I'm Not Ready For My 4th Grader to Learn About Abortion...Public School Outrage part 2

My step-daughter came from school with a project to do a report, oral and written, on Gloria Steinem. Now I'll be quite honest, I didn't know jack about her. Sure, I've heard of her, but I couldn't remember anything specific. Anyway, Kenzie gets started on finding all of the information that must be in the report. She hops on Wikipedia and starts gathering the usual stats...place and date of birth, education, family, ect. When she gets to the part of having to explain "What are they famous for?" she calls to me for help. I go to the computer to help because she "doesn't understand what these things are." Wikipedia says, "Gloria Marie Steinem (born March 25, 1934) is an American feminist icon, journalist, and social and political activist. Rising to national prominence in the 1970s, she became a leading political leader of the decade, and one of the most important heads of the second-wave of the women's rights movement. She is the founder and original publisher of Ms. magazine, the founder of the pro-choice organization Choice USA, co-founder of the Women's Media Center, and was an influential co-convener of the National Women's Political Caucus."

Hmmm.

How to explain this to A FOURTH GRADER.

Call me uptight or old fashion, but I just don't think that my fourth grader is ready to have pro-choice explained to her. Actually, I think fourth grade is a bit young to be explaining feminism to.

It gets worse. Here are some Gloria Steinem quotes we found while searching...

"A liberated woman is one who has sex before marriage and a job after."

"A woman reading Playboy feels a little like a Jew reading a Nazi manual."

"Pornography is the instruction. Rape is the practice, battered women are the practice, and battered children are the practice. "

"The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off.”

She was quoted in The New York Observer saying "getting rid of George Bush, by any means necessary short of violence,” because, obviously, it affects everything else. “We are not in his control,” Ms. Steinem said, “so I say, fuck him. You can write your article, I can write my book. He can’t do anything about it."

And in the same above mentioned article she was asked to give advice to young women of today. Her response? To do "whatever they fucking well please".

She is also noted for her opinions on women's rights, the "sexual revolution," consumerism, and the "Playboy philosophy".

As a parent, I am outraged that a teacher would give this person to my fourth grader to go research. Trust me, all of the above took me less than 30 minutes to find. There is a lot more where that came from. Luckily, I was there with Kenzie and was able to stop her research before she found the above. I sat her down and explained that I don't want her to work on this report anymore. I told her that I don't think that Gloria Steinem's accomplishments are something that she would be able to understand very well and there are things about her that are not age appropriate.

Tomorrow, I fully intend to go to Kenzie's school and have a "chat" with her teacher. This is the same teacher I complained about here .

What do you all think? Am I right to be upset about this? Should I confront this teacher? What would you say?

True Cowgirl

Charlie got her first pair of REAL cowboy boots today. She's had cowboy boot-like booties, but these are actual cowboy boots. Ropers. She was so proud of them!















She liked them so much that she didn't want to take them off. She finally agreed to take them off and go potty, but she had to hold them.














I finally managed to get her in her pjs, but she ended up back in her boots. She decided to wear them to bed. That, my friends, is a true cowgirl at heart!














** The picture quality is bad b/c I had to take them from my phone.

It's Friday Night and My Mango Margarita is Gone

Hey guys!! It's Friday night and I'm the only one left awake at my house. Tonight my favorite blogtalkradio show had a Stickam party and it was a blast! If you haven't listened to Uncorked, you should go check it out. Kadi and Danielle are the hosts and they are hysterical. They talk about sex and all sorts of other fun stuff. Basically it is the kind of conversation you would have with your closest girl friends. It's exactly what I need after a full day of kid conversation. I get adult talk...it's great. I will warn you...it is definitely not a show to listen to around your kids. It's strictly adult conversation. Also...it is not always PC and not always clean language, but that is what I love about it. There next show is Monday, but you can go back and listen to the past shows. If you are fun and daring or want to be, I highly recommend it!

Go Bucks!!

I came across these pictures they other day and thought I would share them. To really appreciate them, you have to be an Ohio State Buckeye fan. This is from our county fair in August 2008. My hubby helped his daughter get ready for the fair parade and this is what happened...





Note the detailing... the stripes painted on the horses back match the team's football helmets.

Someone Diagnose Me Please

I'm feeling overwhelmed this weekend. I sure there is probably some diagnosis a mental health doctor could give me. I'm not ready to go there yet, so I thought I would let you all take a stab at diagnosing my disorder.

Here's my problem. I overextend myself and then get so overwhelmed that I just don't do anything. It's like I go on strike from my life. I quit worrying about housework. I quit all my projects. I just sort of drift while chastising myself for being so behind, yet I don't actually do anything about it. Eventually I snap out of it, and then I go to the extreme in getting everything back on track. I'm the type that just can't bring myself to do chores on a daily basis. I wait until I can't stand it anymore and then I go on a cleaning spree. Same with projects...totally procrastinator. I've been like this for as long as I can remember. When I was little I would wait until my room was a complete disaster and then one day I would just go crazy cleaning....and rearranging furniture. When I was in college I would wait until the night before a big project was due and then pull an all-nighter. It always worked for me. I got A's in school. But now that I'm in real life with kids, a husband, a job and tons of other stuff, it's getting to be too much. How do I make myself be motivated all the time instead of just sporadically? Intellectually, I know that doing one load of laundry a day is much easier than doing 7 on the weekend. Still I put it off. I've thought about this all weekend (instead of cleaning) and I still can't figure out why I'm like this.

Any suggestions? Are any of you like this?