The Power Cop

I watch very little TV, I do hear it though, way too much of it. My comp sits within yards of the main television viewing area, thus while I am in the kitchen cooking or more likely multi-tasking--cooking and at the computer--I am also able to overhear whatever is being viewed. Most things do not catch my attention, but this evening VH1 ran a commercial for The Power Cop.

You ask, what is The Power Cop? A device that effectively manages the amount of time your child can sit before an electronic device that is powered by electrical current. The basic premise, you decide the amount of time the video game system/television/stereo/computer can be used each day, once this time allotment is used up, the power is shut down, and the game system, etc. cannot be used for another day.
Their marketing strategy consists of three basic attention grabbers--these devices are Time Thieves---and--- with the use of The Power Cop, you the parent are not The Bad Guy, in addition, with the use of The Power Cop your child will then take part in other more Brain-Powered activities--like homework,reading, or family time.

Okay, sounds great.
But, first of all you the parent are still going to be the bad guy, cause you installed the damn thing!
Plus what if you want to use whatever gadget you installed it on, then you have to disable it everytime, which would totally burn my britches. I like video games, I play them on occasion with my children, or by myself, I spend more time at the computer than anyone else, so I sure as hell don't want The Power Cop around to set limits for me.
Thirdly and most importantly to me, parents are supposed to be the bad guys, we are the ones who set the limits, we are the ones we WANT them to see that are setting the limits. If we want family time, then make it happen, how many parents do you know use these very same gadgets as babysitters? A lot, oh it starts out innocent enough, plug kid into TV, and you have time to take a quick shower, or make an undisturbed phone call, or have a complete conversation with parent # 2, or maybe if it is movie, even a quickie. Then when the little babes become addicted, the parent becomes upset. Whoops, think I am climbing onto another soap box. Back to The Power Cop.

If you are a parent, you have heard a kazillion and one times from your parents, or other well-meaning friends and relatives how you are/were rearing your children wrong. "You let them get away with too much." "They wouldn't be such picky eaters if you hadn't started cutting the crust off their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches." or "What the hell is a time out? What happened to a good old-fashioned whipping? Now my kids, always knew who was boss!"

Even though I often disagreed with the speaker (I am a good parent damnit!), I do have to agree with one thing, when it came to setting limits, abiding by those limits, setting the consequences, and abiding to those consequences, most of my well-meaning detractors were correct...it is my responsibility to be THE PARENT, not their best-friend, not their playmate, but their parent. Yes I want to be a confidant when one is needed, yes I always have, and always will love to play with my children (okay, not Barbie, I was never a Barbie kinda girl), but all children need that structure, that knowledge that there are limits, and who better to set them , who better to enforce them than their parents? In setting and enforcing those limits I may become a nag, a meanie, a *gasp* punishment inflictor, but that is part of what being a parent is. So, even though The Power Cop, may seem like a great idea to some, I will stick to my old-fashioned, nagging, complaining, grounding threats, and more importantly... using all of those Time Thieves as bribes to get my children doing the things that need to be done first.

Teen-age Pride

Most people I know would find it a distinct disadvantage to live 7 to 10 miles from the closest anything. I do not. Why? Because these short or longer drives are the times when my children have always communicated the most with me. Oh, we always have great conversations, but in the car/van, especially at night, I get the most in depth stuff from them. Guess it makes it easier, just the two of us, riding along, not face to face, but sitting side by side, an intimacy that allows them to speak freely. In another blog I have written of this when it came to having one of 'those' talks with my son. The same kind of talk also occurs with my daughter, I love it, I revel in it, I am happy we have these opportunities.

Tonights conversation was not a deep one though, tonights conversation consisted of my daughter telling me of how great she felt about school this past week, the accomplishments she was most proud of. Acing a vocab quiz, the same on a Science test. Having 3 pieces of art work on display in the main hall. But her proudest moment came on Friday.
It seems on the bus ride home Thursday afternoon, she and a friend worked rather hard on creating something. When she arrived to first hour on Friday morning, this creation was already making the rounds. This continued all day, her pride increasing with each hour. By the end of the day, it was all over the school.

My daughters proudest accomplishment of the week........

Knock knock.

Who's there?

I ate grape.

If you say the next line of the joke, you know her accomplishment. The source of her proudest moment last week.

My daughter is 16, do teens revert back to second grade humor at this age?

Editing for Spelling and Grammar

Maybe I am really weird, but when I am reading an article, novel, or something else that has been professionally published/edited I expect more perfection than I do when reading an email, a blog, or even...gasp.. a letter or card that has arrived in snail mail...do those still exist?

I can be engrossed in what I am reading, but if I come across a word misspelled, I immediately lose focus on the article and focus on the word. Today, I was reading an article on the war in Iraq, enjoying the writer's descriptive powers, when he misspelled gauntlet, how could that happen? This wasn't some fast-breaking news story that had to be published as soon as possible.

"Just getting U.S. troops established here in the canal-laced fields of the Euphrates River Valley meant running a gantlet of roadside bombs, with one platoon encountering 14 in a three-hour stretch."

Why does this bother me? As soon as I came across "gantlet" I lost focus, the same happens when I read a novel, what particularly perplexes me in novel reading, is if the mistake is in the paperback edition, I know nothing about publishing, but if they have the opportunity to reformat to publish the paperback, then I, perhaps wrongly, assume they would have the opportunity to correct any mistakes that were uncaught during the 5o (guessing at this number btw) times the novel was edited before first publishing.

As a person who constantly makes mistakes, who still cannot remember when/if an apostrophe is necessary, who uses way more commas than called for, who cannot read her own writing for content, but is constantly editing---I have republished blog posts several times to correct one word---I know if I ever became a published author, I would lose my initial excited bliss over the fact that "People wanted to read me! I was Published!" if I found even one mistake. I would be moping, bitching at, and haranguing myself over one tiny misspelled word.

I have never thought of myself as a perfectionist--- don't get me wrong, I like perfection, I want perfection, but I want someone else to do it for me---but when I am reading/watching/eating/consuming something that was done by a professional I do expect as few mistakes as possible....I expect that from myself in my own area of expertise (okay don't have one, but if I did, I would expect perfection), thus I expect that from others. We all have bad days, but once again, in the publishing biz I assume that is the reason for there being a hierarchy of people to peruse an article before publishing...the author, the editor/editor's assistant, and possibly one more person before it even gets sent/printed/posted.

This seems such a silly thing, but even though I went back to the article two more times, I was editing instead of reading the content.....oh god! I am really weird! In fact I am currently wondering why it bothered me so much that I felt I had to write about it.

Yep Another Blog

I started this blog because there are times when I have thoughts, things I want to express, or feel a need to write about that just do not fit on Confessions, do not fit on Desires, and well, I have to come to discover I enjoy reading the thoughts, comments of others, so cannot really post these random wonderings of mine on my personal ravings blog, because no one is allowed to know that is me. So, ta da! I came up with one more place to wonder, wander, vent, and question.

Wow! that is one long run on sentence, think my point is made :)