Growing Away

This past weekend my husband and I spent a relaxing stay in a quiet cabin on the other side of the mountain. It was a place I had taken my children when they were small, before my husband was part of my life.
What a jolt it was to see those places and remember my five year old son and 12 year old daughter tubing down Deep Creek. The squeals of delight, the stark terror when he drifted by and my daughters hysterical screams, in all of three feet of water! The hiking trail by the waterall where my son, older now at 11, raced across an icy log bridge with his 7 year old nephew scooting behind, ignoring warning signs of slippery rocks. No one fell in thank heavens.

My daughter is now 24 and my son is 17, the oldest grandson grown from 7 to 12. Where did the time go?
I drive past churches and schools, and halls where my son performed in musicals. plays, contests. It brings a lump to my throat. My youngest is almost a man, in fact in many ways he is.
My oldest daughter is a mess, 3 sons and a bad relationship. When do we stop being "parents"? Never. Even when we stop making the rules, kissing the boo-boos, fixing the messes, we still feel the pain.

Here We Go Again

Another Wednesday. Another overview which is going to be creatively renamed A Welcoming Session. Both euphemisms for "We gotcha!" But do we really have them? Or do they have us? The multiple excuses for not doing what the rest of the world has to do in order to survive, support a family, grow ...The few who truly have goals, the many whose goal is to continue milking the system.
Welfare was originally designed so mothers could stay home with their children. Now it is designed (supposedly) to help families over the rough spots so they can return to work and dump their children in childcare facilities whose employees barely make enough to support their own families. What's wrong with this picture???

Professionalism or Just Plain Courtesy

It amazes me how inconsiderate people can become when they are promoted at work. Take my "boss". When I was hired she was an assistant director, but has since been promoted to director. At first she remained the considerate and level headed supervisor she had always been. But recently I have seen a darker side creeping to the surface. Fortunately I have not been the brunt of her displeasure. I understand with more responsibility comes MORE RESPONSIBILITY. But that doesn't excuse chastising an individual in front of co-workers. That was something she would never have done in the past.
And on that note, why do people feel it is acceptable to get to the top by crawling over others? Putting down your co-workers doesn't make you look good, it makes you look nasty! But people continue to do this in order to get to the top! What's so great up there that you would hurt another person to get there??? I don't get it.
And why is it that people who are hard workers often get positions of "power" and suddenly become incapable of doing anything?