Lessons for Children

Today I am participating in teh MckLinky Blog Hop because.. well.. it's appropriate for this blog.  The hop is "Three Things Every Parent Should Teach Their Children". We don't want to state the obvious because then we'll just have a lot of people stating the same obvious things: Don't lie, don't steal, eat your veggies. :o) 

With that said, here are 3 things I believe children need to be taught:

1. Do Not Be Led by The World:
The world promotes all sorts of attitudes, morals, values and behaviors which are unacceptable. In fact, most of what the world promotes and does is wrong.  Don't be misled into their morality, their commercialism/materialism, their values. Most everything the world is seeking is of little importance and will distract you from all things which are important.

2. Do not be Led by Your Heart:
"Follow your heart" is the worst advice anyone can give or receive. Your heart is a treacherous thing. Treachery means "ready to betray". Think about that.  Your heart will lead you in one direction and when it turns out bad, your heart will cause you to beat yourself up over your lack of wisdom. Then it will lead you off on another path. Do not "follow your heart". Pray, seek wisdom and use your head.

3. Learn from Nature:
There are so many lessons to be learned from nature! By observing and reasoning on things as God has created them as well as the results from using these in various ways, we can learn much as to what is proper and improper. With our minds properly trained, we can view things in their right perspective so that we may discern what is natural or unnatural, right and wrong..





Special thanks to Shoplet.com-Purell Hand Sanitizers for sponsoring this blog hop.

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School is Not for Socializing — Out of the Mouths of Public Schoolers!

Socialization.. the homeschooler's "S" word.  It is of major concern to everyone. Well.. everyone except the homeschoolers anyway.  I was just stumbling and found this very interesting article on a situation where the teacher herself points out that school is not a place for socializiation. (Snickering? Not me! Of course not!)

Go read the article for yourself.
School is Not for Socializing — Out of the Mouths of Public Schoolers!

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Support for Bottle Feeders???

I consider myself a fairly open-minded person. I'm willing to hear any side of any topic and consider the weight of the matter before settling on what I personally think. Heck.. this is how I converted from a hospital-birthing, bottle-feeding, Tylenol-dosing mama. 

I was stumbling through some breastfeeding news articles which, ironically, led me to an article about those poor mothers who aren't getting bottle-feeding support.  First let me say that as a former bottle-feeder myself, I am not getting this one. Really? Support? What am I missing? Support for what exactly?

I understand support for breastfeeders. There are so many things that can go wrong: Engorgement, sore or cracked nipples, flat or inverted nipples, thrush, mastitis, problems latching on.. and the list goes on.  But last I checked, bottles don't become engorged, tear up from sore nipples, develop masitis and babies get to lazily suck rather than utilize their facial muscles to suckle.  Granted.. the nipple can get thrush but the nipple won't cry and you just throw it out for a new nipple.

Bottle feeding was always pretty simple, in my opinion. Sure it's a bit of work with the sterilizing and losing sleep because you have to go heat up a bottle but I don't recall that I ever needed support groups for this. I certainly never had to make an emergency call in tears to bottle-consultant in the middle of the night.

Ok enough of my sarcasm.  The complaint is evidently that these women suffer from various emotions because of those of us who breastfeed. "These included guilt; worry about the impact on their baby and what healthcare professionals might say; uncertainty about how to proceed; a sense of failure; and anger as a result of feeling under pressure to breastfeed." the article says.

Hmmmm.. if I was doing something..ANYTHING..  that caused me to suffer a guilty conscience because I may be causing a negative impact on my child, I don't think I'd hunt out support for what I was doing, but rather I'd change what I was doing.

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