Yup...here too. My older ds tries to boss the younger ds. The younger ds tells him he is not the boss. Argument ensues. Rinse. Repeat. Sigh.

What it should really come down to is this...if the child playing the "e-gadget" is disturbing you with the noise and it is keeping you from enjoying the performance, I can see getting irritated. But if the child playing the e-gadget is being very still and making no noise whatsoever, then what do you care? During one of my son's performances, a little boy, who had nothing to occupy him, got out of his seat, then his mom put him back in his seat, then he started crying and in the end, no one, including me, got to hear my son's performance. I wish she would have brought an e-gadget for that kid to play with.

Yup!! I sold a couch, a dining room set, and a bedroom set in less than 12 hours on craigslist!!!! WAY BETTER than a garage sale. I am giving clothes to the Goodwill...no sale for that either. :tongue_smilie:

:iagree:

1. My dh will be working so he cannot stay home to watch the boys. 2. We do not live close enough to family to have any of them sit for us EXCEPT for the family whose recital we are going to watch...and they obviously want to be there as well. 3. We haven't lived in this area very long and have not had time to develop close enough relationships with any neighbors, etc. that I would feel comfortable letting them watch my children. 4. The recitals are easily 3 hours long (sometimes more) and there is obviously nothing I can do about that. So my choice is to bring something to keep my 5yo occupied and quiet that does NOT disturb the people around him (and with headphones, a nintendo DS is silent) and enjoy the recital OR I can miss my niece's recital because some people in the audience feel the "appearance" of an electronic device (even if it makes no noise) is rude. I think I'll go with choice number one and go watch my niece, my beautiful miracle niece who shouldn't even be alive right now since she was born at 27 weeks, dance and if others don't like that my son has a nintendo DS with him that is THEIR problem.

Believe me, if I am taking my squirmy 5yo boy to watch a 3 hour dance recital, you will THANK me for bringing his nintendo ds (with headphones of course so there is no noise). While I may have an interest in watching my niece's recital, his attention span is about 4.6 seconds, and if I did not bring something to entertain him I would spend the entire time trying to keep him still and quiet. So it may look tacky and rude to some of you but at least you will get to watch your recital in peace. My nearly 11yo ds, however, will be watching the recital even though he hates it.:D

It is the first time I have ever seen it...but I don't get out much. ;)

I know exactly what you mean...all too well.

:iagree: :grouphug:

I saw it more like we are unable to push away the sin on our own which is why we need Christ to push it off of us like he did in the video.

http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ee73e63418003b47d7d5&sp=1

Well I don't have teenagers of my own but I taught teenagers for 11 years and I had 3 teenage foster children so here is my take.... 1. As one poster mentioned, they can't argue and wear you out if you don't engage. Arguing happens a lot in the high school classroom: me- Susie, turn around and stop talking to Johnny susie- i wasn't talking me- yes you were, now turn around and get back to work susie- but he talked to me first and on and on and on........ So I do not argue. I state my position and when they back talk I simply stare at them (they can't argue if there is nothing to argue with) until they comply. It works every time. 2. You should give the expectation and the consequence for not complying in advance so they know the score. Susie, you may stay until the class is finished at 8:30pm but you are to be home by 9pm. If you are late then you will no longer be able to stay out past 8pm. She needs to know in advance so she cannot say she didn't know, ya know? :D 3. Don't give punishments that you can't/won't back up. Two weeks is a long time to be grounded...for YOU. ;) When you give in, they win and all she learned is that if she pesters you enough you'll cave. 4. I'm on the conservative side. I would move the videogames to a common area like family room, playroom, basement, etc. and avoid the bedroom thing all together. It's fine when they are little but when kids are teenagers, bedrooms need to be separate and private, IMHO. Raising teenagers is like being on the frontlines of combat. Only engage in battles with them when it is absolutely necessary and when you do engage you have to win the battle or you WILL lose the war. :tongue_smilie:

That almost made me cry...I feel the same way. People spewing such filth in His holy name...I feel like breaking the cds into pieces with a hammer then giving them back...but that probably wouldn't seem very Christ-like either.:glare:

You can say that again. I think what weirds me out the most is how "normal" this guy seems and yet he thinks this Dr. Kidd guy is the greatest thing. I swear some of the stuff on that cd actually hurt my ears. Who is this whackjob anyways? Has anyone ever heard of him?

No, unfortunately this is about the 4th cd he has given us...we just had not had the chance to listen to any of them.

There is a guy that my dh works with who is a Christian and seems like a really nice guy. And it is really nice for dh to have another Christian man to talk with at work. They hang out at lunch, pray for each other, etc. UNTIL Last night this man gives my dh a cd to listen to. It is a sermon by one of this man's "favorite" preachers named Dr. Phil Kidd whom we have never heard of. My dh pops it into the player and... OH MY GOSH. I cannot believe the crap that was spewing out of this man's mouth! Look, I get that some people don't like Christianity because of its "there is only one way to the father" message and therefore would probably be put off by many sermons. But this sermon was the most offensive thing I have ever heard. I do not know how this man can call himself a Christian much less a preacher. He called Muslims "Sand Monkeys" and used the word "f*g" in reference to all kinds of people. He said "if one of those sand monkeys came after my family I'd blow their heads off with a shotgun." All to the whoops and hollering and "amens!" of the crowd. I am literally nauseated. Believe me when I tell you that these examples are mild compared to some of the other things he said. My dh was absolutely floored. I told him never to bring that racist filth in our house again. If people listen to this man it is no wonder they don't want to be Christian. What should dh say to the guy at work? He seems like such a good Christian guy but if he really likes this preacher then he is heading down a dangerous path. How can my dh approach this with him without offedning him?

