Bum vs. Bottom

So I picked my (almost 3 year old) nephew up from preschool the other day, this is not an overly often occurrence, but it is close to home and he loves when I do so sometimes I pick him up on the way home from work and let him once again show me everything about his school. This day I decided to do it because it had been a long ass day and I could really use some Hendrix sized hugs, turns out I picked the right day. I come in the door and hear him bellow out my name and see a streak of toddler as he comes tearing across the room and flings himself into my arms. After a freaking amaze balls hug I put him down and he pulls me over to the fish tank chattering on about the fish and the shark (toy) and the fish flowers (tank plants) etc.. Here’s the interesting thing about my nephew, he was slow to learn to talk, but now he loves talking to anyone who will listen… at home; apparently at school he doesn’t say much of anything and when he does he gives one word answers, it’s something we are working on at home and with the teachers and we think it is either a shy or confidence thing. Well… not this day… His teacher came up to me as he was dragging me around the room showing me different things and asked to speak to me. She said that Hendrix had spoken a whole sentence with her extremely clearly today, “that’s fantastic” I said, his teacher looked uncomfortable Teacher – “Um yes it is, and we are so glad that he is starting to feel comfortable talking around us here at school so we don’t want to discourage that, but the sentence he said wasn’t the best thing he could have chosen” uh-oh Me – “Oh, okay, what did he say?” Teacher – “We were sitting on the floor and I was playing with some coloured balls with him and I put one behind my back and said to him ‘where is the red ball?’ He pointed at my back and I brought it back out and said, ‘you’re right, here it is!’ He then put the green ball behind his back and I asked him where the green ball was and he pointed and said, ‘up Hendrix bum’, he then pulled it out from behind his back with a smile and exclaimed ‘here it is’”

Apparently green ball went caving
http://clubpenguin.wikia.com/

Me – Simultaneously horrified and trying desperately not to laugh “Oh my god, I am so sorry I don’t know where he got that from” Teacher – “Look I think it was done really innocently, I don’t think he even meant it as rude because there was no cheekiness in it. The thing is that we don’t encourage the use of the word ‘bum’ at school anyway so…” Me – “I’ll talk to his parents” Out of the mouths of babes… Between my two brothers I have 2 nieces and 2 nephews, both parent pairs have brought them up referring to their bum as a bum rather than a bottom. I was always brought up to say bottom, but my Mum and Nan were all about the young lady manners. I do not feel that the word ‘Bum’ is rude and it is an acceptable term in Australia for bottom which is considered more English, where do you stand on the Bum vs. Bottom debate?

I have no problem with a good bum 🙂
http://www.panmacmillan.com.au/

…but some just prefer Bottom
Original pic from http://cheerybeggar.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/the-wisdom-ofnick-bottom/

                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please also feel free to share when your tots mouths have landed you in hot or embarrassing water 🙂

Roaring laughter daily prompt

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Pride & Joy: Fur baby family

What is your most prized possession?

This was a challenge issued by daily post and it really made me think, my instinct when thinking about my pride and joy was to say family, but I do not really consider my family a possession. Google dictionary defines possession as the following:

1. the state of having, owning, or controlling something.
2. something that is owned or possessed.
3. the state of being controlled by a demon or spirit.

We’ll just ignore that 3rd one completely as I am pretty sure no one has ever expressed pride or joy for demon possession – although I must say a novel titled, ‘My favourite demon possession’ would be an interesting read.

She looks happy… right?!?!

So what possession or thing that I have actual ownership of is my pride and joy? Well, whilst I think of my dogs as part of the family I do technically “own” them so I would have to say my fur babies 🙂

I have always wanted a dog, I asked Santa for a puppy for many, many years, but unfortunately he somehow knew my parents didn’t want one so my puppy was never under the Christmas tree come Christmas morning. One of my driving forces for becoming independent was so I could move out of my parent’s house in order to get a dog.

