Category: parenting

Motivation, parenting, Politics, Uncategorized

How is it Progressive to Destroy Everything?

Katrina Russell

All I hear from progressives every single day is about how bad everything is. They say the police are bad and need to be defunded, yet call them on everyone all the time. They say the government is bad, and racist, but they want to give the feds more and more power. They say that every institution in the country is racist and sexist, that personal isms has lessened, but institutional isms are still strong, but can’t point to one policy which supports this, it’s all about the people who are instituting the policies.. even though personal isms are down.

They want to end wars by supporting terrorist. They want to fight fascism by taking away individual rights. They want to celebrate diversity, by stopping people from disagreeing with them. They want to sexualize children and murder babies before they’re born.. all in the name of rights for people who aren’t capable of picking out what they want for breakfast… or, you know… haven’t taken their first breath yet.

These people think that immediate self gratification is more important than human rights. They think the rights of women to have indiscriminate sex with no repercussions are more important than the rights of people who are conceived by this random hook-up culture. They think people should be allowed to rob local stores for whatever they could possibly need, because it’s their human right to have stuff, but it’s not the store owner’s human right to protect their own property.

These people want to destroy everything that we’ve all worked so hard to build up, because they think it’s unfair that people have to work for things. They think it’s unfair that those who have accomplished things in the past have the right to help their family in the present. They are mad that they’re bad choices have consequences and blame people 100 years ago fort their failures today. They want to destroy everything that they see, because today’s progressives are like toddlers who don’t like that their friends built a higher tower than they did and rather than asking for help or trying harder they just knock down their friend’s . They’d rather everyone be miserable than have to put in the effort to try to be better.

Addiction, coaching, free speech, Motivation, parenting, Uncategorized, women

Why do people hate life?

Katrina Russell

I suppose a good place to start is to ask what is life? If you Google this question the first response is a dictionary entry

life

/līf/

noun

1.the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.”the origins of life”Similar:existencebeinglivinganimationalivenessanimatenessentitysentiencecreationsurvivalviabilityesseOpposite:deathnonexistence

2.the existence of an individual human being or animal.”a disaster that claimed the lives of 266 Americans”

I don’t really think that helps. I mean, I guess it helps to understand when life begins and ends, which people seem to have forgotten somehow.

When you ask people today about life you tend to get responses like, “Life sucks, then you die”. They actually put that on pins and bumper stickers. People commiserate with each other about how awful life is. They talk about how we spend our whole life working just to die. This is the general consensus.

The amount of Gen Z and Millennials who never want to have children is staggering, and they mostly blame the economy or climate change for this problem. Which is ridiculous when you think about the fact that people have been having children since people have been around and we are richer as a society than we have ever been.

People are putting gadgets and comforts before actual lives. And I don’t mean that metaphorically. Women are actually killing their children and most of the time it is over financial reasons. It may interfere with their career plans, or kids are just too expensive to begin with. In 2023 there were 1,026,700 babies murdered before they were even born. That doesn’t seem “safe, legal and RARE” as everyone used to claim they would be. This is a genocide People are purposefully killing unborn people for their own desires. Women are being taught that having a baby is not even one of the choices they can make.

Celebrities like Chelsea Handler make mock videos like, A Day in the Life of a Childless Woman in which they talk about doing the most useless and ridiculous things just to glorify this path. People are told that being able to travel is impossible once you have kids, but then people complain that they can’t travel anyway because they always have to work to support their lifestyle.

Now this lifestyle that they speak of isn’t the same as Chelsea Handler’s running off to Paris for the afternoon. No, it’s $10 coffee drinks, and $300 bar tabs, and takeout every night because cooking is part of the patriarchy. It’s the latest iPhone, and the latest shoe of choice (whether it be a Jimmy Choo or a pair of Nike with a celebrity name on it all of which cost more than my rent in the 90s). And none of this counts as being excessive it’s just “self care” . Which we can’t forget hair and nails done every week.. that’s what life is all about now.

