Today I discovered Yahoo! Widgets.
You need to download the Widget "engine" and then any widget of your choice. I put two things on my desktop (at work, of course): something for the weather and a monthly calendar, which I have no room for a real one of on my desk. I did this all while I was waiting for an answer from tech support as to why I couldn't log in to my websites. I kept browsing through the various widgets, and I came across a retirement count-down clock.
As of the time I left work today, I have
- 1262 days
- 20 hours
- 58 minutes
and 40 some odd seconds to go
Oh yeah. Right around the corner.
This is the handbag that R knitted this week, front, then back:
It's about 12 inches wide and maybe 9 inches high. She mostly made it up as she went along; maybe that shows, I don't know, but I admire her creativity. Her craftsmanship is not bad, either. I think it's also interesting that she had a really good time making it, and she made it as a gift for someone she's never met. One of her best friends from Wales is in New York for the week, along with his fiance, whom he met after R came home from there, and it's for her. She loves to make these unusual things and give them away.
I was amused to read this article in Newsweek yesterday (which is apparently not available online) that compared various aspects of child-rearing advice from the major "experts," as well as what research shows. I was particularly amused by what some of them said about working moms, and television. T. Berry Brazelton is the only one who said that when it comes to working moms, parents should do what is right for themselves. The others -- James Dobson, Penelope Leach, and John Rosemond, all conservatives I've never heard of -- all think it will damage the children somehow, either in terms of their parental attachment or simply in the quality of care they receive. Research shows that long hours in sub-standard daycare can have a negative effect, but, duh. I'm sure that long-hours in sub-standard home environment produce the same result. As for TV, let's see:
- Spock: no TV at all for toddlers and children
- Brazelton: no more than 30 minutes at a time for toddlers because it could dampen their creativity.
- Dobson: monitor the quality of TV watched for all children and restrict quantity.
- Leach: "Fast-paced media is inappropriate for cognitive limitations of toddlers." Show only pre-selected and screened videos.
- Rosemond: Prohibit TV until children are old enough to read and enjoy books. At that point, limit to 5 hours a week.
So, what, do these people just make this stuff up?
Listen, I will tell you right now: I went back to work when my children were 6 (R) and 5 (K) months old. They went to daycare in a private home where the woman looked after several children, sometimes as many as five, of varying ages. She actually did limit TV watching time there, but you know, the TV is always on in my house and always has been. So they watched plenty of TV, always. The only result of that I can see is that both of them are walking encyclopedias of pop culture. They are both creative, bright, and voracious readers. R taught herself to read when she was about 3 and a half. She had books on her lap and was reading them, while the TV was on.
The moral of the story is this, I think: the best parents are the conscientious ones. The details and individual choices and decisions are not as important, and should not be universally the same for every parent, child and family. If we buy into that, we buy into the absurd belief that every child who passes a test knows that same information and is equal and has achieved some mythical standard of excellence, and that every child is not a unique individual with different abilities and needs.
It's all crap.
(But the bag is cool, eh?)
