice person or a jerk? Or maybe a jerky-nice person?

Why does every TV show lately have to have a public service announcement about abortion, euthenasia or whatever?
ER lately, just about every week is about someone who has the right to die.Last week (or maybe the week before) it was about how evil Bush is to stop federal funding on embryonic stem cell research. Tonight CSI was abou how distasteful it is to adopt frozen embryos. I mean, I don't even have the energy to get into the logistics about how I disagree with the issues as much, but let's start from the beginning: isn't it bad form to consistently put forth "extreme" opinions on such heated issues all the time?

I get tired of everything being so loaded. I guess they are only extreme if they are pro-life...

Below, Peony said:

To my way of thinking, if Schaefer wants to act as he thinks he remembers men acting "back in the day," then let him face up to the "back in the day" consequences. I'm picturing something involving a father, a fiance or older brother, and a shotgun. But the guy's 84, and then there's those pesky battery laws.

This reminds me of something that happened recently:

My husband was working a part-time security job at a place called Keymark. The place is a distributivists nightmare. They hire mostly immigrants with little or no benefits. The people work a great deal of hours each week, and take home very little pay (70 hours with a paycheck of $300). Also, the work environment is not very safe, and the company does little to fix this.
My husband eventually quit because the hours were stressful, and his position there was rather pointless.His job was to point out many of the unsafe factors, and when he would report them, nothing would be done.

All of my neighbors work there.

One day my neighbor knocked on my door and started a conversation with my husband. He said that he worked at Keymark, and was on suspension. Some weeks ago his wife brought him lunch, and a couple of other employees started making remarks about his wife. It got heated, and he ended up punching one of the guys. Knives were pulled out and it got ugly. Our neighbor asked if he could put a good word in with my husband's boss (the owner of the security company as the security company was an independant contractor) so he would not lose his job.

I am not condoning violence, but my father used to have a saying about people that made remarks about other people's wives: "They are going to find his body in a garbage can somewhere."

In this age of feminism, why has it not become expected that when you make a pass at someone, you do not also expect a punch in the nose to accompany it? I think about this aoften because my husband has a wretched temper, and if someone were to do or say something disrespectful to myself or Rosey Posey, it would be worse for us.

Before I went to seminary, I taught in a public school. Thank God, not as bad as this one in New York. But what I learned there was that the biggest problem in sending your kids to a public school wasn't the teachers or administrators, but the other kids.

And their parents.

I have to concur. 18 years ago (ahem) when I was this age, I remember my parents being baffled as top why I did not adopt their morals. There were many reasons (besides that their morals were "extreme" to everyone else I was around)but frankly, I simply wasn't around my parents

Please pray for my brother Alex. He is 20 and has recently been diagnosed with cutaneous lymphoma. The prognosis looks good, but this is never fun.
St. Peregrine, pray for us.