People are being taught that human rights are not actually rights and that humans are the problem. They are being taught that free speech and meritocracy are the problem and that the only thing that is important is buying more things and not working, because working is the patriarchy. Which is ironic since it used to be that men did most of the work and women just lived life taking care of their kids and the home.. but that was bad too. Everything is bad.

If you have a bad feeling take a drug. If you have a good feeling take a drug. If you’re not feeling enough take a drug. If you’re feeling too much take a drug. But whatever you do. Do not go outside and get fresh air. Do not exercise. That is the patriarchy telling you how you should look and feel. Here.. have a pill instead and zone out on the couch watching other people live. Because life itself is the problem.

parenting, Uncategorized, women, Women's movement

How much to you pay other people to take care of your family?

Katrina Russell

Everyone says that they can’t afford to not have a 2 income family. They talk about how expensive kids are and how much it costs to run a household, yet they forget that a lot of the expenses that they speak of are only necessary because they have a two income family.

There are literal memes out there complaining about how their parents bought homes, and cars, and paid for college all on one income back in the 50s…. meanwhile. I’m almost 50 and my dad was in grade school in the 50s so I don’t know how old these Gen-Zers think their parents are. They are going back at least 4 generations to talk about the times of the 50s.

On top of that they complain about the families of the 50s and how they would never want to live the “trad” life. A woman shouldn’t be forced to stay home and take care of their family all the time. They should be free to work everyday of their life and complain about how they would much rather be home but they can’t “afford to live” without that 2nd paycheck.

Some part of this is true. You can’t always keep up the same lifestyle that you want to live with only one income. For instance this was the average house bought in the 50s. There was no dishwasher, no washing machines or dryer, no microwave. no a/c, no trash compactor, or probably garbage disposal… and that’s not even getting into the fact that there was one phone that was plugged into the wall. Complete plumbing (hot and cold piped water, a bath-tub or shower, and a flush toilet) was only available in 64.5% of homes in 1950. There probably wasn’t a TV and there was one radio that the whole house shared. I mean, sure, it was affordable back then. There was a lot less to buy.

Now people want a new $1000 phone every 2 years. A new car every 4 years. That doesn’t include computers, tablets, gaming systems. shoes that cost more than most cars did back in the 50s, and if you do buy a house and something breaks. No one learns how to repair things on their own. They just call someone to deliver a brand new one. Shopping is the worlds pastime.

A new house today comes with all of the amenities. There are refrigerators, and ovens that can talk to your phone so that you can know when there is a problem and it’s ready to buy a new one. There are sound systems set up all over the house that can connect to which ever electronic you Bluetooth with to make a movie or song play through out the whole house and outside… but that’s not an extra. That’s just normal today. When I was a kid a house didn’t even come with a fridge.

And that’s just the house. Now lets talk about daycare. You can’t afford kids or for both parents to not work because daycare is on average $18,886/ per year. Then if you add more than one kid you’re talking almost the average salary for a person in the US per year; $47,424. Then when you start to add some of the other things like take out for a household is about $3600/ year (a household can also include 1 person living alone so the average for a family of 4 will be substantially higher). All of this doesn’t count things like grabbing coffee, or other snacking items along the way. In the 50s families rarely ate out together. Moms just cooked.

Then there are the other extras that not everyone partakes in like having someone come in and clean the house once a month or so. That’s about $2400/year. Then you can add in things like pet walkers and groomers. When you start adding in things like every TV/Movie app, and personal trainers/gym membership, then yeah life can be quite expensive, but it doesn’t have to be.

How much are you paying other people to do things for you. Things that you could do yourself if you weren’t working. Things you would probably enjoy doing if you weren’t working. Everyone complains that they don’t have enough money, and everyone complains that they hate working. Hell, everyone complains about he capitalistic society that we all live in… yet, we work a 2 income family to not spend time with our family so that we can pay other people to take care of them, so that we can buy things we don’t need, and complain that people before us had it better… because they didn’t priorities the latest iPhone.

parenting, Politics, Uncategorized

The New Generation is the Most Overly Educated, Under Informed Generation Ever

Katrina Russell

There is a line in the book “Good Omens” about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They are talking about Famine and how people usually think of famine as not having enough food, but that modern day famine in the West is about malnutrition. There is more food than anyone could possibly eat, and people are more obese than ever. Yet, people are dying of all kinds of health related illnesses because they are not getting the proper nutrition.

