IMG: Sxc.hu

television programs.  While some can’t help but watch and wish that they could swap with some other family, others watch in horror and want to scream, “Why?”  I have found myself in both of these positions but when it all boils down to it, I could never do it. I wouldn’t be able to allow some other “mom” to come in and raise my kids…not even for a week.  Could you?

 This week they have one that comes in and has a little boy walk out of the house with his bags packed because he doesn’t like all the “new mom’s rules.”  The father even watches his little boy walk out of the house in the preview. I’m guessing he doesn’t get very far or daddy already knows where he is going.

Check him out:

How would your respond to this child:

A.  tell him to sit down and listen
B.  Allow him to do whatever because this isn’t his mom.
C.  Let him go, you already know where he is going

I’m hoping you all stated either A or C because picking B shows the child that it is okay to be disrespectful to other people and that just isn’t right.   Obviously the child doesn’t like someone trying to replace his mom, hopefully this is a bit understood but at the same time I’m hoping he doesn’t talk to his mother like this. What are your thoughts?

Since we are on the subject of Wife Swap, ABC is currently looking for two types of families: Mardi Gras loving ones and the Text Obsessed ones. By text obsessed, they do mean the ones that would text in the car, walking to a place, upstairs when someone is downstairs and of course at the dinner table. If you have the family like this or that LOVES Mardi Gras you can contact Wife Swap at the link provided. For those that actually get selected to be on the show they will get $20,000 for their time, those that nominate a family and that family gets selected they will get $1000.  Here’s the link for the Text Obsessed Families.

Post from: Blisstree

Wife Swap, Could You Do It?

I know you thought you’d never hear these words from me, but I agree with Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s take on the banning of tag and other “aggressive” playground play.

One of the lessons I’ve taken from Randy Pausch, the man who’s teaching us how to boldly face down death by focusing on life with The Last Lecture, is: If you wait long enough everyone will show you they have positive value.

I don’t usually agree with Elisabeth. But, on the issue of aggresive playground play, including tag which has recently been outlawed at recess in many areas – I 100% agree.

Why are we expecting children to grow up without bruises, scrapes or bumps?

When I was in elementary school there was no playground equipment for a while. They made a really big hill of dirt. We called it The Mountain and found a million ways to hold hands and propel, twirl, roll, hop, skip and push each other off The Mountain. This all ended the second some kid broke an arm. We were no longer allowed to play on the hill.

As children we knew the value of being allowed to continue our play outweighed the risk of broken bones.

Why can’t adults get that simple concept?

Joy’s idea that we should approach 3 year olds with psychoanalysis and role reversal is simply stupid. Sometimes we do need to step back and let kids work stuff out for themselves.

Elisabeth’s idea that children work out their problems on the playground and that kids benefit from aggressive play and learn to get along in this hand-ons way is right on. I too think kids do learn something from being bullied, teased or and getting knocked around a little.

We want to limit and supervise it, but like Elisabeth, I don’t think restricting all aggressive and active play is a good way to handle childhood. Don’t we already have enough problems with lazy children who only watch tv and play video games?

As Whoopi said, YOU call it fighting. THEY are playing!

There. See? Randy was right, I can agree with everyone about at least one thing.

Post from: Blisstree

Elisabeth’s Right On

Who saw Randy Pausch’s interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC last night?

It is phenomenal what effect one professor’s lecture has had on the entire world.

My prevailing emotion was gratitude.

The most surprising emotion was envy. I envied the romance in his life.

Then came resolution. I resolve to live my life in a more present way. I’ve been making a concerted effort to be present in my life of late – this lecture gives me even more motive.

Lately, I’ve heard a lot of people say “the planet is experiencing an awakening right now.” I hope it’s true, and I’m loving the experience.

Did you see the interview? What were your prevailing emotions? Are you experiencing an awakening?

Post from: Blisstree

The Last Lecture

It’s hosted by Angie Everhart (ex of Ashley Hamilton), Shar Jackson (the pregnant girlfriend who got ditched by Kevin Federline and then had to watch his romance with Britney Spears in color – ouch),  and Marla Maples (one of Donald Trump’s ex-wives).

The one I saw brought up several issues for me.

First, divorce is extraordinarily painful for everyone involved. Period. We gloss it over with the assumption that we all can move on, but the pain that comes through the show, even on the spouses that chose to leave, is palpable.

Second, they used this therapy where they repeated over and over the negative things their spouse told them about themselves. For instance, the woman’s husband had called her “a selfish, mean bitch” so the therapy was to repeat “I am a selfish, mean bitch” and have everyone else in the group repeat it, until it lost its emotional significance. This is a suspect therapy in my opinion. If you buy into the concept that what you focus on expands then you will only become more of a selfish mean bitch using this therapy. You just won’t care so much about having someone point that out.

Third, the man who had been emotionally cheated on had some legitimate issues. For one thing he needed a make-over to be able to date anyone. He looked like a dork with terribly disgusting teeth and wore bad clothes. This resulted in him having a low self esteem and prevented his wife from French kissing him throughout their marriage. I just sat there thinking if the guy had bothered to get his teeth fixed and buy some new clothes during the marriage, his wife might not have wanted to find a more appealing lover. It pissed me off that he would go to all the effort of a make-over to get a date, but would not put the effort into the wife he already had. The same could be applied to a woman who wore disgusting sweat pants and didn’t shave her armpits or wear make up during a marriage, but dolled herself up as soon as dating became an option.

Post from: Blisstree

Ex-Wives Club

Did you see The View this morning?

Put this on your DVR if you’re busy tomorrow. I can’t wait to see how they handle the next three weeks of Rosie’s contract.

Post from: Blisstree

Rosie Vs. Elisabeth

So, After a long 20.5 hours of work, who doesn’t just love to plop in front of the TV for an evening’s worth of fabulous sitcoms, dramadies and cop shows? But gosh, there’s so much from which to choose!

Um…shockingly, no, there is not. Does anyone know how to write or ACT? (Sorry House fans, I don’t get time to see that one too much.)

I have to say, aside from a select few, such as Grey’s Anatomy or NBC’s 30 Rock, my favorite TV season is a disaster.

Except for one oddball commercial — the Geico Insurance caveman TV spots. I love everything about the caveman series; but this one in particular, in which the actual caveman character is disgruntled after seeing a giant caveman print ad in an airport, is simply genius.

The genius part of it all is that somehow they take a such a hot topic as cultural diversity, and put it together to sell something as boring as car insurance.

Hilarious…the music is impeccable, the copy is understated and the acting is wonderful. The whole thing is “under-the-top” — which I guess is the irony of it all.

Now if only the Hollywood know-it-alls could take their cue from Geico…maybe we’d be watching more interesting TV shows this fall. Thank goodness for you Tina Fey, I love you too.

Post from: Blisstree

Grey’s Anatomy, 30 Rock and the Geico Insurance TV Commercials.