 

Molly

Miss Molly

I quickly decided that I didn’t want a puppy from a breeder or a pet shop; I wanted to get my new companion from a shelter. So onto the interwebs I went (this was almost 10 years ago now so everything was far clunkier than it is now) and after looking at a few different websites I found Renbury Farm http://www.renbury.com.au/ or https://www.facebook.com/RenburyFarm  I saw a 7 month old pup on the site that caught my eye and went to visit the very next day. When I located the dog I had seen on the internet we didn’t really click, the dog was incredibly excitable and just didn’t feel right (it also barked the entire time I was there with my brother and I didn’t think that would go well with the neighbours).

I decided to look around at the other dogs as there were many more onsite than there were on the website, we played with a few, but none of them felt like the right one for me, then I saw this little bundle of white fur hiding in the corner of a pen – I couldn’t even tell what kind of dog it was because it was trying to make itself look as small as possible. The lady from the shelter said she was 6 months and had been found on the side of the road with rope around her neck, she was petrified of people, especially men so my brother shouldn’t go in the pen, she would likely wee on me if I picked her up, but I was welcome to go in to get a better look at her. In I went and after some coaxing I picked her up (with the blanket underneath her just in case) she cuddled straight in under my neck and I knew I had found my companion. She was a 6 month old Chihuahua X Mini Foxy (Chi’s are not a breed I usually take to) and she was perfect.

It took many months of work, but she became a happy go lucky dog who loves men and women equally and will cavort and rub against your legs begging for a pat (or a treat). She is very well behaved and adores nothing better than a snuggle on a cold day. I have had 9 years of amazing joy and companionship with her and she is my pride and joy.

 

Sam

Sammy

The only problem that lingered on for a long time with Molly was separation anxiety, I managed to work through every other issue she had, but if I went away for a weekend or something she would freak out after a few hours and stop eating and drinking and claw at the front door to try and get out and find me. She would also scratch at herself until her hair fell out and her skin bled.

We found a kitten who seemed very lost, but well taken care of (very healthy) so we decided to drop it to our local pound to see if it was micro chipped so the owner could be found. When we left an older woman stopped me in the car park and handed me this fluff ball begging me to take him in for her because she couldn’t do it herself. Apparently it was her neighbours pup and they didn’t want him because they were never home, he chewed everything and he was sick all the time. He was a Pomeranian and I have friends who are breeders so we took him home – he had been owned by an immigrant Cambodian family who had been feeding him their own food so he was very skinny – at 12 months old he weighed 1.2kgs. So we knew he needed vet attention fast.

After a few hours at our home Molly and Sam were inseparable, when I took him to the vet the next morning she wandered around the house whimpering and moping until I brought him home. I went to work and came home to find Sam curled up on the couch beneath my Hubby’s chin and Molly curled up behind his knees – all asleep. It was then I knew we had just adopted another dog 🙂

Sam turned out to have one of the most gorgeous dispositions of any dog I have met, he is a total Mummy’s boy and will trot around the yard after me and happily sit there with my whilst I weed or put out washing. He and Molly cavort and roll around the yard – I truly believe they both think they are much bigger than they are the way they roughhouse sometimes.

 

Thinking back on how these two crazy lovable furballs came into my life I feel very lucky, if I had have gone to Renbury one day earlier I wouldn’t have met Molly and if we hadn’t have found that Kitten and decided to take it to the pound at that exact time we wouldn’t have met Sam. Sometimes life just works out perfectly 🙂

Social Media Addiction

So a little while ago I read this post http://kristenlynnwrites.com/2014/03/04/if-our-great-grandmothers-wouldve-had-facebook-and-twitter-when-they-were-young-mothers/ by Kristenlynnwrites and I loved it, it struck a chord with me, but in a different way than I would have expected when I started reading the piece. As I kept reading and giggling my way through the tweets I started thinking about the fact that because they didn’t have social media etc. they probably had a lot of time for other things. Then I read a comment by http://mrhairybrit.com/ that basically said exactly what I was thinking, “… the next generation is going to be a little lost in the world of social media”. I completely believe this in fact in some cases I feel like this is a bit of an understatement 🙂