The same thing is happening in the education system. Over 60% of high school graduates are enrolling in college. Of which women are about 70% and men are about 55% and we are seeing a complete dumbing down of America. We are seeing people who have no idea how the government works. How the economy works. Even how households have managed to function for the last millennia.

We see videos everyday from young adults complaining that they have to work 40 hours a week and pay bills. That things should just be given to them. There are people who legitimately don’t know where food or electricity come from. The store and the wall… that’s honestly what they believe. They don’t know why people need to be farmers anymore, or why we need coil or oil when we can just plug things into the house and use the electricity.

People have turned into the zombie apocalypse without anyone lifting a finger. There is more information at EVERYONE’S fingertips than ever before and they use to to watch other people date, or other people play with their cats. There are apps that read whole novels to you, but the average person can’t name a classic book.

Now, we have people marching in the streets ordering the government to stop funding the only democratic state in the whole middle east in the name of democracy. We have people threatening Jews in order to stop Nazis. We have people burning down cities in order to “help” the communities that live there. There are people calling the police when someone confronts the “defund the police” movement. We have people crying about insurrection as they attack federal building, including the white house.

People just don’t have common sense. They don’t know the meaning of words. They are incapable and uninterested in looking for information for themselves. People today just want to feel like they are part of some crowd. They want to feel like they are important. They go to expensive schools to be taught whatever the administration thinks they should be taught and then get out and know less about reality than before they went in. Then they complain they can’t pay off the debt that the own because they can’t get a job with their “Women’s Study” degree and are mad they have to actually look for one. Never mind work one.

parenting, women

You know you’re the ones raising these kids, right?

Katrina Russell

I saw a post on one of my mom group pages the other day about how weird it was to be in another country where none of the kids were on electronics at the dinner tables in restaurants. Apparently it’s all the rage in the States. I responded that I didn’t really notice this. That when I go out I tend to see parents and children interacting at the table. I was then asked if I was Amish….. In case you are not aware… not Amish.

I was then berated by mom after mom about how much they hate how all the kids are on their phones and tablets at the table. How kids today are like little zombies with no ability to communicate with anyone in person. How disrespectful all the children walking the street are just little hooligans.

I then proceeded to say that my child doesn’t use electronics at the table. That the one time he was given permission to use his tablet while I was out with a friend because he had been disappointed that his friend couldn’t come, he actually only stayed on it during the short time that we waited for the food to come and then immediately put it away once the food arrived.

This seemed to anger the other moms. Basically saying things like, “Oh, good for you,” and “,aren’t you just special”. These moms went on to say that it’s not that easy with their kids and that not everyone has the same… I don’t know… opportunity to not have their kids do this. One went on to say that it’s not like the old days when people brought crayons and books for their kids.

I don’t know who these moms think are raising these kids. Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe no one is. I responded that I don’t bring books and crayons either. I just include my kid in the conversation. I assumed that everyone else did this as well. That is LITERALLY how you teach kids communication skills and how to be respectful. I’m not sure what these moms were expecting.

I know that in the 90s there was a big push that “it takes a village” to raise a child, but I didn’t think that would lead to parents thinking that they were off the hook. I mean, honestly, where do these parents think that their children will learn good habits and responsibility? They act like kids just come out as is and it’s their bad luck that they got ones that do these things they don’t like and there’s nothing that can be done about it.

I can’t imagine the world that my son is going to live in in the future, but I can tell you that he’ll be one of the few with the skills to compete and thrive. So he’ll probably be one of the first shipped off to the Gulag.

Mental Health, parenting

Why is every job a mom does considered a job…. except being a mom?

Katrina Russell

We’ve all heard the cliche about a mom being a chef, taxi driver, maid, nurse, accountant, personal shopper, and the rest. It’s become a meme. There is a great video about “The World’s Toughest Job Interview” about just this. If you haven’t watched it then I suggest that you check it out.

