But I hated it. I dreaded getting ready for it, I dreaded parking my car and getting my kid out in the rain to go inside… I hated being there in a big open room where we had to sit in a little circle with all the other moms and dads, singing out loud and rubbing sandpaper blocks together.

I especially hated rubbing sandpaper blocks together. 

I actually disliked all those mommy and me type classes. Every single one of them. The guided play was so freakin’ weird. Everyone sits in a group with their child sitting in their lap, the instructor then tells you how to play along with your kid, what songs to sing, what beat to clap to… just all sorts of ridiculous stuff that I can seriously do on my own without ten other parents sitting across from me judging me on my singing voice and rhythm style.

I know what you’re thinking: Oh those people don’t care about you– they’re just there to play with their own children and have a good time. 

Bullshit. You know how I know this? Because I was TOTALLY judging them. That dad can’t sing. That lady needs new highlights. Shouldn’t that little boy be walking better than that. Oh wow, my daughter knows way more words than that kid. 

Hey, those classes are like an hour long. I can only sing about the mouse going up and down the clock so many times before I go insane– you can’t blame me if my mind wandered a bit.I am just saying if I was thinking things about them, then they were thinking things about me. And, that just sucks. The idea that we are all sitting there comparing parenting points and seeing who’s the best is my least favorite kind of parenting. 

I am not saying I didn’t like getting out and having my kid play with other kids, I LOVED those activities like gymnastics, etc. I loved watching her interact with other kids, getting to know them, and just seeing all that cool social stuff click in their little minds. The only problem is, how the heck can they do that with their parents sitting on top of them trying to show them proper jingle bell ringing techniques?

Which is what I think the root of my problem is with these kinds of classes.. it’s TOO structured for play with parents and their kids. I taught children for crying out loud, I don’t need some crazy lady in a flower skirt telling me how to interact with them. I just wanted my kid to interact with other children, and to have a good time. Those classes so aren’t about having a good time. They’re about taking your money because you feel like you should be doing that stuff with your child.

So, I want to know– what thing do you hate that you’re supposed to love?

She’s six. What on earth does she need an expensive piece of technology for? She’s just going to lose it. Kids don’t need to be connected every hour of every minute.

Look, I know the reasons for not buying them are there and they’re all good reasons. In fact, my knee jerk reaction is there’s no way she needs a phone.

But then, when I start thinking about it, well… I think I’ve changed my mind.

We don’t have a home phone. We haven’t for several years, and I love it. I love that telemarketers don’t call me, I love that I don’t have to field phone calls for my husband, and I love that there’s only one phone number to get  a hold of me. Because of this, I always have my phone with me, and it’s rare for me to miss a call. What I am trying to say here is, I plan to never ever have a home phone again. If she wants to call her friends, then she has to use my phone or her father’s phone. We both keep things like work email, important contacts, etc. on our phones. She could accidentally post to Facebook or Twitter– or even call someone I just don’t really want to talk to right then. Plus (and yes I am aware this is totally selfish) — if I am having a conversation with a friend via text or chat, etc. then I don’t really want to give her my phone so she can chat with her grandpa for twenty minutes in the middle of it.

I don’t want a phone my daughter can take to her friend’s house or to school. I basically want a replacement for the home phone for her to be able to use. If she wants to talk to her friends or family, I want her to be able to do that without having to pry me or my hubs away from our phone. And, for $9.99 a month added to our family plan, it’s WAY cheaper than getting a landline! The phones I am looking at to get her are free when you add them to your plan– so we are really just out the extra ten dollars a month for this.

My daughter has had my old iPhone for years. (Which I can’t just add calling to, because they require you to also add a $15 data plan, and I see no need for that.)  It doesn’t have a calling plan on it, and it basically works like an iTouch. She can play games on it, it has WiFi, and she even has a free texting program she uses to communicate with her grandparents. But the texting is a bit cumbersome–she uses one of those free to text programs. It’s filled with ads, it takes forever to load, and it’s just, in general difficult to use.

But I think the texting for her is a GREAT thing. I love the idea that she can send her grandparents little messages of love when she’s missing them, and that they could reply back when they have a free minute. We live about an hour away from all her grandparents, and really anything that makes her feel more connected to them is important to me. We already have unlimited texting on our plan, so adding it to her phone wouldn’t be any extra cost to us.

Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that I got this message either:

Dude, as a mom… you just can’t beat that. So, does my six year old need a cell phone? Well, I am starting to think that she does.

Seriously, I get that. She’s a lot like me, and if I don’t have structure in my life I tend to spend the majority of my day playing World of Warcraft and Twittering about it.

This means I need her to have a thing. It doesn’t have to be anything fantastic, and I am not expecting her to be an Olympic Gold Medalist or anything, I just want something to keep her away from the Twizzlers.*

We’ve tried several different after school activities– and she’s had fun at most of them, the only problem is–when they get too competitive, she runs. The thing is, she’s five. I don’t really blame her for not wanting to go straight from school to practice five days a week. But that’s what always happens. I think there is a time and a place for daily practices to get good at stuff, I’m just not sure kindergarten is that time.

I get that we should challenge our kids, make them try hard and teach them the importance of hard work, but what about just wanting to play sometimes? Isn’t unstructured play the place where their imaginations take hold? If we always give them a task, won’t they be worker bees for the rest of their lives?

Why are all these programs designed to get kids so involved at such a young age? Does it help foster development? I want to read the research that says this sort of thing is good for my child– but i can’t seem to find it anywhere.

What do you do? Is your elementary school-aged child serious about one thing? If they get too involved, do they quit? What’s the right thing here? And, can’t we ever just take the day and go to the lake?

*I don’t actually like Twizzlers. They kind of taste like wax to me. Is that weird?

In celebration of Earth Day, everyone who walked* (or carpooled if they live too far away) to my daughter’s school gets free ice cream at lunch.

Because there’s nothing that motivates small children like junk food.

We got up extra early this morning, daughter excited, me in my cheap flip flops, hair in a pony tail looking all sorts of glamorous. As we walked out the door, we noticed the neighbor and her kid across the street heading out as well. The girls were excited to get to hang on their way to school, so after the mom did a stretch or two –(Which, seriously should have been my first clue. I have got to work on my powers of observation.)–We were off.

And this lady wasn’t messing around. You know those crazy women that walk the mall on their lunch at super speeds? Naw, they had nothing on my neighbor. She was sprinting up the hill, the kids were running behind her, easter grass flying everywhere from their little baskets, (sorry, Earth.) and I’m bringing up the rear pushing them along after her.

We get to school drenched in sweat, the kids are already tired and grumpy, but I walk mine in to her classroom, talk to the teacher and stop to say hi to a few of my daughter’s friends on the way.

When I exit the school, there’s my neighbor jogging in place, waiting on me to go back home.

I needed an excuse, and I needed one quick. All I had was the CVS next door to get me out of the run I knew I was about to get mixed up in.

“Um, you go on without me. I need to pick up some dental floss,” just word vomited right out of my mouth. But, it worked– she took off in a run that would make an Olympian jealous and–since I didn’t want to be a liar, I went into the CVS and bought some dental floss.

Mint flavored.

*Look– we live pretty close to the school… but we don’t exactly get up early enough to walk there. If it’s nice out, I try to show up with my daughter’s scooter in hand so we can walk home– but we’ve never made it up in time to walk there– so stop judging me! Okay, you can judge me a little. I deserve it.