Dru’s New World

Since the school has made me look bad I have found myself trying to explain Politics to my daughter a little more than in the past. I am not a very political person and the only advice I give is to make sure you know what you believe and vote for that person you are closest to on that belief system.
The other day My daughter’s friend was over and we were having a typical conversation about school and I turned it around for a political party leason. My daughters friend studies really hard and gets very good grades. My daughter hates to study and of course her grades are showing it lately. They had a test last week that I know Tina studied hard for, but I think Ash only opened the book once and fell asleep. Tina said she scored a 98 on the test where Ash only got a 62. (Yes I was pissed)
I started talking to the girls about Democrates and Republicans and what the difference was so I said, “Tina, Ash Failed her test with a D, but you got an A+. How about if you go to the teacher and ask the teacher if you can take 18 points off of your score and give it to Ash? This way you both have 80 on the test and you will have a B-.”
Ash said real fast, “That would be great then I wouldn’t have to stay after school and retake the test.”
Tina quickly said, “I studied to hard and did really good on my test but I deserve the grade I received, it wouldn’t be fair to take the points off my grade when Ash didn’t study.”

Of course my response to them was, “Tina you are Republican, Ash you are a Democrate…”

I looked bad in my daughters eyes last night and I believe when my Mother saw what I was talking about she thought I was a bad person also.

My daughter came home with something from the school last night.  This was a pre-written Letter to our State Representative.  They wanted me to sign it and send this letter into this Rep.  Of course I do not agree with putting something politcal into my daughters hands without explaining the full ramifications that this letter could cause. 

This letter was to try and get a bill passed where Magazines could no longer place advertisements to Tobacco Products.  I understand that their point is the school gets these magazines so they can put them in the library and classrooms so the children can do projects.  I do agree that I do not want children to start smoking and I do not want advertising tobacco in my daughters school.  But I refused to sign it.  Of course this got me yelled at by my daughter and my Mother.

I do agree that these Corporations that publish the Magazines do not need to have tobacco products in them when kids are going to be reading them.  So I explain to the two women that were looking at me as a Monster, I do not believe this is a Government issue.  I believe if these parents want this to change then they need to go to the Magazine publishers not the Government.  They still looked at me like a monster, “Dad, you want kids to smoke?”

Of course I do not want kids to smoke, but I do believe that this is a moral decision by the company not the government.  What happens if the Government forces this company to not sell this advertising space to tobacco companies anymore?  Then the people that think Alcohol Advertisements in Magazines should be outlawed.  Then People that do not like women in bikini’s will want that made illegal also.  Then Men will fight to take all tampon ads out of Magazine’s. 

The company has a product to sell, Advertising space, if they want to sell that space to tobacco companies then by all means that is their choice.  If you do not like it then do not buy the magazine.

For some reason todays society thinks it is the Government’s job to force morals on people, I will make my decision based on my morals, I will not allow the government to make these choices for me.

I do however want to thank the school for providing me with this great situation to teach my daughter.  However, do not force your political beliefs on my children in school.

When I was a kid I hated homework. I was recently going though boxes of my childhood with my children of paperwork my parents kept. I couldn’t believe my mom kept all my notes home from the teachers and all my detention slips (that was hard to explain to my daughter)
Going though these boxes I noticed all my teachers had the same problem with me. I never did my homework. There were things that said, “DruU is failing but if he completed his homework on time he would be passing” or “He would excel if he would complete assignments on time” I knew I could always do good in school if I wanted to. I was held back in 10th grade. The next year when I was going to homeroom with all the younger kids I got embarassed and kicked butt so I ended up gaining enough credits and high enough grades to skip 11th grade.
Now I am a parent, I have to enforce these homework assignment LAWS. I hate it. I have one view that I believe makes me a better parent and I believe it is making my children more well rounded. My view will let my children be better prepared for adulthood and unlike me they may find out what they want to do before age 30. I believe my job is to encourage my children to learn the world around them, experience new things and encourage the involvement in what they love. I try my hardest to do this, can I complete this all the time, NO!!! Why??? Because they have to much homework…
I believe a teachers job is to teach my children the things they are going to need to learn to get into college and be prepared for college. They need to teach my children about math, science, english and maybe some other stuff. They have my kids for 6 and a half hours a day. They should be able to do this. I have my children for 4 hours before bedtime and have to feed them run earands and make sure they get their homework done. I should be able to take my daughter that loves animals to the local dog trainer so she can help teach dogs. I should be able to take my daughter that likes to hear old stories from the elderly to the retirement home so she can listen to stories. I should be able to include my children in my Computer Programming gigs and Web development gigs so they can see that it can be fun and exciting. But I can’t, because I have 4 hours…

The reason I am writing this is because I came across an article today where an Teachers Union is trying to ban homework for younger kids and lessen the load on older kids. I think this is a wonderful idea. I have met a large variety of people during my time in the military and a lot of them were very book smart but had no common sence. I believe that a parent will teach kids common sense things about the world and teachers can stick to the books.