When people say that they are stay at home moms (sahm) they are automatically looked down on for not having big goals and aspirations. As if being home to raise your children is somehow a bad thing. If a woman says that she’s a nanny this is completely acceptable. She is out there in the “real world” making money for herself. If she is a teacher she is a hero for giving her life to the service of children. If she is a maid she is doing her best for her family.. and so on.

It doesn’t matter that her being out of the house working means that she and her husband now need to pay someone else to be a nanny, and a teacher, and quite possibly their own personal maid. The world has changed their idea of what is worthy. Instead of a great and worthy life being what it always was, finding a partner to spend your life with, having children to live make sure that your legacy continues, and raising them to be productive members of society. Now a worthy life is making a lot of money and buying garbage you don’t need to prove that you can.

The point, the actual reason for a job is to support your family. That’s it. It’s to make sure that everyone in your family is well taken care of. Since the beginning of time people had to work to survive. Even before money was invented people had to work. This is something that is missed a lot in today’s society. Men usually worked outside by hunting, protecting, and building things. Women took care of the children, did the cooking, cleaning, and until the last couple hundred years the farming. That’s just since domesticated animals became a things and men can stay home and not have to be out in hunting teams all the time.

People grew and hunted or gathered food. People made clothes, and houses, and tools, and everything else one needs to survive. Most people did these things for their own personal use. Some cultures did these things collectively, and created a system of bartering that eventually turned into a money exchange because if someone spends 3 months building a bed and needs to exchange it for food and the only person who wants the bed has an apple farm it’ll take an awful lot of apples to pay for the bed… and then he has to trade apples for whatever else he wants. Money made the trading easier.

The reason that men traditionally “worked” is because the woman was taking care of the rest of the family. The most important part of society. What the man did for work was less important than how the mom raised her children. Now it’s reverse. Now both men and women are told they are nothing if they don’t work and having children is just a waste of time and money that could be spent on important things. Moms and dads are told that if they did make the mistake of having children it’s best to leave those children with others who aren’t as accomplished as they are to “deal with the kids” so the parents can concentrate on the important things.

Children are the most important things. Women who stay home do all the jobs of those who work only they don’t get paid… and they don’t have to pay out either. We need to stop telling women that they are useless if they don’t act like men, and start letting women go back to being the backbone of the family. Maybe then children will go back to being properly cared for by both a mom and a dad.

parenting

I have 5 maybe 8 years left

Katrina Russell

I am a homeschool mom. I am also a single mom. This puts a lot of constraints on my ability to work, and earn money.

I do my best with different avenues and am very thankful that I have friends that have owned their own businesses for years and I am able to both work for them when I can and get advice on running my own. I was an older mom, 37 when my son was born, and I was lucky enough to have help in the first couple of years, but by the time my son was ready to really start school I was on my own. Since then he and I have been a little team. Even when his father was alive and just not living with us he used to refer to us as such.

We have always been close. We have co-slept his whole life. When I make plans he is always included. Most of my friends and social activities revolve around his friends and their parents. I take him with me to most events that I attend. He is my little “plus one”.

There are people that think that all of this is “weird” and that I should, “have a life outside of him”, but here’s the thing. I did that. I was 37 when he was born. I lived lots of life. I did the all-nighters out with coworkers and fellow students. I partied. I traveled. I lived that life. Now I want to live the life of a mom and have my family. If I told people that my family was my life, and that I spent all of my time with them, and they my husband and I were taking our kids on all of the adventures that I take my son, no one would blink an eye. The fact that it’s just me and my son some how makes it weird.

People tell me that I need to get out and start dating. That I should create a life without him because what happens when he’s gone and I’m left all alone. But that’s exactly the point. My son is 10 year old. He’s not going to want to be with me all the time, and give me snuggles everyday for much longer.

Last night a group of us went skiing… well, the kids were skiing, the parents were hanging out drinking hot cocoa and chatting. My son was running about having a blast with his friends. We ran into my nephew while we were there and he was off on his own with his friends. My brother wasn’t even in the same town. My nephew is 14 now. He’s just a 3 years and 2 months older than my son. I know the days are coming that my son won’t need or want me around all the time. This is my time to spend with him.

