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ParentDish Feature: What are you reading? Life-changing books

Jen Creer — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 17:02:00 EST

(June 22, 2007) I have a horrible confession to make. I have not started anything new this week. Wait. Let me think about it for a minute... Nope. No new books. I have been reading multiple, 300-page grant proposals and making tables out of information, but I don't think you really want to hear about that. Not to mention confidentiality issues... So, today I thought I would talk about Life Changing books. Those books that have a significant impact on who you develop to be as a person.

I think we all have them. Here are mine:

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ParentDish Feature: What are you reading? Um... lots of things...

Jen Creer — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 17:31:00 EST

Filed under: Media, Day Care & Education, That's Entertainment

(June 15, 2007) After I finished A Widow for One Year, I was gangbusters to read another "real" novel. So, I pulled out my copies of A Prayer for Owen Meany and Prince of Tides. And I discovered that I was simply too mentally exhausted to start reading either of them, despite remarkable reviews of Owen Meany.

On a whim, at the grocery store, I noticed a new Thomas Perry book. And oh, boy, Thomas Perry books (Leian, forgive me, I forgot about these). They are probably best-described as thrillers, because you know who the guilty person is. The real challenge is how many people will die before the murderer/bad guy is stopped. I started reading Perry's Jane Whitefield novels years ago, and I so wish he was still writing them. Jane Whitefield is a woman who helps people in trouble (mostly women) disappear. The books are so thrilling, they made my feet sweat as I read them, and I would end up with damp socks all the time in winter.

So, when I noticed Nightlife, I put it into the cart. The book wasn't as strong as the Jane Whitefield novels-- it didn't make me sweaty-- but that didn't stop me from spending all day Sunday reading it. My kids were at their father's house and I decided just to take a day for me (I seem to need/take a lot of mental health days for some reason).

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Recovering from a difficult birth experience

Jen Creer — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 08:01:00 EST

Filed under: Your Pregnancy, Medical Conditions

A dear friend of mine had her first baby last week. As I slowly started to get the details of the birth from her husband in hurried conversations while they were in the hospital, I started to realize that this was an enormously difficult birth experience all the way around.

Everything that happened was punctuated by the fact that they had originally hoped for a home birth. My friend was raised Sikh, and she wanted as pure, as non-invasive a pregnancy and birth experience as possible. And she knew that this might not be possible. She was realistic about that. But what ultimately happened was a brutal way to bring a child into the world. And I know this because almost the same experiences happened to me with my first child--only hers was just a little bit worse.

When I tell people about her experience, because our friends have moved now and told me I can fill people in here, they have been remarkably unsympathetic. "Well, they're okay, right? That's the most important thing." "Well, things don't always go as planned." Yes, it is. And we all know that. But that doesn't change the fact that a joyous outcome is paired with exhaustion and disppointment, and yes, violation. It makes the recovery that much more difficult. It makes your first days with your baby tremulous and more fearful and more painful.

Here is the story: The baby was breech. The mama blood pressure was high. The mucous plug came out. Contractions were five minutes apart for 24 hours. An epidural was given, and doctors tried to turn the baby. It was immensely painful. The mama was rushed into surgery, whilst telling the doctors, "I can still feel things. I can still feel pain." Fortunately, she didn't feel the incision-- just every stitch when they were stitching her up...

Her brand new baby girl was taken immediately to a NICU with low blood sugar. When the 23-year-old mama finally got to see her baby, hours later, when her hospital bed was wheeled up, the NICU nurse told her not to try to breastfeed, and after ten minutes, told the mama to leave because she was overstimulating her baby. She was basically told that every instinct she had as a new mother was bad for her baby.

Maybe this doesn't sound very traumatic in quiet black and white. But I've been there, and it is very traumatic. It's frightening and painful and invasive and horrible. It will take some time to recover. Time, and their beautiful baby girl. You can read the father's firsthand account of the experience here. How did you recover from your awful birth experience?

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ParentDish Feature: What are your kids reading?