Read the Article Here

Earlier this week I wrote about a very important Milestone in my older daughters life. Well I guess my younger daughter could not let the week go by without reaching her own little milestone.
Today was going to be a very busy day. I was going to get up and work on the Three bedroom apartment for awhile so the tenants can move in this week. The Electrician was going to come over and get some work done and my older daughter, Ashley, had a Soccer game for her indoor team. I was over in the Three Bedroom apartment while Ashley and one of her friends that lives in the building were at my apartment watching Jessie, my Youngest. I didn’t even have time to open the can of paint before Ashley came running into the apartment saying, “Jessie is hurt.”
I ran over and sure enough Jessie was sitting on the couch with Ashley’s friend holding a cold wet towel over her face. I pulled off the towel to see a nice little cut to the left of her left eye. From the blood on the towel and the drops of blood on Jessie’s pants I could tell this was not going to be fun. Of course, since the moms that live in the building were in the 3 bedroom helping me so they could get away from their kids and gossip about their husbands they came running in.
The one thing about me is I hate blood, when I was in the military I saw my share of blood and would prefer to never see it again, especially from one of my children. The cut really wasn’t that bad and the bleeding was very slow so I got a band-aid and just sat there and held Jessie while I asked for an explanation about the situation. There are 8 years difference in age between my girls and usually get along really well although Jessie does get annoying according to Ashley.
“Well, I was using the wrench to hammer in a nail on my bedroom wall. When I was done I lowered my arm and Jess came running to me at the same time. The wrench hit her.” Of course I know my daughter would not do anything like this on purpose and I also know that at 12 years old and has a lot to learn in life… Why would you use a wrench as a hammer?
So the Mom’s came in and looked at it and said, “Ohh that is not bad she will be fine.”
Jessie calmed down and started to play again so I got Ashley’s soccer stuff together and got ready to leave. We met Mima (my mother) and GG (my Grandmother) at the soccer game along with my girlfriend and her youngest daughter. The game was great and my daughter did great as the goalie in the first half. The Final score was 5-2 and we lost but only one goal was scored on Ashley.
After the game I noticed that the cut on Jessie was still bleeding a little. The band-aid was soaked. The three of us said our goodbyes to everyone and headed over to the nearest Urgent Care. While waiting in line Jessie started crying because she absolutely hates the Doctors office. One of the Nurses came up to us took a quick peek and told me, “we will not touch that here. She is going to need to be seen by a plastic surgeon.” She game me a cold compress and some gauze and we left for the emergency room.
This emergency room was great, almost everyone was great. The only person that I didn’t really care for was the one that took our information about insurance and stuff. I actually think that she was trying to make sure I didn’t hit Jessie or something and the fact that I had custody and she lived with me really confused her.
Anyway, after a two hour wait a Doctor, Nurse and some kid that was probably an intern or something because he was all of about 19 years old came in. Jessie is a very strong 4 year old when she is pissed. Now here the four of us are trying to hold this poor kid down while this strange guy is threading a needle. I would be kicking and screaming also. This 19 year old kid actually started signing to Jessie and they started sewing my daughters face.
Finally, after getting asked 3 times, “Mr. U are you OK?” The Doctor was finished with my daughters first stitches. I was so proud but because I was so pale the nurse made me sit down while she gathered up the paperwork. We left there and Jessie had her first set of stitches and me and my two daughters were doing high fives out the door.
I am so proud… I do know that there are going to be more stitches in the future but none of those are as important as the first time someone uses a needle to get your skin back together. To have your first set of stitches on your face is an honor, right there to display to the world.
Congrats Jessie…

Yesterday was a very upseting but exciting day. Every Parent remembers taking thier child to the first day of Kindergarten. It is an emotionally draining day, you are excited because they are reaching school age, you are excited because you will either have more free time or you will start paying less for daycare. On the other hand you are depressed because your baby is now school age, you are depressed because they are going to start their path to independence.
Yesterday I realized that taking my older daughter to Kindergarten was just the begining. I remember walking her to the school on the first day. I remember she was crying and scared and as she walked away with her new teacher I felt a wave of different emotions. Since then I have seen this beautiful little girl go though all these important steps in life but for some reason I thought the next stage of growing up was going to be High School age, First date, driving, graduation, etc… I totally was not ready for yesterday. Although I knew it was coming I was not expecting the call already.
My Daughter Started Her Period…
I am a man and very glad that I am. I have seen what this monthly monster does to women and I am very proud of the fact I do not have to deal with it. I knew this was coming and I have been talking to my daughter about it for the past year maybe a little longer. It might have been about a year ago when I actually took her into the store and looked at the different boxes with my daughter to see if we could figure out what to buy. She was always scared about this happening and knowing there is nothing I can do to keep this away from her I tried to talk to her about it and make it sound exciting.
Yesterday around 2:30 I got a call at work from my daughter. She was so excited to tell me that I am sure if anyone was around they would have thought she was crazy.
I guess I did my job making it an exciting thing for her, although I know like any other adult, she will grow to hate it… I just never realized how grown-up she would look to me once this started, she is now a woman…