Category: parenting

parenting, Uncategorized

The blame game

Katrina Russell

So I was talking to one of my friends who is a recovering drug addict. We were discussing some of the people in his AA/NA programs and he was amazed at the fact that a lot of them don’t have any real goals in life. I was amazed by the fact that he was amazed by this.

4127653707_7476ea3ccd_bAddicts aren’t really known for being goal oriented (unless you count the goal of getting a fix. He was talking about this one particular friend who has decided to start a club of sorts for his addict friends. In theory it sounds like a good idea, not the way he’s implementing it, but the concept in general. It’s basically getting a group of addicts together and agreeing to be there for one another. If anyone needs a ride to a meeting or someone to talk to, that type of thing. Then he was talking about expanding it to an outreach program. Talking to troubled kids and the like…. again, sounds like a fabulous idea…

Here’s the catch. The friend who is looking to start the program isn’t really sober. I mean, he’s sometimes sober… he can go for periods of time being sober, but as soon as anything happens in his life he jumps head first of the wagon. On top of that he has severe issues with relationships. He just got out of jail for stalking and harassing an ex… this does not really feel like the type of person that should be teaching others about sobriety and living well sober.

When I mentioned this to my friend, he started with the excuses, “well, it’s not really his fault, he has severe abandonment issues… his childhood was…. ” blah blah blah. I stopped listening at that point. Your childhood is not a reasonable answer for your choices. It is a pathetic excuse to blame others. Now I am in no way perfect. I admit that. I picked up a lot of bad eating habits from my father growing up as I have discussed previously, but once I became an adult… maybe not the moment I turned 18… but 25, 30… so on… my parents mistakes were not my problem.. my own were.

This guy with the abandonment issues (because he was put into foster care as a child) has gone on to put one child up for adoption and has another that sees him bouncing in and out of jail and rehabs. Those are his choices. There are plenty of people who have had screwed up childhoods who turn out just fine. I, personally, am so sick of an entire society who blames everyone else for their choices and actions.

My childhood was not perfect. My mother was schizophrenic. There were horrible custody battles, at one point my parents had a literal tug of war battle over me in the middle of the street. When I did live with my mother she took us to religious communes where, since we didn’t live with out father, anyone was allowed to punish us as they wished. For a while we even lived in a car. It didn’t stop once my dad finally got custody. My mother kidnapped us, police were called to the house and my school.. all kinds of things happened, but none of that made me a victim. All of that made me stronger and more aware of my own actions.

As an adult I have taken in other people’s children when the mom wasn’t able to care for them, and now I am a full-time mom to my son, while still running my own business. People make their own choices. If they hate the way they were treated by someone else or society or however they feel wronged, it is not their job to cry about why they deserve more, it’s their responsibility to make sure they don’t repeat the actions, and their right to have a better life.

If you blame others for your problems then you are giving them control over your life. The only person who can fix your life is you!

 

 

parenting

Taste the rainbow!

Katrina Russell

OK, I may get a little flack on this one, and I’m alright with that.I’m sure you’ve all seen the post about the mom who was “snack shamed” for sending her kid to school with Oreos, and I get that as parents we have the right to feed our kids what ever we want. But here’s the thing. School is a place where we go to send our children to learn things, and fist of all, learning good nutrition is also important, but on top of that it has been regularly proven that we learn better when we can concentrate. When our blood sugar levels are all over the place we can’t.

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I’m not saying that an Oreo now and then is going to kill you, but these teachers are dealing with 20 kids in their class, and the last thing they need is 20 maniacs running around from a sugar rush, and then crashing and not being able to focus or listen.

And yes, I understand that the new cool thing is to accept everyone no matter how unhealthy they are, but learning good habits as a child will help them become a more healthy adults, who may actually live to see their own children grow up. Obesity is real people. Diabetes, heart disease these are not made up conspiracies by the fruit and veggies market. These are real diseases that are killing people.

Now I understand that fresh fruits and veggies can be expensive for some and that buying the cheaper chips and cookies are easier, but let’s think about that for a moment. I’m not willing to put a little extra away to buy even raisins to help my child stay healthy… in other words KEEP MY CHILD ALIVE LONGER.

Sugar really is evil. There is study after study about not just how it affects our moods anddownloadjf energy levels and concentration, but also our long term health. Sugar is worse for our bodies than most fats, and most of the cookies and other junk foods aren’t even made with real sugar and natural fats, they’re made with high fructose, partially hydrogenated garbage that increases cholesterol levels, plays havoc with our blood sugar levels and even gives us acne… as if health problems weren’t bad enough!

Cutting sugar isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible either. There are plenty of places to go for help, and plenty of real snacks to take the edge off. In fact, research shows that as one starts to cut out the sugars and salts from ones diet they crave it less, and I have found that my taste buds have grown so that real food’s flavor actually intensifies.

So the next time you get all bent out of shape because someone dared to put your well-being  before your wants, try to remember what your job is as a parent, and be as good to yourself too.

parenting

Please pass the bread

Katrina Russell

I was at a wedding last weekend and I was sitting next to a friend of the bride’s that I remembered a few years back was on the chubby side. Now he was REALLY SKINNY. I could just tell by looking at him that he had made dramatic changes to his eating… but not necessarily healthy ones.