Jen Creer — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 17:01:00 EST

Filed under: Tweens, Teens, Media, That's Entertainment

(June 13, 2007) This summer, we have been trying to have the kids turn off the TV every morning and read. I say the word "trying" because we have been met with some resistance. My youngest son is trying to tell me that summer is for playing outside, not reading. "That's funny," I told him, "because you were just inside, watching television."

We made deals with the kids before summer even began: We want you guys to read at least one book a month, preferably two. There are lots of things that we let them do in the summer, things that cost extra money. However, we also want them to take advantage of the long stretches of time in the summer to read.

Initially, we wanted to give them some book options to choose from. Rather than reading the same Bart Simpson comics over and over, we would like them to read some actual books. This is not an issue for the oldest child (13.5), whose room is so scattered with books it's hard to walk through it. He is reading The Fellowship of the Ring right now, and just finished The Hobbit. But it's harder for the younger two, who are more resistant at the page numbers present in a novel. My middle child (10) has read the first Harry Potter book and loved it, but he doesn't want to read the second. He has read The Hobbit, and loved it, but he doesn't want to read. He wants to watch television or play on the computer. I think that is the main issue here.

My youngest child (9) is simply not a reader. He has a way with simile and metaphor when he writes and speaks that astonishes me: It can't be taught. I cannot believe he is so resistant to reading. So, I try to read carefully: "This is reading time. You can choose what you are reading[even the Bart Simpson comic books], but this is reading time." And as I am saying the words, he will open the door and go outside. So, then, I have to go and get him, bring him inside, and start again. I hate that: I don't want to fight with him about reading. But I'm afraid that if he never experiences the actual joys that reading brings, he will just get farther and farther away from it.

I feel like I'm being pushy. Just let the kid have his summer! Don't worry about it! But I do worry about it. Books, magazines, words-- they are very important to his father, his stepfather, and I. It's probably one of the few things we all agree on. We are all academics, have all taught students who can't write because they don't read. These college students don't know the difference, when they write papers, between the words "definitely" and "defiantly." I know first-hand from my career that writing and reading are important. They go hand-in-hand. But I don't want to push him away from reading. I wish so much that he would come to it on his own.

Do your kids like to read? If they don't, do you have any tricks to encourage them?

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Parent vs Parent: Tattoos, temporary or otherwise

Jen Creer — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 12:29:00 EST

Filed under: Just For Moms, Just For Dads, Media

Reading Roger Sinasohn's piece about tattoos made me sit and think for a long time. And what I finally realized is that although I am deeply deeply sympathetic to his horror about how tattoos were used to brand holocaust victims, and I respect his position that tattoos are symbolic of de-humanization and slavery, we are all see the world and make decision based on the lens of our own experience.

When we first began talking about our positions about tattoos and being parents, I raised this issue: I don't think it's necessarily appropriate to talk about tattoos and children. Perhaps this is just a reflection of my own position. I think permanent tattoos for children under the age of 18 are probably akin to criminal negligence or abuse. And I think 18 years old is too young to make decisions about tattoos. I have two tattoos, but I got both of them when I was in my thirties, so I will tell my children that when they are in their thirties, if they feel really strongly about getting a tattoo, they can get one then. Of course, they will be able to make their own decisions before that age, but I think as much as I can influence anything they do, I will strongly encourage them to wait.

I spent more time talking about kids' tattoos than I intended to. What I'd really like to talk about is parents and tattoos. Jennifer Jordan and I were talking about the ages we were when we got our tattoos and how having kids has or has not changed our positions and attitudes about tattoos.

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ParentDish Feature: What are you reading? A Widow for One Year

Jen Creer — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:01:00 EST

Filed under: Day Care & Education

(June 8, 2007) I stayed up late last night finishing A Widow for One Year. And it wasn't ONLY so I could write this post today and say, "I finished!" but I admit that that was part of it. I have been walking around thinking all morning about how all of the little details that he set up early in the story were taken care of. I saw a description this morning of this novel as John Irving's "most intricately crafted" novel, and while I haven't yet read all of his books (and A Prayer for Owen Meany is staring me down right now), I'd have to agree with that statement. It is the kind of novel that really makes you think of a tapestry with all of the threads interwoven beautifully, and no stragglers hanging out. Every detail, every minor event, had a point that would resurface again later.

