Her Kids

After a Texas teenager recently broke her curfew, her dad came up with an original consequence. He placed an ad in a local, Dallas-Fort Worth newspaper offering his daughter's free baby-sitting services. It read: "Want a FREE BABYSITTER for a night out?" It goes on to explain that his 16-year-old is being punished for coming home late and offering 30 hours of free baby-sitting.

New research in an upcoming issue of Social Psychological and Personality Science reveals that our personalities don’t change much throughout our lives; in fact, personality traits observed as early as first grade are strong predictors of adult behavior.

One summer evening during a noisy thunderstorm, a mom was tucking her small boy into bed. She was about to turn off the light when he asked in a tiny voice, "Mommy, will you sleep with me tonight?"

The mother smiled warmly and gave him a reassuring hug. "I can't, dear," she said. "I have to sleep in my room with Daddy."

It’s hard enough to psych up most kids for the first day of school without adding terror to the elevated potential for drama.

The morning of the first day of school:

“Mommy and Daddy have a present for you. It’s a very special, big boy backpack.”

Standing in the market’s check-out line, my home away from home, I smiled at a little girl, about 2 ½ tops, in the cart directly ahead of mine. She dropped her eyes coyly, nonchalantly kicking her feet and nibbling away on samples, or “tastes,” courtesy of accommodating staff behind the hot food and bakery counters.

The two teens standing waist high in the ocean, gazing at the horizon, didn’t know anyone else existed. The sweethearts looked to be around 16, however, the older I get, the younger kids look to me, so I’m guessing. Arm in arm, stealing kisses under a brilliant blue sky, they were lost in their own hormone drenched world. Ahhhhh, young love.

While out for our usual (em)power walk along Miami Beach’s shoreline at sunset, my blissful senses and I suddenly came under assault. The shrill voices of two little girls pierced the tranquility.

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve bought diapers. As a matter of fact, it’s been some time since I’ve even meandered down the baby isle of a grocery store. So for all I know, Johnson & Johnson’s latest diaper rash cream contains a breakthrough formula that prevents (“the appearance of”) cellulite later on in high school! I hope I didn’t give marketing geniuses any ideas.

The following are a couple of choice quotes about mothers by two influential thinkers of their times.

  "Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own."
-- Aristotle

  "Never say anything on the phone that you wouldn't want your mother to hear at your trial."
-- Sydney Biddle Barrows (aka, the “Mayflower Madam”)

Having spent my formative years on the west coast, where it’s always 78 degrees and sunny, I got to witness the most beautiful sunsets over the ocean. (It pains me to admit that like most things commonplace in your life, eventually sunsets, too, can be taken for granted).