I’ve never understood people who had kids just to pass them off to someone else. It seems counterintuitive. I love my boy. He’s the best thing that has ever happened to me. I want this chapter of my life to be about him. I want him to look back on his childhood and remember that his mother was there for him. I want him to remember all the fun places we went to and adventures that we had. I want him to know that he wasn’t an afterthought to his mother. That when he was a boy his mother said no to things that she couldn’t bring him to so that she could spend as much time with him as possible. I want to enjoy my little one as long as he lets me.

In 5 years he will be 15 and he’ll have friends that are beginning to drive, and girls that he is interested in dating. I will be someone that he will check in with. I am hoping that I will be someone that he can come to for advice. Someone that he can trust. But I won’t be his team member anymore. He’ll have knew people for that.

In 8 years he will be 18. An adult. He will be able to move out, get married, join the army, and may any other decisions that he chooses. I won’t be the center of his world, and that’s good. I’m not supposed to be then. I am supposed to be now.

parenting

When is it ok to quit?

Katrina Russell

My son started taking karate in the summer before pre-k, not because he had an interest in karate, but because his nursery teacher was concerned he wasn’t making friends and being home we me all summer would set him back even further. We had been enrolled in many other activities to get him socialized. Mommy and me gymnastics, library play group, and swim classes to name a few, but in all of them I was part of the activity. The teacher thought it important to get him into an activity that I wasn’t included, and this seemed a good fit.

The class started in a basic exercise class for 4-6 year old’s. The Sensei was great and he taught about self control on top of physical conditioning. My son made some friends and I made friends with one of the moms who’s son happened to go to school with my son. It was a great experience.

However, now the boys are almost 11 and neither of them have any real interest in the fighting aspect of karate. They both have a sweet nature and are must more likely to be playing hide and go seek at recess than joining most of the other boys for baseball or tag foot ball. My son loves music and chess and takes classes in both. He participates in the church choir and faith formation classes. Both boys also love to ski and, though not in the same school anymore, I take my son to the hill at the time of the school’s ski club so that he can see his old friends. I say all of this to both explain my son’s personality and to show that his socialization is not lacking.

So here is the question at hand. Both boys are in the class right before sparring, and both boys want nothing to with sparring. I keep thinking that he’s still only 10 and his testosterone hasn’t kicked in yet, that once that happens he’ll be more likely to want to get involved with more aggressive sports. My brother wanted nothing to do with sports as a kid and my father, who was a boxer in his youth, used to tease him by calling him “Sport Billy” (a cartoon character when we were little). Eventually, my brother went on to love wrestling and played football. Then as an adult he took Taekwondo. My nephew does a combination of the lot. I keep thinking that if I just push him to stay a little longer that he may grow into the sport.

I also feel like he made a commitment. He’s been taking this class for almost 7 year, though the first few were more about conditioning. He has been working towards his black belt. He has all the time and energy invested already…. and then I remember that he never asked to join this class. He never showed interest in karate itself. He enjoys being with his friends, and he loves the games they play, but unlike the conversation that we had about his music, chess, and skiing he never showed interest in the actual sport of karate.

So here I am. A mom with a dilemma… do I hold him to a responsibility he never agreed to just in case he decides he wants it in the future, or do I let it go and allow him to quit when it starts to get hard?

Joining Karate
parenting

There isn’t a little boy born who wouldn’t tear the world apart to save his mummy

Katrina Russell

It’s a quote from one of my old favorite shows, “Doctor Who”. Well, before it went stupid in the last few years. I had seen this episode before I had my son and thought it cute. Watching it now, as a mom of a son… it is so true.

There’s no act of love more pure than that of a little boy willing to do anything to save his mummy. Their bond is unbreakable and unconditional, and the strength of this bond has been evidenced time and time again. Even in the darkest moments, when the world seems to be against them, the powerful connection between mother and son will never break.