As a case in point, one of the novel's protagonists (Ruth Cole) (there are really two main characters whom the book follows from the opening pages to the last), cuts her finger on sharp glass when she is four years old. The other protagonist, Eddie O'Hale, who is 16 years old at the time, tells her that the cut has perfectly bissected her finger, and that nobody else will have a fingerprint quite like hers. That episode comes back when the two characters meet more than thirty years later, and then again, later in the novel, when Ruth witnesses a crime and leaves her perfectly flawed fingerprint at the scene of the crime, leading the investigating officer to find her more than five years after the crime.

I noted last week that John Irving's books have plenty of sex in them, but that the books are more about the consequences of that sex. And that line actually showed up in the novel later! One of the things that faintly irritates me about Irving's plots is that the stories always seem to devolve into dancing bears or weird transvestites whose tongues have been cut out at some point. In this case, it was Ruth's idea (she is a novelist) that she needed to talk to prostitutes in Amsterdam about what it would be like if a woman and her boyfriend wanted to watch the prostitute with a customer. The novel took the shape of farce for awhile, and even though all of the details were later neatly tucked into the tapestry, I find those farcical adventures fairly exhausting.

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Nature walk: The singing frogs

Jen Creer — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 12:01:00 EST

Filed under: Development/Milestones: Babies

I don't know whether they are called tree frogs, bullfrogs, or even whether they were toads, to be honest. I was walking home early yesterday evening with a friend and her daughter: My friend and I run together, and then we walk to the convenience store to get a big Diet Coke, and then walk slowly back. Yesterday, we ran five miles. On the way home, we could hear frogs out, and they were trilling. My friend's daughter asked if we were hearing crickets, and we explained that they were frogs. And then, suddenly, we saw them!

There were two huge puddles in the street before us, and in each puddle sat one frog. They started hopping toward the corner, and on the corner sat another frog/toad/whathaveyou. And suddenly, its throat blew a huge bubble and it started trilling! I have never seen that in person before. It was amazing. It continued its trilling as we walked by, and then abrupty stopped.

I ran home to ask my sons if they wanted to see it. I burst through the front door, set my pop on the table, and burst out, "Hurray! Get your shoes on! I have to show you something amazing!"

Two of them ended up coming barefoot, but it was a short walk, around the corner. By the time we got there, there were four frogs. This time, the leader showed some trepidation. Perhaps small boys who are eager to bend down and touch, to pick up, to laugh, to splash, to chase, are more intimidating than two cautious adults and one small female child. For whatever the reasons, the frog clamped its mouth shut and stopped trilling. We all got out of the street as a car went by. My son Christian asked where the fourth frog had gone, and then spotted it, completely flattened, in the street. They stood over the squished frog and marvelled that it had been alive and now it was completely a pancake frog. The two who were barefoot steadfastly stepped around it.

Finally, we turned to return home. It was now dark. And behind us, in the moonlight, the frog begin to trill again.

What sorts of nature treasures have you happened upon and shared with your children?

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I caved: Giving my son a cell phone

Jen Creer — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 08:01:00 EST

Filed under: Teens, Day Care & Education, Gadgets

I finally did it. He hasn't been asking very much or for very long. His friends are now starting to get them. I have had to re-think some of my original ideas about things like cell phones. My son spends time away from both of his parents, as we are divorced. Therefore, in some ways, his having a cell phone makes a certain amount of sense. If one of us parents can't reach the other, we now have an alternative number. Sam, age 13 and a half, had started calling me from school during the afternoon to tell me about a change of plans or to ask permission to do something with friends. A cell phone eliminates the need to use the school office phone, and allows him more chances to call if he can't reach me on the first try.

But the reason I finally got him a cell phone is simple: My husband's phone started malfunctioning. When we went in to replace it, they told us that we needed to get a new plan to do that cheaply, and the new plan made introducing a third line the same price as what we had been paying monthly. In its most simple and clear terms, it no longer made financial sense NOT to have a third line. So, I picked out a moderately priced cell phone, not one that would break or become useless easily, but certainly by no means an expensive phone, and took it home.

