To the Punk Who Almost Ran Over My Baby with a Car

This is an open letter to the punk who almost ran over my baby with a car in our very own yard. Did you bother to stop to see that my baby girl who was standing right there in our own front yard when you squealed up into our driveway after doing a u-turn in the middle of the street? Would you have even cared if she was alive? I wonder.

I invited my nieces to drop in for a visit this afternoon because their mom had a bad headache and I thought that they might be a little tired of having to tiptoe around the house. Plus, I thought my sister might appreciate a little break from worrying what they were up to or that when she was able to hold her head up without pain that she would walk into the kitchen mess from hell….

I drove over to her house after sending a text message to the older of the two girls with the invitation. The cell hadn’t hit the table before it buzzed with a YIPPPEEEE message in return begging me to hurry and come over to pick them up! Surprisingly, they didn’t even ask what we were going to do in the way of entertainment.

After I washed the girls’ faces and checked to see if the youngest ones were dry (for the moment) we proceeded toward the car and I started buckling the little ones into their respective seats. My sister only lives a couple of miles from my house so I buzzed right on over to pick up our visitors.

Once I arrived, I wanted to check in on my sister without having to go through the car seat routine once again. I got my nieces to go ahead and get in the car to play “I Spy” or something else while I slipped into the invalid’s sick room to give her a kiss and tell her to feel better soon.

The day was pretty average until the punk who almost ran over my baby with a car entered my world. When we got home I pulled into our driveway, the girls helped me get all but the littlest one of our group out of the car and then I heard squealing, squalling tires and the girls screaming.

I spun around only to see your rapidly approaching vehicle speeding up the driveway and then if that were not bad enough, you wrenched the steering wheel to the right to do yet another u-turn in our driveway. Never mind the fact that my daughter was standing frozen, still as a statue in the yard.

I know that you saw kids running all over the place, but you never even hit the brakes. You just slammed the car in reverse and let the transmission take over which is amazing given the rate of speed you were traveling.

There was no look of alarm at what almost happened on your face and no apologetic look. My daughter came far too close to being a statistic and you seemed to be anything but sorry.

Just so you know, this letter is my way of letting it go. I’m sending it out there so that I won’t waste time being angry at you. Well, I’ve typed and spell checked and I’m still pretty steamed at you, the guy who will from this day forward be known as the punk.

I would like to believe, that you had just gotten dreadful news and that you had no choice but to play fast and loose with the lives of my and my sister’s children and that you weren’t just being a selfish self-centered little shit with no thought for anyone but yourself. I hope that you taken the time to say a prayer to thank God that He spared you from the worst that could have happened.

I know that you, the guilty party, will never read this but maybe someone who does will stop and think how to maintain control at all times and THINK! As it is, a careless jerk ruined our afternoon BUT if a child were killed or hurt it could have ruined many lives.

I apologize that this post had nothing to do with going green but I just had to get this off my chest. Thanks for listening.

Here's a video that I would like to dedicate to the punk who almost ran over my baby with a car.

HOW TO STOP CO-SLEEPING

I’m opening the floor for discussion on how to stop co-sleeping with my baby AND my older children. I’ve enjoyed a nice long run where my little ones slept within arms’ reach but as the size of my brood increases and the duration of hubby’s illness drags on, let’s say that co-sleeping with children and one infant is not that pleasurable or restful and I need help.

When this ball got rolling we never marked a date on the calendar setting a date for what age to stop co-sleeping. Frankly, I couldn’t think much past the desperate need for getting some sleep. Today, long after the ship has sailed I start to study up on how to stop co-sleeping and find that I should have conferred with my pediatrician about making a plan regarding my baby’s sleeping location. Oh, whatever..like my kids care what their doctor says.

After making light of involving a doctor in deciding when to stop co-sleeping, I do agree that I need a plan now that I can see that weaning time is drawing nigh. And after being sucker punched in the nose last night, I’m motivated but not sure how to stop co-sleeping without leaving my little ones feeling unwanted, unloved or abandoned. After checking into borrowing a portable crib for the little one, cost is no longer an issue. But do I need to move cots for the older children into the bedroom to ease the transition?

