Kate at Babylune ran this crafty little contest where she asked everyone to blog about thier favorite charity and then she was going to give her blogging income to the winning charity.
Very cleverly, she devised a way to include everyone and make everyone feel validated and appreciated by dividing the winnings up among all entrants.
Here is the entry in which she chose Big Brothers Big Sisters as the recipient in honor of myself and Jennifer of Tree Hugging Family. Both of us are fans of mentoring.
Jennifer has a great story titled One Small Step about how an odd coupling of mentors, from her mother’s …read more

One of my pet causes is Mentoring. I think it’s one of the most effective and efficient ways to change the world. Perhaps not everyone is motivated to change the world. But, I am. That’s one of my motivating forces. I want no less.
But, it’s a big goal so I have to choose smaller, more tangible things with more instant gratification - little wins – to keep me motivated. Mentoring is one of those things. Something achievable.
By investing one hour a week in a my assigned kid I can influence her world. That makes me feel powerful and effective.
For example, last year my protege …read more

I heard today, on Oprah, that millions of kids have parents that spend only about 12 minutes face-time with them.
It sounds shockingly low, especially since I am a work-from-home mom and I treasure 12 minutes away from kids in my face (I’m exaggerating, my children are wonderful people and I choose this life). But, if you’re a single-parent with a full-time job and the kids go to bed by 7:30 p.m. it’s not hard to imagine that kids might only score 12 minutes of face-to-face talking a day.
One of my pet-peeves is complaining with no action. Not that I never do …read more

Tonight is our big mentoring banquet. I’m a mentor to one 14-year-old girl, but we meet as a group of four girls and four adults. At the end of the year we get dressed up, well as dressed up as the girls want to get, and going to a three-course meal with entertainment. It’s pretty exciting and we’ve been looking forward to it all year. Teachers at the school do a fundraiser to donate $50 to buy the girls a special outfit for the event.
This year, me and my mentee will be sitting at our group’s table alone. By some weird twist of fate …read more

My beautiful blond boy woke up screaming at 5 a.m. I tried everything. A sippy cup of milk, a tsp. of ibuprofen, some Origel, a pacifier, sleeping in our bed, walking him back and forth.
Turns out he just wanted to watch some VH1. I turned on the Jump Start music videos – why don’t they play these more than just in the early morning? He shut right up. Snuggled up. And drifted off to sleep. I tried to go back to bed. Nope. Wasn’t gonna happen. Back to the living room and VH1 and right back to slumberland.
Heading off to an …read more

I worry about the girls growing up today. Don’t you? I see celebrities getting thinner and thinner and the girls on the stripper pole in videos on BET and I worry about the teens and pre-teens who are forming their ideas of femininity with these images.
I worry about girls getting STDs from experimenting with love and sex. I worry about girls becoming prey to fast talking older men who are really just sexual predators. I worry about eating disorders, low self esteem and poor body image.
I sometimes get a sick hopeless feeling in my stomach when I read things …read more