I put it on the kitchen counter with a post-it note and then called it and asked my son what that noise in the kitchen was. He was, do I need to say it? Delighted.

We haven't run into the problems I had expected. I haven't had to tell him to use the cell phone less: I have had to insist that he carry it with him instead, because there have been a couple of times when I have tried to reach him and he didn't have it with him. He looked at me, still at that moment more child than Youth, and asked, "Oh, should I carry it with me all the time?" Yes. Unless you are going over to the playground to let your friends bury you in the sand. In that case, please leave it home.

But just in case you are wondering, I did buy insurance for the phone, in case of loss, or accident.

Do your kids have cell phones? Will you get cell phones for them when they are older? And how old is old enough?

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ParentDish Feature: What are you reading?

Jen Creer — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 17:31:00 EST

Filed under: Media, Day Care & Education

(June 1, 2007) What are you reading this week? I have had a busy week of reading around here. I am not quite sure why, but I have sort of run out of patience with my romance novels, though I am still working my way through one. I am pretty sure that my impatience is temporary. However, in the meantime, I am looking for other things to read.

I have been enjoying a very lovely email conversation with commenter Mandy this week. At her recommendation, I decided to go ahead and overcome my fear of The Lovely Bones. I started it last Friday, and read it all before I went to bed that night. It was a beautiful, compelling book. But I am not going to discuss it quite yet, here, because I promised I would give everyone time to read it first. So, readers, start your engines! Can you at least post in the comments and let me know when you have started reading it? Then we will all kind of be able to keep track of how far you are in the book, and we'll know when we can discuss it here.

I think you will have a hard time putting it down. Mandy also wrote that she had gotten Twilight, and she took her three-year-old son to a new playground so she could try reading it. However, she had to follow him around, which distracted the reading. But I remember doing the same thing when my kids were that age. I love hearing how other moms try to find time to read.

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ParentDish Feature: What are you reading? The Dive From Clausen's Pier

Jen Creer — Fri, 25 May 2007 14:31:00 EST

Filed under: Media, Day Care & Education

I have a confession to make: I haven't started The Lovely Bones yet. Have you? How is it going? I know I need just to do it, but I have to admit: It frightens me a little bit. I am afraid it might be too dark. But I have been practicing! I figure reading dark books is a little like diving into the deep end of the pool. If you practice swimming in shallower, lighter water, you just remind yourself that you can swim, and that the currents of the pool won't pull you down. The thing that bothers me about this analogy is that I am not sure who the lifeguard is...

I continued my rampage of reading real books this week (I actually consider my romances to be real books, but I like to pretend that I don't, so please forgive my little penchant for dividing romance from non-romance books). I picked up a book that has been on my shelf for years. I read a review when it first came out and I was fascinated: I so wanted to read it. So, I bought it, and there it sat. I read Ann Packer's book The Dive From Clausen's Pier.

The book has a fascinating premise: a young woman's fiance, Mike, dives into a quarry. The water has become more shallow than previous years, and he breaks his neck, and becomes a quadraplegic. The young woman, Carrie, packs up her apartment in the middle of the night shortly after his accident and flees to New York City without telling anyone from her Wisconsin town where she is going. She bunks for free with a friend from high school with whom she reconnected shortly after Mike's accident.

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ParentDish Feature: Something for me: paints and paper.

Jen Creer — Tue, 22 May 2007 17:01:00 EST

I am taking a turn with this feature this week while Jenifer Scharpen is busy doing Something For Her. Heh heh. A couple of weeks ago, I went to Iowa City, Iowa, for my best friend's graduation: She just finished her PhD. Talk about something for her! I am not (yet) quite ready to pursue my PhD. But I did take advantage of that weekend to set in place Something For Me.

I am a writer. I have always been a writer, ever since I was a small child. I have always been in love with words and make it a point to surround myself with them at every opportunity. I am fortunate to be able to write for a living, and when I am not working, I am reading or writing for pleasure. That is a LOT of words. And even though words have been my oldest loves and friends, sometimes, it's just too much. Sometimes, I just want to get out of my own head for awhile. But I have to make a serious effort to do so.