When the bread came around he passed it by and I commented, “you look like you haven’t had bread in a long time”. I was right. Hpaleo_food_pyramid_ireye is on the Paleo Diet. I know this is the new fad thing and EVERYONE must try it and you lose all kinds of weight, but the problem is, it’s not particularly healthy. Our bodies need a certain amount of carbs and calcium, and though dairy is not necessary for calcium, one has to be very careful when one cuts out an ENTIRE food group.

The funny thing is in most cultures food graphs (they take on different shapes) grains is always very high on the list, and carbs is one of the main macro nutrients that people need. So why is it that low carb diets such as the Paleo, gluten free and Atkins are so popular and seem to work… It depends on the carbs that you eat.

56f08dc3150000ad000b2beaIn Japan where carbs are the main staple, people live longer, have less cardio vascular problems and in general are healthier. The thing is the carbs they eat aren’t processed concoctions with barely a nutrient to be recognized. They eat whole grain, mostly rice.. and veggies. Italy is another country that loves it’s carbs. Pasta, pizza, and all the other goodies get eaten in huge portions, but again, they don’t chemically treat all the grains before eating them, they don’t load them down with hydrogenated…. anything.

The problem with the new diets are that people start cutting things like pizza and chips, which is great, but they lose out on the good carbs, like whole grain rices, pastas, and yes, bread. Which is the main macro nutrient needed to give us energy. No wonder coffee and naps are so popular.

parenting

How do you talk to yourself?

Katrina Russell

I had an interesting conversation with a friend recently. This is one of those friends who is an amazing person but has extremely ow self esteem about everything. He’s the type who loves to make self deprecating comments and jokes and thinks that he doesn’t deserve anything good.

We were discussing my 3 year old son and how big he’s getting. I told him that everyone from other moms to his pediatrician comments on how strong he is. How he is very muscular even at his age. I said that he gets that from my side of the family, as his father’s side is slim, and tone, but not really bulky muscular.

His response was, “wow, that’s not cocky at all”. I was so confused by the statement. My comment wasn’t cocky, it was a biological fact. My side of the family is very broad and muscular and my ex’s is not. My brother is 6’6″ and did wrestling and football all through high school and college… that’s just the way it is. My ex is 5’9″ and wears a small-medium sized shirt. He’s not scrawny, just not bulky, and I’m not cut and defined, I just have a high muscle build. In fact, the high muscle concentration has been a problem for me as a girl and now as a woman. My scale and BMI are very misleading, as even when I was thin, my numbers said otherwise. It took me years to understand the difference.

8392d6b5d575384417308b7ac7a83413I started out a little offended by what my friend had said to me, but then I realized that it wasn’t about me at all. It wasn’t about my son. The comment was about my friend’s own person self esteem issues. He had been trained, either my himself or parents, or others, that complimenting any aspect of yourself is a fault. That you mustn’t “pretend” that you’re better than others, or point out or even accept your good qualities.

This friend has been looking for a new job, and myself and others have been telling him to go for this one or that one.. and he won’t. He doesn’t feel he is good enough, even though he is plenty qualified. He spends his time hoping for a brighter future, while constantly talking badly to himself about himself. I feel bad that he treats himself that way. He is a great guy and deserves better. The irony is that if he ever heard anyone speak to me the way he speaks to himself, he would probably knock them out.

People have to understand that self talk is the most important talk. We need to feed ourselves GOOD messages about our strengths, our bodies, our souls. We create our own lives. If we hear of a parent verbally abusing their child there is outrage and we understand the parent is creating havoc with that child’s self esteem. How come no one ever thinks the voices in our own heads do the same?… only we can’t walk away from that.

parenting

Anything GO should be a good thing

Katrina Russell

I am not getting the whole Pokemon-Go outrage. I see blog upon blog and meme upon meme about how stupid it is, how dangerous it is and how it should just be band! Seriously? It’s a game. Remember games? Things people do for FUN.

508800-pokemon-goParents are in an uproar because there are stories about kids breaking into buildings and houses and getting shot at or other kids not looking where they are going and walking into a street and being hit by a car. I’m sorry, how is this the game’s fault?

Remember when you were a child and you’d be playing ball in the neighborhood and you’d accidentally hit the ball into the neighbor’s house? Would you go breaking and entering into the house to retrieve the ball? No, of course not! Remember when yodownload.gifu would be riding your bike and laughing with friends? Would you not pay attention to the cars on the road because you were too busy chatting? Maybe… but if you got hit, that was your fault.. not Huffy’s.

This game is great! This game is getting stationary kids and young adults who have spent years with their ass on the couch up and moving… going outside even! Interacting with other human beings IN PERSON! Who knew that this was still possible?

In a era when Facebook and snap-chat are the only way people are staying connected. In a time when online has become the new pastime, having a game that actually gets people moving and socializing face to face seems like a Godsend. How about instead of finding fault with a product we tell our kids and friends to smarten up and be careful. Sadly, they probably don’t understand that there are factors outside of themselves because they have spent so long inside alone… it’s games like Pokemon Go that can get society back in action.. and I for one applaud the whole concept.