Speaking of Featured Content...

This post caught my eye because I saw one of the TLC shows on the Duggars while we were at my in-laws last spring. Think of them what you will, 17 is a lot of kids from one Momma. Anyway, in case it's not still on FC, here's the Xanga site: cindyjg. Obviously she doesn't agree with them, but at least her arguments are polite and articulate (unlike some of the Duggar supporters who are leaving her comments). :-|

Oh, and related tangentially, I read recently that if we were to give one whole acre of land to every man, woman, and child alive on the earth today, we'd still all fit inside the land mass of the good 'ole U.S. of A.... so I kinda think the natural resources argument is specious one, but that's just me.



(update)

Now this guy.... I'll let his words speak for themselves... Back to the fall-out over the Duggar post from a few days ago (see above), one of the nut-jobs that commented on her post said: To have so many children [is]almost the same as abortion because in both cases life or death of the future child [is] in the mind of mother. THAT idea, my dears, takes a special kind of stupid to believe, but hey.... it takes all kinds, right? *shakes head*



(update #2)

Now this is a quote worth reading (because it agrees with me, of course! ;-))

G.K. Chesterton compared a mother's duties to those of a monarch, a merchant, and a theology teacher. He said, "I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about (arithmetic), and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman's function is laborious because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness."

What think ye??

This is from "10 ways to build your child's self-esteem"

There's a difference between praise and encouragement.

One rewards the task while the other rewards the person ("You did it!" rather than "I'm proud of you!").

Praise can make a child feel that he's only "good" if he does something perfectly.
Encouragement, on the other hand, acknowledges the effort.

"Tell me about your drawing. I see that you like purple" is more helpful than saying, "That's the most beautiful picture I've ever seen."

Too much praise can sap self-esteem because it can create pressure to perform and set up a continual need for approval from others.

So dole out the praise judiciously and offer encouragement liberally; it will [help] your child grow up to feel good about himself.


I don't know what I think about this nifty little article. I want to roll my eyes at the "self-esteem building" ideas everyone loves, yet I know drowning a child in superlatives is hardly beneficial either. I guess I've not had to give it much thought yet.... I remember hearing a young dad praising his son for every bite the youngster ate (he was just learning to self feed). It seemed like excessive praise at the time, but with the retrospection of having my own two year old, maybe it was just much needed positive reinforcement! :-D

Proof...

They say the proof is in the pudding... well, no pudding in NY (though we did consume several flats of yogurt).... never mind.. it was going to be a really lame joke...

ANYWAY, as proof of our insanity & that I wasn't kidding about all those kids & their ages; here's a pic of all 12 kiddoes.



Sorry they're not all looking at the camera... we had about 4 cameras going at once & counted ourselves lucky that all the kids stayed inside those 6 sq. ft. for long enough to get the pictures taken!! :-D

Notice that there's no mud, blood, or guts. Of course, that culd be because we took the pic right after lunch on Sunday (they hadn't been allowed out in the mud yet). Almost unbelievable, but the only blood the entire Thursday -> Sunday when everybody was there was a little rugburn on BD#1's nose. That's it.