When I was in Iowa City, I passed by the largest art supply store I've ever seen. I sent in and got some things for me. I got some drawing pads, drawing pencils, erasers, a starter kit of oil paints, some acrylic paints and a huge clipboard to put on my husband's easel. The former owners of our house worked for the art department at the local university. They turned the converted garage that used to be a catering business into an art studio. I turned it into my office. And now, I am turning it back into an art studio, too. I bought Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. For my birthday in April, I got myself a set of 64 crayons. It seems clear that my self is trying hard to tell me something.

I always have a small notebook in my purse: all good writers do. But now, I also have a sketchpad and a drawing pencil. And when I am waiting for someone, instead of whipping out my blackberry and reading, I pull out the sketch pad and try to draw things I see around me. This has made for some hysterical laughter among my children, who like to whip out that sketchpad and show their friends my efforts. But the very next thing they want to do is draw their own pictures.

Tomorrow is the last day of school, so I am instigating art time in that studio every day with the kids. They have to be coaxed, bribed, and forbidden to use electronic equipment, and there are times when it's too hot to go outside or up to the pool. During those times, we are going to go out to the studio and play. I know this post is supposed to be about something for me, but just being engaged with the world of drawing and color IS for me, and if I institute art time with my kids, then I know that I will take the time for myself also. Otherwise, it's too easy for me just to sit and surf the net, or go fold a load of clothes instead of pursuing something that is calling to me.
What has been calling to you? Are you ignoring it? When will you find time for it?

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ParentDish Feature: What are you watching? The season finales

Jen Creer — Mon, 21 May 2007 16:31:00 EST

Filed under: Media, That's Entertainment

(May 21, 2007) Boy, did I choose the right time to start this feature, or what? The main networks are having their season finales last week and this week, so we are looking toward a long hot summer of re-runs. But have no fear! I know that I will still be watching things, so we will move on to talk about alternative network shows (The Closer! on TNT! and Big Love on HBO! And perhaps The 4400 and The Dead Zone on USA) and movies, re-runs, and shows on DVD that you didn't catch when they were on the air (for me, that would be Heroes).

But I think we should probably stick with the here and now for today, don't you? I missed last week, so I may do a cornucopia here of what I've been watching (and what I've missed! Sob!). Can I just ask a quick question? How many of you use VCR, TiVo, or DVR to help you with your television viewing? How many of you actually get to watch your show when it is actually airing? We bought a used TiVo from a friend for $40, and so we TiVo everything. I even TiVo the shows that I am watching in real time to review for TVSquad, because if I miss something, a detail or a line of dialogue, I can go back to it immediately. I can also put my kids to bed without missing things. So, I have been wondering whether recording devices are what makes it possible for parents to watch TV. It certainly makes it possible for me-- anyone else?

Okay, without further ado, let's get on with the show!

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ParentDish Feature: What are you reading? Look! Real books!

Jen Creer — Fri, 18 May 2007 13:31:00 EST

Filed under: Media

This week has been kind of crazy for me. I have been working on multiple projects at my other gig, which is that of a medical editor. This has not prevented me from reading this week, but it has prevented me from doing my other features this week (What are you watching? And What are your kids reading?) and I feel bad about that. But this feature is one that I just carve out time for no matter what National Institutes of Health (NIH) deadline I might also be working on (and today that would be two).

One of the points of this feature is to talk about the contexts in which we are reading. Last weekend, my husband and I went to Iowa City, Iowa, for my best friend's graduation (she just got her PhD). The kids were with their father. In town, we passed by a Blick art supply store on our way out to dinner. Huge. Probably the biggest art supply store I have ever seen in person. Certainly the biggest art supply store I have ever been in. I first passed it Friday night, and became immediately obsessed with going shopping in the Blick store. I was skeptical, though: I knew that Saturdays are meant for sleeping in. Especially when one is in a hotel with one's extremely cute husband. However, the air conditioning sort of conked out in the middle of the night, leaving the room hot, stifling, and leaving us stirring beneath the sheets, sleepless. We opened the window. It was loud. We continued, sleepless, until about 6:00 a.m. when my husband started a bath so we could just get up and go to breakfast. And while he started the bath, I fell asleep until 9:30 a.m.

