Monday, September 26, 2022
Costly expressions of…. Love?
We are constantly trying to get the kids to bed quickly, in large part because we want them to get the rest they need to be healthy, but also because we want them to learn how to operate efficiently with their days' many tasks. Over the years we've used various means of positive and negative consequences ("carrots and sticks") with varying degrees of success. Lately especially with our sixteen year old I've been trying to give room to make their own commitments… and to back up those commitments with their own consequences in case they don't keep their word. Tonight I told Jadon what time I thought he should be in bed, but he thought he needed five more minutes than what I allotted. As he showered we debated back and forth what might be a worthwhile consequence if he didn't live up to his words: push-ups, sentence-writing "I need to get ready for bed faster" 100x to be mailed to an agreed relative, abdominal crunches….none seemed to satisfy both of us as "the right amount of cost" to incentivize getting to bed quickly. Finally, Jadon suggested that he would loudly say he loved me when I dropped him off in front of his school in the morning. Boy that got him moving! Problem was that he began hurrying too late… let's see if I can milk this tomorrow morning!
Sunday, September 18, 2022
Artiste magnifique
As far as I can remember, since college I have been gifted with rather above-average volume of gastrointestinal gasses. As one may imagine this has been a liability lending toward embarrassment at times, but surprisingly this has also been advantageous in its own way, especially in the years of leading the youth group at EFC (Riverside) or among buddies (a la "Fart Football" introduced by Steve Shelton at UCR).
Obviously biologically there have been seasons of waxing and waning in this "gift," probably based on my diet of the time or other factors affecting my gut microbiome. But because the propensity has lasted so long and seemed to coincide with the times in my life I had made trips to developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, I wondered if perhaps I had been harboring some parasite unbeknownst to myself (amoebiasis, anyone?), and even had my doctor check this recently with stool testing. Thankfully, it was negative.
This afternoon, Jadon and I were having fun studying side by side punctuated by the occasional pungent "Bronx cheer," of which of course I was the more guilty party. To that, Jadon started to giggle to himself, so I asked him what was so funny?
His reply: "Daddy has mastered the 'Art of the Shart.'"
Obviously biologically there have been seasons of waxing and waning in this "gift," probably based on my diet of the time or other factors affecting my gut microbiome. But because the propensity has lasted so long and seemed to coincide with the times in my life I had made trips to developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, I wondered if perhaps I had been harboring some parasite unbeknownst to myself (amoebiasis, anyone?), and even had my doctor check this recently with stool testing. Thankfully, it was negative.
This afternoon, Jadon and I were having fun studying side by side punctuated by the occasional pungent "Bronx cheer," of which of course I was the more guilty party. To that, Jadon started to giggle to himself, so I asked him what was so funny?
His reply: "Daddy has mastered the 'Art of the Shart.'"
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