Caron Guillo, over at New Christian Voices, has taken ahold of the omnipresent Facebook meme 25 Random Things About Me, and given it a parental guilt trip spin. Apparently it's not only Babble writers who like to bare (and implicitly kinda defend) their (supposed) parental deficits to the Internet.
I'm glad to see that at least some "new" Christian voices have a sense of humor. That's a refreshing change from certain spokespeople for Jesus's followers, even if I still personally find something creepy about the glee with which Guillo describes spanking her kids with a wooden spoon.
I confess to having been a closet fan of the 25 Random Things meme. Because it was so open-ended I found it was really good at giving me a sneak peak into people's self-images and what they found important (and how well they could gauge what other people would find interesting about them, which was information itself). This version looks to be no different. (Hand me downs apparently make some people feel like bad moms. Huh. They make me feel like a good mom.)
Anyhow, I figured I'd play.
Here's Caron's list.
Here's mine:
- We cut my daughter's hair short to avoid fights over combing it.
- Last time we did so, we cut off what was basically a dreadlock, shaped like a fiddlehead.
- I'm avoiding scheduling a dentist appointment for her because I'm afraid of what we'll be told.
- She's a picky eater and I don't fight it.
- I can sometimes get her to eat protein when she's not in the mood by promising something sweet afterwards, and I do.
- I believe in the whole "perils of praise" argument and have been completely unable to stop praising her.
- She had a high lead level at age 1 and we didn't move out and bankrupt the family ripping every last bit of lead paint out of the house. (It's down anyway.)
- I want to wean but am being lazy about it, and I know she can sense my ambivalance.
- I don't change the genders when reading sexist picture books.
- There are only two people besides her parents she's willing to stay with alone for any length of time, and I haven't pushed it.
- Sometimes I'm not sure when her last bath was.
- Most of her shoes are no longer soft-soled.
- A few weeks ago, in the process of climbing over a railing in order to let her sit on one of the lions outside the Saratoga Music Hall I let the bag on my back swing around and knock her head into the railing, really hard.
- I'm glad not to be a full-time stay-at-home parent.
- Sometimes I can't think of anything I want to do with her.
- Despite my best efforts, she associates Christmas and birthdays with presents.
- I make sarcastic, inappropriate comments that she doesn't get when forced to read inane books to her.
- I let her sleep wih no blankets on nights when I'm huddled under two comforters. Her bed is in possibly the coldest spot in the house.
- We gave up on cloth diapers because we couldn't keep her from getting rashy in them. We barely can now.
- I've opened and returned gifts sent to her without letting her see them.
- I rarely put sunscreen on her.
- When she's not looking, almost all of her artwork goes right in the recycling. Even the first birthday card she "wrote" on.
- I didn't manage to keep up a baby book past a month or two. I have no idea what her first word was.
- Sometimes I say yes so I don't have to say no.
- I write and publish stuff about her that might embarass her later, and use her real name.
I'm not promising it's my top 25, just 25. I'm also not sure if it feels as meaningful as I thought it might. Try it, and share what you think? Cathartic? Annoying? Unnecessarily guilt-inducing? Causing of prideful fake modesty?
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