But! I got up in enough time to bathe, check out, go get some good coffee (iced! Flavored like bananas and coconut!) and to call the graduation girl and find out the plan. It was 11:00 a.m., and we had until 2:00 p.m. to ourselves. So, we finished our coffee and headed over to Blick.

Continue reading ParentDish Feature: What are you reading? Look! Real books!

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J.K. Rowling, Simon Cowell offer reward for British girl's return

Jen Creer — Tue, 15 May 2007 18:31:00 EST

Filed under: Health & Safety: Babies, Media

Surely, hopefully, the entire world has heard of the little British girl, Madeleine McCann, who was kidnapped from Portugal resort Lagos in Praia da Luz on May 3. She just turned 4. Her parents and twin brother and sister, ages 2, are still at the hotel, pending their daughter's discovery.

A recent report lists a British man, a German woman, and a Portuguese woman all as potential suspects in the investigation. The British man, named Robert Murat, is being formally investigated by police and forensic specialists. He shares a villa with his mother in southern Portugal.

I don't quite know what to say about this case: The parents left Madeleine, at the time age 3, and her younger siblings, age 2, alone, so they could have dinner at a restaurant located in the same resort. I keep trying to look past this at the resultant horror and, believe me, I feel deeply for these parents. And I don't want to castigate them. But I think it would be irresponsible not to point out that this could have been prevented pretty simply.

Several celebrities have taken up the cause to find Madeleine. David Beckham, reknowned soccer player, has made safe appeals for her safe return. Other celebrities, most notably tycoon Sir Richard Branson, American Idol's Simon Cowell, and author of Harry Potter books J.K. Rowling, have contributed to the more than $5.1 million reward offered for her safe return. The celebrities have kept their contributions private, but Rowling has been rumored to have made the largest contribution, totallying over $500,000.

Just writing about that contribution makes me want to cry: What an incredible gesture. But I also want to cry because the more time that passes, the less chance there is that anybody will be able to collect that reward, the less chance that Madeleine McCann's parents will get to sing to her when she turns five.

Ann Adams loses her daughter Carol to cancer

Jen Creer — Fri, 11 May 2007 17:01:00 EST

Filed under: Just For Moms

Ann Adams has been around ParentDish probably longer than I have, which is nearly two years. So, I don't think her name in the title needed a whole lot of explanation. I wrote here in December that Ann's daughter Carol had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and was not expected to live much longer.

Carol died on May 3, 2007.

I had many conversations with Ann over the past few months. Some were just checking back and forth, "How are ou holding up?" kinds of conversations, brief emails or instant messages. I love Ann like a member of my own family, and I can feel the tears behind my eyes as I type this. Ann has more dimensions and layers than you could possibly imagine. For as much as she shares about her life on the blog I finally set up for her after insisting to her, based on her comments, that her writing needed its own venue, there is so much more she doesn't share there. I think she reserves some things because some things are too complicated to write about for a public audience. I think blogs pave the way for more personal and intimate conversations.

I am not going to share all of the details of those conversations here, of course, but I will say: This has been hard. This has been horrible. For as much as Ann has shared how hard it is, I know that it has been harder than she would ever say. That is what Ann is like: She has spared me the full depth of her own pain, because she puts others first.

But that doesn't mean she doesn't need encouragement, sympathy, and love as much as the rest of us do. So, please go and say hello to her at her blog, and let her know you are there, let her know that you see her sorrow, and that you share her sorrow, because it is a horrible thing to lose your child, and because Ann feels all of our sorrows too.

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ParentDish Feature: What are you reading?

Jen Creer — Fri, 11 May 2007 16:01:00 EST

Filed under: Media, That's Entertainment

I am in that most terrible of all places. I am in-between-books. I finally wrapped up the adventures of Tanzy and Russ earlier this week, but that book will always be mingled in my memories now with the day I put my oldest kitty to sleep. I finished the book, trying to comfort myself, and so I associate the end of the book with grief.