Social media use is a little bit out of control, there I said it. Don’t get me wrong I use it, I absolutely use it and having lived in a few different places I find it a fabulous way to keep in touch with people I possibly wouldn’t be able to afford to keep in touch with otherwise. In fact I have done a lot of research and study into measuring and getting value out of social media technologies (which is likely evident from my last post) so I am certainly no Noob when it comes to the 2.0 world. What I have a problem with is the people that get so involved with their social media platforms that they basically spend more time posting their life on one platform or another than living it, that is where I think there is an issue. I believe we need a rehab clinic for social media addiction because trust me it is real!

http://www.9ddot.com/

So here are some prime examples of things happening on social media that drive me nuts:

• Mums and Dads posting every breath of their child’s existence. Guys your kids want to make a connection with you, not the lens of your smartphone, put that down and play with them; you don’t need evidence of being a decent parent. In fact if all your interactions with them are through the lens you are not really exhibiting great parenting skills, stop observing and get in there! Someone doesn’t have to ‘like’ it on Facey for it to have meaning.
• This next one was over the line and a totally legit reason to de-friend someone – recently the wife of a friend of mine had a bub, afterwards she posted photos of her C-section on FB… not okay! I wouldn’t want to see myself cut open like that, let alone anyone else… keep it in the family.
• My husband and I got married 2 years ago – people were really surprised when it took us a month to change our relationship status to married (I don’t really know why they cared to be honest, but apparently it was a thing for them). When we were looking for someone to do our ceremony we kept seeing references to a Facebook inclusion, when I eventually asked what it was we were told that a lot of people after signing the register like to have an extra part where they update their status’ on Facey to say they are now married… ‘umm okay, no we won’t be having that. Yes I understand it is popular, we still don’t want it’. Since when was the ring, ceremony and massive party not enough evidence of the ‘I do’?
• Selfies have gone too far! Yes I have taken them, yes I have posted them, yes I love the famous Ellen selfie, it is fabulous! But enough is enough… I do not need to see Belfies (Butt-selfies) which are just pure grot and who thought of that anyway?! The sheer amount of duckfaces I have seen in the past year have made me irrationally hate Daffy Duck a much loved icon of my childhood. And I have to say it… WTF is with after sex selfies?! How is this an okay thing to do? Vent, vent, vent, whinge, whinge, whinge. As a Librarian I have to admit that I do enjoy Shelfies, it’s a guilty pleasure to be able to have a perve at others bookshelves from the non-judgemental corner of my own home 🙂

http://images.dangerousminds.net/uploads/images/bookshelfie222.jpg

So people go on with all these conspiracy theories about Big Brother watching and the government spying on everything we do, the thing is that if they wanted to they wouldn’t have to work very hard. I mean seriously, we are posting our entire lives to social media, all they would have to do is write an extremely basic program with some search terms and it would pull all of your information up. I can literally go onto my Facebook page right now and tell you everything one of my friends had to eat yesterday; seriously he posts every meal… I don’t even know what I had for breakfast yesterday, but I know he had a full continental breakfast in the lobby of a hotel near his work… does that not worry anybody else?

We have basically created our own strange version of The Truman Show; we have done this to ourselves. We are too quick to post stuff and we don’t think about the consequences, for example, did you know people Google you when you go for an interview? If you Google my brother’s name a certain way you will find a video of him setting off fireworks out of his butt from 5 years ago. Once the information is out there, you no longer have control of it.

What do your uploads say about your personal brand? http://www.brandnewmedia.com.au/blog/the-facebook-makeover

So people please think before you upload and if you fit into any of the examples I have spoken about please seek a 12-step program in your area.

