Claudia’s Chapter

Thomas the Tank Engine: Lead Paint Recall June 19, 2007

Alanis Morrisette’s old hit, “Ironic” has been floating through my head the last few days but with the lyrics: isn’t it ironic..you lead-abated your house while your kid sucked on a lead painted train…?

Two years ago we moved from the city into an antique house from 1800 with peeling paint.

I was obsessed with lead poisoning. We used a hepa-filtered vacuum. We restored the original clapboards taking all procautions to protect the kids.

But one of my “fondest” memories of that first year was of having T play with his Thomas the tank engine trains while I mopped the floor to make sure there was no lead dust.

T and C have both been tested for lead poisoning and have never had detectable levels of lead in their bodies. However, I was absolutely stunned when i saw the headline that Thomas the Tank engine was being recalled because of lead paint.

I’m part of the generation that treats motherhood like a career choice. It’s become our jobs to make sure our kids’ environments are safe. We are mothers who check to see if food is organic. We lead-abate our homes. We worry about old plumbing and the potentional for lead to leach into the water. We check for asbestos. We worry about mercury in vaccines. We make our kids wear bike helmets. We worry about their head-shapes in infancy. We worry about pesticides in the grass. We worry about abductions. We take caution with photo images of our children lest they fall into perverted hands.

At what point are the manufacturers responsible? At what point, can we as mothers just say, “we do our best and that’s good enough?”.

It seems like as the perception of motherhood has transitioned from a natural process in life to a career choice where the responsibilites on the mother herself have increased to the detriment of mothers.

Last week when C bonked his head on the coffee table and had to walk around with a bump on his forehead. (He looked like a Klingon), I kept thinking that strangers would assume it was my fault. Despite the fact that my house is child-proof (it’s a ROUND coffee table) I knew it was my responsiblity.

When we went to the doctor, she made a point of reinforming me how to child-proof my home and how to involve C in organized sports to keep him from bumping his head again.

(he’s 2!)

At least I didn’t ask him to go to train table and suck on a train! (more…)

Life is Beautiful June 18, 2007

Loss is not easy for anyone, and unfortunately it is inevitable for everyone.

This week it touched our family. A father..a grandfather..a great-grandfather..

More from the Republican Debate: Protect the Family or the terrorists will win. June 5, 2007

Prepping for the sound-bite debates, the following is what I now assume the candidates were told to think about before speaking: 

1. If you say Ronald Reagan, people will like you.

2. If you attack Hillary Clinton, people will like you.

3. Iraq is a mess.  Say you’ll fix it and formulate a plan later.

4. Say that you’ll transform healthcare. (somehow)

5.Say that you’ll clean up Washington. (somehow)

6.Say that you’ll fix immigration.  But don’t offend anyone.

7.If you mention terrorism in the same sentence as Iraq, you’ll be seen as a leader.

 And this just in:

 –Dude at the end just called everyone a crazy, Ted Kennedy-loving socialist.

Romney stood up and responded that the US is a stool, and the the military is a leg and well that’s the stool.  huh?

Guiliani swung back against the socialist attack with a terrorism comment.

McCain took it a step further:  He said to protect the family from terrorism.  Remember the pipeline attack at JFK he said.

To sum the event: “Be afraid. Be very afraid…and speak English.”

Tom Tancredo: Does he understand English?

Just a quick note.

Tom Tancredo just said “Bilingual countries don’t work” in the Republican Debates.

What is he thinking of? The great failure of Switzerland???  Canada??? Belgium???

Huhhhh??

No shirt, no shoes, no service. June 4, 2007

I’m convinced that weather has an enormous impact on my parenting style and on the behaviour of the kiddies.  Until the heatwave broke today, the kiddies seemed to have been on a constant mission to test my patience, which given the heat was, I’ll admit, unusually low.  I piled them into the double stroller and walked to Whole Foods the other day.  All was going well, until we got on line.  There was a beautiful new mom in front of us.  (Thin, but in an early form of post-partum body) Wearing hot pink shorts and gently rocking her baby in the stroller in front of us, I looked on with admiration, remembering what is was like with the first one and of the joy in “getting your body back”.  I was about to pick up one of the all-natural magazines at the aisle, when I heard the word “butt” come from my stroller.  I looked down and saw C and T pointing at the new mom’s behind and screaming “BUTT!!! BUTT!!!”  The new mom didn’t acknowledge us, but I managed to hiss “ziiiiiiiip it!!!” to the boys.  They had no idea why it would be rude to point out a “butt” and just laughed at me like I was insane.

As I started pushing them up the hill home in the 90 degree heat, I tried to just focus on the fact that we’d be home in a few minutes, have lunch and nap when I heard T squeal “Where’s your shoe???”  I looked down and saw that C was barefoot.  I didn’t know if he’d dropped his shoe or thrown it.  I told them to hold onto whatever they had over their feet and turned the stroller around to look for the shoe.  C had dropped it in the parking lot. I’m not sure if it was the heat or my outraged response, but suddenly they were tossing shoes like it was the funniest trick around…even funnier than that poor woman’s butt.

I slammed the break on the stroller and took a step in front of them, pretending to walk away.  This childish parenting snapped them into shape and they were well-behaved the rest of the way home.  Not my proudest parenting moment, but at least we’re all getting more material together for future counseling sessions.