Tag Archive parenting

ByGD

A PSA About Protection

All of these pictures are here to remind you how important it is to always wear protection.

By all means, have kids if you want them (I love mine) and whatever you do, keep enjoying live music and share that love with your kids. But noise causes hearing loss. It is inevitable and irreversible. But it can be slowed by minimizing exposure to extremely loud noise, like heavy machinery and amplified music – any amplified music, even if the sound is “mellow”.

For years I thought I was too cool for earplugs, and went to scores of concerts without them. Now my hearing loss is typical of a person a decade older than me. When your kids go off to college they might be stupid like me, but until then it’s up to you to protect their ears.

Helmets when they ride bikes or motorcycles. Protective ear muffs when they are little, ear plugs when they are big enough. They are not expensive, but not wearing them is.

 

ByGD

Perfectly Safe

In the white, liberal, upper middle-class circles I usually inhabit, safety trumps all other values. Helicopter parenting has become the standard for responsible parenting, despite data to the contrary. Schools and parents are increasingly making decisions based on the fear of lawsuits or the fear of disapproval from more safety-conscious parents instead of their own best judgement. So this quote from Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book struck me as particularly meaningful.

“I wanted to keep you perfectly safe,” said Silas. “But there is only one perfectly safe place for your kind and you will not reach it until all your adventures are over and none of them matter anymore.”

We should not seek perfect safety for our children, or for anyone we care about.

ByGD

A Beautiful Smile

At the China Community Art and Culture Hotel Restaurant, a puppet show to celebrate Children's Day.

At the China Community Art and Culture Hotel Restaurant, a puppet show to celebrate Children’s Day.

A few days into our trip, my daughter commented that people in Qingdao seemed nicer than people at home. She said, “Even when it’s their job to be nice to us, they just seem to mean it more. Except for the traffic, Qingdao feels safer than Seattle.” I knew what she meant, and I had to agree. I talked about the curious stares and occasional stink-eye in an earlier post, but the truth is, more often than not, once people figure out our relationship, the most common response is a thumbs up. After a couple of days in Qingdao, the first two words that came to mind to describe Qingdaonese were “kind” and “gentle.” Read More

ByGD

Bad Dad or Bad Day?

Rage_faceI love words both fair and foul, so swearing doesn’t usually bother me. But the vitriol I heard in a swearing outburst today jarred me. My older daughter had just finished her violin lesson; she and I and my younger daughter were walking down the sidewalk to our car when heard a blasphemous expression.

I expected to witness a car crash in the aftermath of the shout. But when I looked up, all I saw was a couple of pedestrians on the opposite sidewalk.

“Shit!” It was the man walking down the street. He turned around and started yelling at a little girl about my own daughter’s age lagging about 10 feet behind him. He was yelling at his kid.

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