I almost got expelled at the age of 6!

I almost got kicked out of a Catholic Primary School, not for fighting or swearing, but because they declared me to be a blasphemous child. I find this rather strange because I had no idea what that meant at the time as I was 6 years old an obviously a total angel!

How did I upset the forgiving Catholics so much? Well I was brought up to ask questions and to enjoy learning (yes yes my mother is a teacher), so I was looking forward to Primary School even though I chucked the required tanty on the first day when I was dropped off.

I digress, back to the story… one bright sunny morning our teacher began teaching us about dinosaurs and when they roamed the earth (I thought dinosaurs were the bomb) then after lunch we had bible study. Here is where I got confused… ‘if god created the earth in seven days then when were there dinosaurs? I thought you said they came before man’. Apparently you can’t question what is in the bible, I was given an answer I don’t remember possibly because it didn’t answer my question, because I didn’t get an answer I kept asking the question. Then I started being ignored, I don’t know who on earth taught teachers that ignoring children will make them go away – what morons they were. My response was to go and ask other teachers, when they couldn’t answer me I went to the boss, I took myself to the Principals office because she must know everything because she is a Nun and a Principal, she told me some garble about how perhaps when the bible says seven days it didn’t mean days, perhaps back then days could mean many years. Ahh ok so why didn’t they just write that it took many years to create the earth, that’s a lie, why did God lie to make himself sound good. THAT was when they called my parents! Apparently I was a horrid child who taught the other student bad behaviour and they believed I was a devil child who was turning children away from God and the church with my incessant questioning. I don’t think it helped that they sat me at a table in the Principal’s office with paper and crayons during this meeting and I promptly began drawing dinosaurs, thinking I was being nice I signed it and told her I had made her a present and gave her the drawing. Oops! But when you are a kid you get obsessed with these things until you get what you need and then you move on.

Teaching evolution and creationism in the same school just does not work (especially an extremely strict Catholic one)… it messes with kids heads! When I was 8 I one day asked the Priest why there were only altar-boys not altar-girls, he said that women shouldn’t touch things of God. I said that God was a meanie and should learn manners because we are supposed to share and why didn’t God’s Mummy teach him how to share? And maybe God needed a time out. THAT’s when my parents were called again. Luckily my mother is quite into equality and so she took on the Priest and the Headmistress and said how dare they cast God in such an unfavourable light for her child. Women and men should be held as equals by God blah blah blah, I think I then ruined her tirade by interrupting and saying I didn’t want to be Catholic anymore because their God was naughty and I wanted to find a God that would let me play with his stuff!

Not long after this I had my long hair all cut off because I spent a lot of time at the beach and HATED knots, until it grew out the Principal always made comments about me being a boy – man she hated me!!! My parents never believed me enough to go down to the school about it though.

You have to be careful what you teach children, because you honestly do confuse them. When the parents demanded the inclusion of sexual education (this was spurred by the fact that there had been a sexual predator in our area trying to get kids into his car – they wanted us to learn what no meant) they really shouldn’t have held that after bible study. Many of us kids went home and asked their parents why God didn’t really ask Mary’s permission and if Mary had said no. They changed the sex ed classes after that, they then consisted of the girls and boys being separated… the girls were shown what happens when you put a tampon into a water glass – I have no idea what the guys were shown.

Is there a point to this? Hmmm wait let me make one up… ok here it it…

1/ Don’t teach your kids to question and learn unless you mean it

2/ Don’t teach evolution and creationism in the same school

3/ Try not to confuse God figures (whichever you may embrace) in kids heads

4/ Kids do get bullied by teachers, if your kid says something like they hate their teacher, find out why! I know a lot of kids say it, but sometimes there is a good reason.

5/ Don’t punish children for being smart enough to see that what they are being told does not add up! It makes them want to stop learning because they feel punished for it.

Tree of Knowledge