No matter the challenge, a little boy’s heart will always lead him to protect his mum without hesitation. When faced with danger, he will risk it all to keep her safe. He will go above and beyond, no matter the cost, to be there for her in her time of need. That’s the kind of love that only a mother and son could share.

No matter the age, a little boy will never forget the strength of the bond he has with his mum. He will remember it for years to come, and he will never forget the unconditional love that only his mum can give him. Even when tears fall down his cheeks, he won’t stop trying to save her. His courage will not waiver, and he’ll never give up, no matter the odds.

There isn’t a little boy born who wouldn’t tear the world apart to save his mummy. Their fearlessness and selflessness knows no bounds, and their bond will last an eternity. No matter the danger, the strength of a little boy’s love for his mummy will prevail.

This is one of the most important traits that a boy can have and that a mother can cultivate. Mothers love to “baby” their little boys, and keep them with them as much as possible, but this is not actually good for the boy himself. Boys have a natural instinct to protect their moms, their wives, and their children, and they should. In a world with fewer and fewer homes with men in them to help raise their children, moms have to understand the importance of raising little boys to be the men who will protect.

Today, especially in the West we think that everything should be peaceful and loving and safe. That “bad things” happen to “other people” and that as long as we put our kids in helmets and seatbelts and tell them that they are perfect just the way they are then those children will have perfect lives, but life isn’t perfect. Life isn’t safe, and it’s our jobs as moms to make our children as strong and capable as possible. Our little boys want to protect us, and it’s our job to let them.

Addiction, Love, Mental Health, parenting

The new “free” life is killing people

Katrina Russell

I don’t understand this new trope of young people who all talk about how much they hate the grind, how capitalism is evil and people are more than just money and wages and how life shouldn’t be wasted working… while at the same time they complain that they should be given more stuff without money, wages, or working.

At the same time they are saying that love and marriage is an outdated institution and way of life, that having children is akin to slavery and a product of white supremacy and the patriarchy and the only thing of any value is having fun and getting more free stuff. I mean if that isn’t materialism and narcissism then I don’t know what is.

I understood the time when people, especially men, were working 100 hours a week and killing themselves to “keep up with the Jones’s”. The cliche was that on their death bed that they wouldn’t be thinking about the deals they didn’t make, or the car they never bought, but the time they missed with their family and their loved ones. Now it seems that love is the bad kind of 4 letter word. As if having someone to love is somehow a detriment to your own freedom and happiness.

Everyday on social media there are posts, especially from women about how they aren’t going to succumb to the old patriarchal regime of being a mom and putting their needs on the backburner for someone else. They aren’t going to give up their girls night out and their shoe collection for some crying, drooling brat, as if A. kids have no worth in and of themselves more than shoes, and B. Kids never grow out of the infant stage and won’t be there to take care of their parents’ crying, drooling asses one day.

The Western world has become consumed with being as “free and happy” as possible without any responsibility, or anything getting in their way, and yet the Western world has become fraught with mental illness, drug addiction, and violence. People are more miserable today in a world of ease than ever before. In fact people are looking for things to be angry about instead of just enjoying what they have… mostly because people don’t have anything worth having. They don’t know what it’s like to earn something tangible, never mind what it’s like to earn respect.

People think that relationships are about everything the other person can give or do for you. It’s about making sure that you never feel the slightest bit uncomfortable. Life is about the fastest way to get a dopamine hit, whether through drugs themselves or through constant social media yes men telling you how amazing you are. If a relationship hits a snag and the other person doesn’t want to do the same thing that you want then they are holding you back and quite possibly abusing you. If a child comes along then they are a threat to your very way of life and must be killed immediately before it gets a chance to be seen.

People have been turned into a group of individuals that hate people, not just others, but themselves as well. They think that any kind of work is oppressive, as if the things that they want just appear out of no where and someone else doesn’t have to work to make them. They think that they are the star of the show and anyone who disagrees with them is the antagonist in their story and must be destroyed. People today would rather live in a computer than talk to their neighbors…. and the overdose and suicide rates show that this new life view is killing them.