The Cat in the Hat

"I thought of a page in Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat, one that comes near the end.

"Sally and I" have been standing by helplessly while the hatted Cat, with his Thing One and Thing Two, made havoc of the house. The toy boat is in the cake and the cake is on the floor, the rake is bent and mother's new dress has gone sailing through the room on a kite string. The fish has been trying to warn us, but we chose not to listen.

And then, through the window, we see her. There is a flash of red skirt and a leg striding into view, terminating with a high-heel pump with a bow.

"Then our fish said, 'LOOK! LOOK!' And our fish shook with fear. 'Your mother is on her way home! Do you hear? Oh, what will she do to us? What will she say? Oh, she will not like it to find us this way!'"

This is the crisis point of the plot, as you probably remember.

I remember feeling so relieved! I wanted that Mom to walk in and take control. I felt for those silly kids. They NEVER should have let the cat in. They should have been more assertive, called their Mom, or, at the very least, left the house and fetched a grown up neighbor to help!!

I have come to treasure the way my parents raised me.
If (when) I made a terrible mess of things, I thanked God I had a Mom I could talk to.

Love & Logic

I learned about LOVE & LOGIC (a parenting philosophy) over at Radical Catholic Mom.
Here is a blub from the Love and Logic website.


Love and Logic is a philosophy founded by Jim Fay and Foster W. Cline, M.D., and is based on the experience of a combined total of over 75 years working with and raising kids. It provides simple and practical techniques to help teachers and parents have less stress and more fun while raising responsible kids. Love and Logic offers many useful techniques that teachers and parents can begin experimenting with immediately. Here are some examples:

• Locking–in sadness or empathy before delivering consequences
• Setting limits with enforceable statements
• Sharing control through lots of small choices
• Building relationships with the One Sentence Intervention
• Neutralizing arguing with the Brain Dead technique
• The Anticipatory Consequence

Just For Fun - Quotes to Note

3-year-old Reese:
"Our Father, Who does art in heaven,
Harold is His name.
Amen."
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~

A little boy was overheard praying:
"Lord, if you can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it.
I'm having a real good time like I am."
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~
After the christening of his baby brother in church,
Jason sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car.
His father asked him three times what was wrong.
Finally, the boy replied,
"That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home,
and I wanted to stay with you guys."

~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~

One particular four-year-old prayed,
"And forgive us our trash baskets
as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets."
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~



A Sunday school teacher asked her children as they
were on the way to church service,
"And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?"
One bright little girl replied,
"Because people are sleeping."



~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~

A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin 5, and Ryan 3
The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake.
Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson.
"If Jesus were sitting here, He would say,
'Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.'
Kevin turned to his younger brother and said,
"Ryan, you be Jesus!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~

A father was at the beach with his children
when the four-year-old son ran up to him,
grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore
where a seagull lay dead in the sand.
" Daddy, what happened to him?" the son asked.
"He died and went to Heaven," the Dad replied.
The boy thought a moment and then said,
"Did God throw him back down?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~

A wife invited some people to dinner.
At the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said,
"Would you like to say the blessing?"
"I wouldn't know what to say," the girl replied.
"Just say what you hear Mommy say," the wife answered.
The daughter bowed her head and said,
"Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?"

Invest in Your Children

This is part of a letter from a great man, Frank L Vandersloot. I thought my readers might appreciate his opinions. He is a dad and husband, the CEO of an earth friendly, people friendly company, and a great role model!

No one prepares us to be parents. We take no courses. We get no official training. We receive no step-by-step guidance. We take no test to prove we are ready or qualified to be parents. Most of our training is from watching our own parents. And since no parent is perfect, our training has also not been perfect.

As parents, we find ourselves making our own mistakes, but deep down we know that the most important thing is to give our children our time, energy, and love. It seems simple, but it's amazing how often we fail to do just that. What's often even harder to remember is that many of the choices we make today will have a definite long-term impact on our own children. How we choose to instruct, encourage, and discipline will all have a profound effect on our children's future lives. Greater still will be the effect of our own example. Far more than anything else, it is through our example that our kids truly learn.

Being there for our children has never been more important than it is today. They are introduced to a constant barrage of sex and violence on TV and in the media in a way that we would never have wanted them to be. The values of our nation and of many of today's prominent role models are deteriorating at a rapid pace. The potential challenges this creates for our children and the damage that it can do to them is immeasurable.

Parenting is much the same as any endeavor: It requires hard work and patience before you can eventually see results. You may not see the effects today or tomorrow. You may not see them next week or next month. But eventually you will see them, and they will be the direct result of our actions. So you have to work hard, and you have to be patient before you can enjoy the rewards. It might help to remember that these investments will someday pay great dividends when you go home from work and see that little boy coming up to you with a baseball bat in his hand, or that little girl who really wants you to teach her how to fish. Try to remember the importance of your investment when your teenager makes a wrong choice or makes mistakes on his journey to adulthood and needs your encouragement, or when your tiny baby seems to do nothing but cry.

Remember that whenever you interact with your child, you're affecting not only him or her, and not only yourself, but the future of us all.

Sincerely,
Frank L Vandersloot