In the last year both my brother and sister got married.  Now that they are no longer single it is a rare occasion that my parents and I get to spend time with them without their new spouses.  Although I love my new in-laws and I think it’s fun that our family has grown larger, I do value the rare times when I get to bond with my siblings on their own.

This week I am on a five day trip with just my sister, my mom, and my puppy and it is wonderful!  We hangout all day, laugh, go shopping, get facials, eat ice cream, watch silly tv shows, and just enjoy each other’s company.

Mom, daughter, sister, and girlfriend bonding is so important for balance in your life.  Sometimes you just need to spend some time with the girls to chit chat and laugh and maybe treat yourselves to some shopping and mani/pedis.  You will probably miss your man, but I promise that your friends and family will cherish that one-on-one time that they get to spend with you.

Sometimes when relationships are new and exciting it’s hard to remember to schedule trips or weekends away from each other to just spend time with the girls.  But make it a priority!  Don’t just do it to be a good friend/sister/daughter, but do it to be good to yourself too.  It’s important to find that balance in your relationship where you can be happy when you are together, but also happy and comfortable when you are apart.

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Post from: Blisstree

Spend Some Time With The Girls

I can clearly remember when I sold shoes way back in the day and my boss and a co-worker tried to get me to go into the rest room, where they’d rigged up a bucket of water to fall on me. The bait was a first aid kit that I knew was not “on the back of the toilet.” Yuck, who would put a first aid kit there?? Anyway, the point is that I did not fall for it, but I did appreciate their effort and I would have laughed at the drenching.

My daughter told me that her friends talked her into calling her boyfriend at school, they go to different schools, and telling him that she is pregnant. His reaction, “Well, my life is over,” which of course it would not be, but still my heart ached for him when I heard what she had done. It must have felt like an instant punch to the gut. He works so hard at school and every day he talks about his plans to become a firefighter. Why would she think that putting that in jeopardy would be humorous? 

She told me that her friend had a teacher from school (which seriously makes me question this teacher’s common sense) call her Aunt, whom she lives with, to tell her that she had been caught at school with drugs in her backpack. She said that she was going to call me with the same news, but didn’t have a chance. I was flabbergasted.

What is this kid thinking of?  Unplanned pregnancies and drug busts as humor?  When did April Fools turn into horrify your friends and family day? 

I tried to explain my point of view to her. I said, “It would be like me calling you to say that I had cancer, when I don’t.” She said that would be horrible, because cancer kills.  I tried to explain that these other things were huge and life-altering, as well. We did not have a meeting of the minds. We both ended up frustrated, which is no kind of fun or joke for anybody.

What do you think?  What do you consider an appropriate or inappropriate April Fools Day joke or prank?

Bucket of water on the head = funny
Teenage pregnancy = not funny

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Post from: Blisstree

Not A Funny Prank

As an 8-year-old I remember running around to spend the night at my best friend Stacy’s house or hanging in my bedroom with Barbies. How many of you remember those days? Things were just a bit more innocent, there were years before we’d even begin worrying about our future.

Today little girls hang out at the school and talk about which boys they’d like to marry, this starts around kindergarten. I kid you not. I’ll never forget the first time my now 8-year-old came home telling me she was “in love” with such and such. In just the few short years she’s been in school she’s came home talking about SEX, you know that dreaded topic we aren’t suppose to have to worry about until they are older. Well, she’s told me that she wants to kiss such and such, that when she gets older she’ll put her tongue in some guy’s mouth, or the worse part was when she told me about how when she becomes a wife she’ll get undressed and she and her husband will have sex and they’ll be naked. I won’t go any further.

How is it she knows all this stuff? Before one thinks it is me, we make sure not to do ANYTHING until ALL the kids are sleeping soundly.

So, what is it? It’s school. We don’t have TV except for movies we rent. Plus she told me her best friend just had her period and has been telling her all about it, so she can’t wait to have that now. Man, she better hope she doesn’t get cramps that come along with it. Then she’ll be wishing she was staying young forever.  Is your little girl or guy wanting to grow up too fast? Any recommendations? You can’t say an all girl’s school, the hubby is already considering it.

Post from: Blisstree

She’s 8, But Wants to be 18

In a study of the maternity records of more than 6,000 women, David J.P. Barker, M.D., Ph.D., and Kent Thornburg, Ph.D., of Oregon Health & Science University discovered a strong correlation between the size and shape of a woman’s hips and her daughter’s risk of breast cancer. Wide, round hips, the researchers postulated, represent markers of high sex hormone concentrations in the mother, which increase her daughter’s vulnerability to breast cancer.

A woman’s hips are shaped at puberty when the growth of the hip bones is controlled by sex hormones but is also influenced by the level of nutrition. Every woman has a unique sex hormone profile which is established at puberty and persists through her reproductive life. The study’s findings show for the first time that the pubertal growth spurt of girls is strongly associated with the risk of breast cancer in their daughters.

… A woman’s vulnerability to breast cancer, the study found, was greater if her mother’s “intercristal diameter” — the widest distance between the wing-like structures at the top of the hip bone — was more than 30 centimeters, or 11.8 inches. The risk also was higher if these wing-like structures were round. The breast cancer risk was 2.5 times higher for the daughters of women in whom the widest distance was more than 3 centimeters greater than the distance at the front.

Read the full report here.

Contents © Copyright 2007 Kristen King

Post from: Blisstree

Mom’s Hip Size Indicates Breast Cancer Risk for Daughter