Do you do that? Do you have books that you avoid because they remind you of painful times in your life? Or books that you read and re-read for solace and comfort? I tend to have really strong, empathic reactions, so I have to be really careful what I read sometimes, or what I am reading can depress me. I loved Michael Cunningham's book The Hours, but it depressed me in ways that the movie did not. I couldn't even read Jane Hamilton's Map of the World after the opening tragedy. That still haunts me. The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard? Forget it. I know these are books of lovely writing and power. I can't read them.

This is one of the reasons I haven't yet read Alice Sebold's book The Lovely Bones. There it is, over there on the shelf. I can see it's light blue cover looking at me. But I am afraid of my own reaction to it. I am not afraid of a good cry-- but I am afraid of being deeply disturbed.

That being said, I do want to read it, so, I am going to go ahead and throw it out there as a suggestion for our Book of the Whenever We Finish Them Club. But also, for those of you who don't want to read with us, this feature isn't going to start being ONLY about those books or that book club. I will probably read other books along with whatever we are reading, and continue to talk about those. And in the coming weeks, I am going to talk about: The books I re-read for comfort again and again; the books that changed my life; my desert island books; summer beach reads!; celebrity magazines on Fridays, and more! So, please keep tuning in!

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ParentDish Feature: What are your kids reading? The school book fair!

Jen Creer — Wed, 09 May 2007 18:01:00 EST

Filed under: Tweens, Teens, Development/Milestones: Babies, Day Care & Education, That's Entertainment

I love the school book fair every year. Moms out there with children who are too young to go to school? I strongly encourage you to find out when your local school's book fairs are and go anyway, because they have books for kids of ALL ages. And, at least in our school district, once a year their fair features buy one book, get one free.

So, we go and stock up.

Our school book fair was last week, and here is what I picked out for my oldest son (13), who decided not to come with us:

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende I got The Neverending Story for all of them to read actually (they are ages 13, 10, and 9) because it's such a classic and we didn't have it yet.

Artemis Fowl The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl The Opal Deception
Artemis Fowl The Arctic Incident

(We already have the first Artemis Fowl book, but he had not read them yet. I gently insisted that he start).

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick Wow, The Invention of Hugo Cabret is an amazing book! It is a huge, thick hardback book (new release) and it is part novel and part graphic novel-- just filled with illustrations. My son read it in one night and loved it.

I also saw this book, Henry and Mudge and the Tumbling Trip and asked my ten-year-old son, "Are you guys too old for Henry and Mudge books?" He said, "Of course not!" So I got it to read to them, even though they are perfectly capable of reading these to themselves. I cannot recommend Cynthia Rylant or her books enough. I may have to do an entire post one week just about her. We started reading Henry and Mudge when my oldest son, now 13, was two.

My younger two sons, who were with me and instructed to pick out books, despite their insistence that they already HAVE plenty of books (with the younger two, we still struggle with the fact that more books in the house means less time for television and computer! Oh my!), picked out the following:

Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants
Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People
The Big Beefy Book of Bart Simpson

At some point, I just have to sigh and be grateful that my nine-year-old walks around with his backpack filled with books.

I hadn't read any of these books before picking them out. I picked them out based on what looked interesting to me and what I've heard was good.

How do you pick out books for your kids? And do you read everything that they read?

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Parent vs Parent: Spider-man 3. Should you take the kids?

Jen Creer — Tue, 08 May 2007 16:01:00 EST

Filed under: Toddlers Preschoolers, Preschoolers, Big Kids, Tweens, Teens, Development/Milestones: Babies, Media

Are you planning to take your kids to see Spider-man 3? It is rated PG-13, which is always a good rule of thumb when. But I took all of three of my kids to see it, and only one of them is over the age of 13. My kids have seen the other two Spider-man movies in the theatre, also, and have never had a problem with seeing them.

We saw the movie with two sets of family friends. The youngest child was 6, then came 8. My kids were 9 1/2, nearly 11, and 13 1/2. None of the kids had a problem with the film, but they have also all seen the first two movies, and they have all shown that they aren't particularly afraid of movies. I don't mean to suggest that these ages are appropriate for every child.