I totally get what you are saying. For me though, it is about mitigating those statistics as much as possible. As far as playing in our front yard, we lived on a corner lot and about two years ago a guy ran a stop sign, was hit by an oncoming car, his car flipped several times and landed in our front yard. If my kids had been out playing at that moment they would be dead right now. Did I ever think in a million years that something that bizarre would happen? Of course. Do I believe it now? You betcha. One of my best friends has a pool and 3 children. The kids are taught pool safety, how to swim, yada, yada, yada. She felt perfectly comfortable going inside to take a phone call while her 11yo son kept an eye on things for a moment. Problem is, 11yo boys are pretty easily distracted and didn't notice that his 2yo sister had wiggled out of her float-vest and gotten into the pool. By the time anyone realized it, she was no longer breathing. Medics were able to revive her but she now suffers brain damage from lack of oxygen. She is now a statistic. The point is, statistics COME from somewhere. I'd rather it not be from my family if I can avoid it so I do what I can. I realize there are statistics that I cannot avoid but there are statistics I CAN avoid, so I do. And I appreciate you helping to keep the tone of this thread civil (we seem to be having issues with that lately on this board! :D)

I can see what the point of the book is. But I would phrase it differently. I would say things were just as dangerous then as they are now. We just didn't have it reported to us on the news as often as it is now. But the fact is, kids were kidnapped, murdered, molested and all manner of other things when I was a kid and they still are now. The "chances" of it happening then are probably the same as they are now. I do what I can to mitigate those possibilities by controlling what dangers I can, and by teaching my children to protect themselves in situations that I can't control. I'm not sure if this falls under free-range or over-protective? But I am a big fan of Gavin DeBecker's books "The Gift of Fear" and "Protecting the Gift".

It hasn't happened to us yet but I know my ds would react the same way. He would be mortified (and yes, he does know about sex). Yes, it is natural but it is still not something most kids want to think about their parents doing. My husband heard his parents often when he was growing up (apparently they were fairly loud) and he still doesn't like to think or talk about it. At 11yo you may know what sex is but it doesn't mean you are comfortable with it yet (especially not the idea of your parents doing it or the noises associated to it). My only advice is try to be quieter. :tongue_smilie:

That's interesting. I guess I will look into iTunes!

I guess my answer would be somewhere in the middle. I do not consider myself "fear-based overprotective". I consider myself "realistic about the world and its dangers and wanting to raise my children to protect themselves." For instance, I have a friend who does NOT teach her child about stranger danger at all because she doesn't want them to know that there are those kinds of people out there. She doesn't teach them about it BECAUSE she is afraid of "scaring" them. I think that is irresponsible. Also, parenting can be very situational. When we lived in the boonies of NC, our children had more freedom to roam and we let them. But to let them walk a few blocks down the street unsupervised in Metro Detroit is reckless parenting not free range parenting. Some parents just don't have the luxury of free range parenting.

Well, to be honest, I would rather have a timid child than not have a child at all because he was abducted. And that is not snarky either, that is how I truly feel. So far my 11yo ds is not timid at all and still is not as safety conscious as I'd like him to be but he knows that this is a dangerous world and has what I would call the "gift of a healthy fear". He is taught not to underestimate a situation. He is in karate classes to learn how to protect himself if need be. He is taught to be aware of his surroundings at all times. I am not teaching him to be afraid but to be aware. And he is a confident, out-spoken child. So far, so good. Letting him play in the front yard without supervision is not going to increase his self-confidence, IMHO.

I proudly admit that I am a protective mom. :D Statistics do not comfort me, sorry to say. You can tell me that only 1 in 1 bazillion kids actually are kidnapped and murdered but, you know what, that statistic isn't of much comfort to the mother of that ONE child. And what makes you think (or me for that matter) that the mother of that ONE child won't be you (or me)? Do you think the moms whose children HAVE been abducted ever in a million years thought they would be they ONE in a bazillion? Of course not. No one ever thinks it will happen to them. My children may play in the gated backyard and I check on them frequently but they may not play unsupervised in the front yard. Not only would I NOT let a 12yo babysit my child, my child will still have his own babysitter when he is 12. I also babysat when I was 12yo and although no children ever died under my watch, I certainly was not a good babysitter. I do not use anyone under 18yo. I know I can't protect them from everything but I will do everything in my power to protect them from everything I can.

What do you ladies overseas use for music sharing? We have Napster and love it but it doesn't work outside the U.S. What do you use to download music on your MP3 players? Also, are there any services like Netflix (which also does not operate in Malaysia)?

I just found out that they have closed my local school district for a few days because of a suspected case there! This is starting to get too close to home for me. I think I'll be keeping the boys home from karate today.