The Right Thing To Do?

We live on a busy street in Long Beach. Our kids sleep in the two front bedrooms, they sleep only a few feet from the sidewalk across our small front lawn. We live in a part of Long Beach that has a conservative Republican Congressman.

I want to put up a "Vote No on Prop 8" lawn sign. Should we not?

Proposition 8 is the anti gay marriage amendment that is coming onto the CA ballot this fall, btw. Gay rights is something we feel very strongly about. It's one of those hot button political issues that just seems like a moral and legal slam dunk to me. Everyone deserves equality under the law. To me this is not a radical or provocative sentiment...but I know it is to a lot of people.

When I mentioned to my husband that I was getting us a sign, he paused and said he wasn't all that comfortable with the idea. I was floored. He said 'you know I agree with the sentiment, but we live awfully close to the OC and Broadway is really busy...' "THAT'S THE POINT!" I said, failing to remain calm, You can't just stand up for justice when everyone agrees with you!"

But then. Then he painted a picture of the 2 AM screaming at the house or someone throwing something at Miles' or Lydia's window. At first it just made me angry. We can't back down from doing the right thing because we're scared! But is it fair to drag a 4 year old who can't understand that stuff into it? Of course it's possible that nothing would happen, but we've had stuff stolen from our front porch and we've got some neighbors with very opposite views from us on most issues like this.

Help me out. Are we being paranoid? Are we being crazy to even think about doing it? What would you do?

a difficult choice

It saddens me to say that we have to get rid of our two cats. We adopted them at the age of 2 mo. in Dec. We discovered, much too late, that Reece is allergic. He is having to be medicated daily and finally I am making a decision for his health instead of his heart. He is devastated. 

They are approximately 9 mo old, one male, one female, (brother/sister) both fixed. They only had one round of vaccinations before we adopted them. They are indoor cats. 

They are sweet, social, playful cats. The male likes to fetch. He will bring you a toy and retrieve it over and over again until you tire of the game. The female will cuddle up in you lap any time... So, if you are interested or know someone who is, please let me know. Thanks.

Nonviolent Parenting is here!

Hi Friends,

I am so excited to announce that we (Julia Bongard and myself) have set a time and place for Nonviolent Parenting education series. This is a 10-week series of classes about connecting with our children in an unconditional way, while guiding emotional intelligence, setting limits, learning about child development and brain development. 

We will be at First Congregational Church (3rd & Cedar) starting Wed, Sept. 3 at 6:30PM. 

If you have questions, please feel free to respond here, or to my email address tovanonviolentparenting@yahoo.com or call me at 562-422-8623.

Hope to see you there.

Nonviolent Parenting on it's way to LB

Hi All,

As some of you know, I recently became a certified parent educator for the Center for Nonviolent Education and Parenting. I am writing here with two questions:

1) Does anyone know of a venue for teaching a 10-week class series? (My hope is to have it low/no rent-I'd be willing to waive the class fee for someone who could host it). I currently have about 10 people interested, but if interest continues to grow, I am anticipating needing room for 20-40 people.

2) Anyone interested in the class? If you would like to learn more about nonviolent parenting, check out the website at www.cnvep.org (and read their blog, it is FUNNY).

Thanks!

Update on Class with Shaila

Ok mommies (and daddies too)... Shaila loves the idea of guiding us in a parenting class. However, in her wisdom, she has suggested that it wait until Spring. That way we can all get a bit more settled with so many of us starting new preschools, kindergarten and in general just adjusting to the new changes at LBCC. We will most likely meet twice per month during eight week sessions. I'll keep you all filled in as we progess.

In the meantime, I am still in need of our support forum - so here's my suggestion:

We determine one or two evenings per month (I would like Tuesdays from like 7pm-9pm?), we meet at someone's house (I am happy to offer mine although its tiny - I think we can fit perhaps 8 of us?) or maybe a church (it might be wise for someone other than me to pursue this option, although the First Congregational Church of Long Beach might be an option -they seem very nice and have a public meeting space I think... )

We can create a list of topics (ie: discipline, sleep, siblings, etc...) and just talk about parenting for a couple of hours a month... We can do this until Shaila is ready in the Spring - and best of all, it will be free!

Any takers?

Ma bwudda's name es HAY-DUH-SIN!!!!

so Lucy has been flagged by Ms Cook as having speech delay issues. after an initial screening at our neighborhood school confirming her "Articulation errors", getting assistance over the summer has not been so easy. all the teachers are off for the summer. So we are pursuing a parallel option until Fall by heading over to Cal State where people learning to be speech therapists can experiment on my poor child. I keep vacillating between let the girl figure it out in her own time and the key fact that early intervention is key in this arena. The problem is Lucy can smell a lesson (or speech from me) coming a mile away and usually tunes it out. So I don't want to ruin her willingness to work with therapists by getting set up with a nimkumpoop (technical term for someone who doesn't understand kids) who don't know what they're doing.... anybody had experieince with speech therapy and have any advice? I'm trying to stay away from being the one working with her because I am untrained and impatient (perfect storm)