There was a family sitting behind us with a small child, whom I would guess by size to be 3 or 4 years old. At one point, when a symbiotic black slime was engulfing Topher Grace, who became the supervillain Venom, the child was shrieking, "I don't want to see it! I don't want to see it!" And the child was quiet during the fight scenes. So, that should give you an idea of the age you might want to consider, and also what aspect of the movie might be the most frightening to a young child. If I have any doubts ahead of time, I will go see the movie, then either veto the movie, or hustle the kids out of the threatre before frightening parts. Another alternative is simply to wait til the movie comes out on DVD when you have ultimate control over which parts they can see.

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ParentDish feature: What did you watch this week? Monday May 7

Jen Creer — Mon, 07 May 2007 18:31:00 EST

Filed under: Media, That's Entertainment

Did you see Lost last week? [Spoilers ahead] I like posting this blog on Mondays because I figure (hope) that most of us have had a chance to watch our recorded shows by now. Of course, this week, I didn't have a chance to see My Name is Earl or The Office yet. Did any of you go and get the TV Guide and do the Scratch and Sniff with the Earl episode? We have to locate our TV Guide before we watch it... But here is what I saw last week.

House

Is it just me, or are they having a harder and harder time coming up with diagnoses every week? And I can appreciate sharing the love with other cast members, but having Wilson diagnose House's cases is just wrong. I love how Chase is slowly wearing Cameron down. I want House and Cuddy to just get together-- perhaps in the cliffhanger? Do you think Foreman is really going to quit?

Lost

Okay: Let's talk about Lost. Margalit covers Lost every Thursday on her blog, and you can read her discussion of it, too. I haven't yet read her coverage of it. Last week, my husband figured out that Cooper was the man Sawyer really wanted to kill. I hadn't gotten that far yet. What did you think of the fact that Cooper thought they were in hell? I don't think they are-- but primarily because the producers keep telling us that they aren't. We did come up with this though: Jean-Paul Sartre said in his fantastic play No Exit: Hell is Other People. Others. Get it? So, maybe they are in hell after all-- but in the immortal words of Monty Python, "Not dead yet!" What do you think Jack and Juliet need to tell Kate?

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ParentDish Feature: What are you reading?

Jen Creer — Fri, 04 May 2007 10:31:00 EST

Filed under: Media

Thank you again for your enthusiastic response to this feature! Hurray! I hope you have had a chance to check out the Amazon list I created with your recommendations. I am a little embarrassed about what I am reading this week. For one thing, I have not been reading very fast. I was sort of hoping I could dazzle you with a couple of interesting reviews this week. But the truth is: I have been reading one book, steadily, over each day, and I am over half-way through with it now, but sadly, I am still reading. Sadly for this feature, that is. But not sadly for me, because I am enjoying it.

The second reason I was embarrassed is that it is a romance novel. But I have already told you that I enjoy romances, so I don't have to be too embarrassed, right? I just want you to know, however, that I am planning to branch out for this feature and read more genres: Fiction that is more under the category of literature (award-winning, classic, etc.), science fiction, fantasy, and mystery. And I may throw some non-fiction in for kicks.

I will review the book I am reading after the jump, but first I want to ask you all for some opinions about some options we can take with this feature. Would you be so kind as to answer the following questions in the comments?

Would you all like to recommend books for me to read and review? Perhaps books that you love, or books that you are simply curious about? Or do you like the randomness of seeing what I'm reading?
Are you interested in doing a group book club where we will all vote on a book to read, read it together, and then discuss it in the comments once a month? If you are, then what book shall we read first? I think we should choose the books based on whether or not we get two or three people (or more) who come up with the same book.
Are you interested in starting a book exchange? If you indicate in the comments that you are, then this is how it will work. First, indicate to me in the comments that I have your permission to share your email with other commenters in a group email. We can start a group email list and offer up a list of books we are willing to part with in the exchange, and also ask if anybody has books we are interested in reading. MUST be willing to part with the book FOREVER. I firmly believe in never a borrower or a lender be. If you guys work out something where you can send books back and forth, so be it, but consider it a gift. Once people have worked out some exchange plans on the list, they can email privately and exchange addresses. I just thought this would be a great way for us to be able to read books and talk about them with people, and perhaps save some money (and be kind to Mother Earth) too.

And now for this week's review.

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