I was thinking something along the lines of gently moving the older children into the toddler beds after they go to sleep in our big bed and easing the baby into the travel crib. My husband called my idea “How to Stop Co-Sleeping for Sissies”. My response was that I prefer a gentle approach to parenting confident, independent children one baby step at a time.

Another reason that I’m working to make the transition as pain free and gradual as possible is because the idea of having to spend hours at a time rubbing little backs in the middle of the night because they woke up in a disoriented state is not appealing to me. Plus, I need some time to adjust to not being able to reach out and touch my girls to reassure myself that all is well during the night. Prolonged chronic illnesses and almost losing one can do that to a mom.

So, perhaps I should be asking for ideas on how to stop co-sleeping that are easy on both mother and child or any other parenting advice that you’d like to share I’m open to suggestions.

GREEN PARENTING TIPS

When I started this blog I wanted to focus on sharing green parenting tips. My goal was to turn the lot of you into eco-friendly parents in 10 Easy Steps or less. As so many of you know, it’s easy to run to the end of the thread of your subject and be jerked backwards only to fall on your butt. Why I thought I could give advice to others at a time when I was completely overwhelmed with parenting a very sick child is beyond me. In between emergencies, I did manage to offer some advice but I feel I must apologize for those days when I ventured off the course or didn't post at all.

The reason I feel so very guilty for neglecting my duties here is perhaps because
I can look back into my own childhood and see where no care whatsoever was given to isolating me and my sisters (and to be fair the other kids I knew) from pesticides or noxious fumes blowing out of a nearby factory. I tend to blame overexposure to chemicals for a healthy portion of my troubles in life. Granted I have been guilty of meandering off the course with the occasional recipe and rant but I am still driven to not only improve the air quality and the environment of my own home but to help guide others with as many green parenting tips as I can churn out.

Some of the posts I’ve made in this blog were made when my daughter was very sick and it gave me a place to vent my fears and share my pain. I was tempted to go back and delete old posts whose content is no longer relevant or start a new blog altogether and delete this one that displays my struggle to stay on topic.

These days my husband is the sickest one of the bunch and is engaged in a battle with staph which hopefully he will win. I look forward to the day that I can write about how the posts that I made during that health crisis are no longer important. On that note, I believe that I'll keep this blog intact, because moms still leave comments about what they are going through with their child’s peanut allergy, asthma or MRSA plus someday I would like for my girls to be able to read what mommy said about their early lives and to know that I was more focused on them at times than I was on posting green parenting tips on Oooh Baby Green Living and Parenting Ideas.

Parenting Independent Children

I can tell you from experience that parenting independent children is more of a challenge than raising people pleasers. I have a few of each so I know of what I speak. After studying nature versus nurture in school, I thought I had it all figured out until I had kids of my own. After venturing forth into the hands-on experience of actual child rearing, my thinking is that each baby comes here pre-programmed and while some behaviors can be tempered the basic character of a child is hard wired.

My daughters all have different temperaments. Two are shy and eager to please and the other two are rowdy, outspoken and at times, bull headed. I'm here to tell you that parenting independent children is a challenge. I believe that all of my girls are capable of being self sufficient and doing wonderful things in their lifetime even though the odds have been stacked heavily against two of them with chronic illnesses.

Oddly enough the one who has suffered the most is showing the strongest leadership capabilities. She is the one who calls the shots for the group's activities each day. Even though she is not the oldest or the strongest she has won the respect and admiration of the other three by handling herself with dignity that amazes even me.
Watching my girls take care of things because they have decided that I must be tired from taking care of their sick dad (which if you've visited Family Recipes, Babies and Parenting Issues you know about our recent trials and tribulations) or have a lot going on makes me feel like an expert on parenting independent children or at least at giving birth to them.