If I Were Part of the One Per Cent

The Occupy movement, which is against economic and social inequality, tried to enter the high-security venue of the World Economic Forum today.

I wish I was part of the one per cent of the world’s richest people.

If I were, I would:

• Pay someone to clean my house.
• Hire a personal shopper to help me with the dreadful task of clothes shopping.
• Hire someone to do my ironing and make sure my clothes match before heading out the door.
• Go on a vacation when I felt the need to escape winter or just because I felt like getting away.
• Become a stay-at-home mom.
• Buy a hobby farm with acreage.
• Trap-spay-neuter cats to decrease the feral cat population. Please people, fix your pets.
• Volunteer, likely with animals or children.

On a serious note, there are all sorts of rich people just like there are all sorts of middle-class people.

Often you hear the super rich helping out during a crisis and long after the crisis has slipped the mind of every day people. Many of the super rich use their names to encourage people to donate time or money to a cause.

I think most of the one per cent look beyond themselves and help others. I am sure there are a few of the one per cent who only look out for only themselves. But then I am also sure more of the 99 per cent do the same.

What I Learned While On Vacation

While I was on vacation, I realized:
• I can be a stay-at-home mom.
Sometimes I wonder if that is what I really want or if I am one of those people who only want what she can’t have. But after staying home for two weeks, one week just hanging out and the second camping, I realize I could do this full time.

• One never tires of swinging.
I think my son and I were on the swing for at least a hour several times a day. My guy likes to go high – by himself (on a regular swing) or with mommy or daddy. We went to several parks my first week off and the swings were always his favourite part.

• Exploring the world.
While camping, my mom told me to just let my guy explore the world. She said it’s amazing to let kids go off ‘by themselves’, to see what they do when they don’t think we are watching.
Mom, of course, was right.
I can see why kids disappear. My guy headed straight for the forest behind the trailer and picked up sticks, gathered leaves and went further and further away.
He also left several times, giant bag in hand, to go for a car ride. In that case, he would say ‘bye’, blow kisses, come back for real kisses and hugs and head toward the car, or sit in the grass and play.
It was amazing.
There isn’t as much opportunity to let him head off by himself where we live, however, he did go exploring at neighbour’s property this week.

• Time flies when you are having fun.
My mom also said a vacation wouldn’t be as fun if you were off all the time.
I have to disagree. When I was off for a year’s maternity leave, I still enjoyed last’s year camping vacation.

On a different note, I heard on the radio today the head of Google was saying in the future he could see today’s teens having to change their names because they revealed way too much on facebook and other social media sites.
It’s an interesting point and one everyone – not just teens – should keep in mind.

Honest Scrap Award

Thanks for longtime friend and Moments of Clarity blogger Mundanemomma for giving me the Honest Scrap Award.

Here are the rules:

#1. Brag about the award.

Well, why be original when you can misquote actress Sally Field – ‘You like me, you really like me.’

#2. Include the name of the person who gave the award to you and link back to that blogger.

Her penname is Mundanemomma at Moments of Clarity

#3. Choose a selection of blogs that you find brilliant in honest content.
#4. Show their names and links and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with this award.
Humes Party of three

Fighting off Frumpy
Lady Mama

#5. List at least 10 honest things about yourself.

1. I don’t like to talk about myself. I think if you read my blog, you’ll glean a lot of information about me from it but I don’t like to provide information in this sort of forum. However, I like to read about others.

2. I am a journalist and an editor. I have written, assigned and read many stories about cyber crime, bullying, stalking, and predators. As such, I particularly don’t like posting info or pictures about my little guy. Facebook, particularly since it has changed its privacy policies, frightens me. Too much info people!

3. I really want to be a non-working stay-at-home mom. However, I am willing to freelance edit and write and stay at home.

4. My brother once called me untrusting and I was offended. Unfortunately, he is correct. However, not trusting people has saved me – and my family – more than once.

5. I am fiercely loyal and have high moral standards for myself.

6. I am directionally challenged and have no idea how to get to places I used to live. GPS was created for me.

7. I am a strong person.

8. Motherhood is the best job anyone can have.

9. I have a stepdaughter who brings great joy and happiness – and comic relief – to my life. I am lucky that she wasn’t one of THOSE teenagers who I wanted to lock in the basement and not release until she was 20. Actually, she went to the basement by choice and she will be 20 this year. Time flies.

10. I am a good listener and secret keeper.

The Problem with Days Off

I was off Monday with my son.
We went to the doctor’s. We played. We went for a walk.
We had a great day.
And that’s the problem with days off – they make me want to have more of them.

Everyone needs goals

While actor Vince Vaughn’s character in Dodgeball made a valid point about goals: if you don’t have them, you can’t be disappointed if you don’t reach them, I prefer writing them down with the hopes they will come true.

And while I do this yearly, along with steps on how to reach this goal, it wasn’t until reading The Secret’s in the Sauce Blog Resolution, Saturday Sharefest that it occurred to me that I should be doing the same for my blog.

What are my goals for 2010 for This, That and the Other Thing?

• To receive more comments on my blog entries.
• To be honoured with more people following my blog.
• And ultimately, to make money off my blog.

I was at Sophia’s mom’s blog, a fellow SITSer, and noted she has the same goal as I do – to be a stay-at-home working mom.
Good luck to everyone who is reaching for a goal in 2010.

Studies Say ...

Studies say that children who go to daycare are more social and do better in school.

Quite frankly, I don’t care what the studies say.

And isn’t it insulting to the generation of children who were raised by their mothers? Were we social-inept, stupid children? I don’t think so.

So perhaps the study isn’t telling us all that we need to know or maybe it’s telling us this so we don’t feel bad about plunking our children in daycare for 10 hours a day while we get “me” time.