2008 January 03 — slackermama . com

I got this intriguing meme from Kathie. And being that a) it’s very difficult for me to resist a good meme and b) the subject matter interests me, I felt I must share. Because first and foremost: this is my blog. And I get to do whatever I want. That’s how it works. Aren’t you happy to be at my whim now? Sure you are. Anyhow, here’s the “fine print” about the meme according to Kathie:

This meme is from “What Privileges Do You Have?”, based on an exercise about class and privilege developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. If you participate in this blog game, they ask that you PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.

So there you have it. You know the drill. You are supposed to bold all the statements that apply to your, your upbringing, your family, etc. Got it? Good!

Father went to college
Father finished college
Mother went to college
Mother finished college
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers.
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home. (to our credit, we got a lot of our books from the library and only owned our favorites)
Were read children’s books by a parent.
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18.
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively.
Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18.
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs.
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs.
Went to a private high school.
Went to summer camp
Had a private tutor before you turned 18
Family vacations involved staying at hotels. (though it must be noted that “hotel” is a very generous description of the places we stayed. I generally don’t consider Motel 6 or Best Western a real “hotel”, but the definition itself is true enough)
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18 (which isn’t to say it was all purchased at Macy’s… I have many memories of shopping at Ross and Marshall’s. My mom didn’t believe in cheap clothing, just good clothing cheap.)
Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them.
There was original art in your house when you were a child
You and your family lived in a single-family house.
Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home.
You had your own room as a child.
You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course.
Had your own TV in your room in high school
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16 (we have a lot of family back east and when we didn’t want to or couldn’t drive back, we flew)
Went on a cruise with your family.
Went on more than one cruise with your family
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up.
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family.

And there you have it, folks. It should be noted, however, that Kile’s answers to this little questionnaire would be vastly different from mine. We often marvel at the differences in our childhoods, though we ended up in a similar place (and no, not just physically) and our parents have very similar philosophies about life. My parents didn’t believe in me having things like a car or a credit card or whatever. I had checks before I went to college, but that was to pay for things like books and whatnot. No TV either, as TV wasn’t allowed on school nights. No cruise, sadly enough (my parents went on one and left me at home. SNIFF). I’ve always wanted to go on one though. There was art in our house, and some of it was original but it wasn’t by any famous artist or anything and I think that’s what the question meant so I didn’t bold it. As for clothing, my mom wanted us dressed nice and was a mean bargain hunter. A lot of what I had came off the clearance rack and sometimes it wasn’t always the latest style, but it looked nice and lasted well. She also sewed, so a lot of things I had like special dresses and whatnot were made by hand. I don’t think my upbringing is all that unusual, but who knows, maybe I’m wrong. I never felt particularly privileged, though I knew I had it pretty good. Still, I had friends who had cooler clothes, more toys, etc and so forth. Didn’t everyone?

Anyhow, let me know in the comments if you chose to do this little social experiment. I’d love to stop by and see your answers.

Get the word out:

OMG, thank you SO much everyone for the great responses on my last entry. Especially to Michelle, SouthernBelle, Ree and Lisa for giving me some faboo comments to read on my cell phone at the McDonald’s in Winnemucca. But I truly want to thank you all; the flood of response has been fantastic and you guys have some great tips. Some tips that struck particular chords with me:

Beware the hormones. I have a rather hormonal boy at the moment, so I can only imagine. I figure if I can raise him to adulthood, I’ll be well set. If she is any worse, I’m in big trouble. LOL! Better start investing in the Calgon now, methinks.
Don’t worry obsessively/smother the poor thing. She’s a capable human being (hopefully).
Beware the talking (should invest in earbuds too, I guess).
Not EVERYTHING has to be pink (oh and headbands are of the devil).

That last one is one I have already considered. I’m just not really the sort that feels the need to swim in pink. Don’t get me wrong, I love pink (she types, as she is wearing her pink fluffy robe and pink fluffy slippers… gee, ya think??). But I don’t want it to look like we sprayed the place down with pepto bismol either. I looked at some nursery collections online last night and was practically horrified that so many of them were just a nauseating level of pink, butterflies, princesses and fairies. I’m not going to deny the kid some princess-love, but I’m sure I can find a reasonable way to tone things down. And, for what it’s worth, out of the three outfits we’ve purchased so far (yes, only three, the restraint is to be admired) only one is pink. The other two are purple. I guess it’s no large coincidence that the pink sleeper has a princess-y thing on it. Oh well. But I’m not planning on a pink Pack n’ Play, pink carseat, pink stroller, pink saucer, pink bouncer seat, etc and so forth. I don’t think we’ll be repainting the nursery either (it’s pale yellow right now) but we’ll see how I feel in a couple months when the nesting hits me hardcore. Then again, this is my third child and while I’m definitely excited, there just isn’t time and energy to get obsessed with this stuff. We have a good amount of decent baby gear around here right now, thanks to Liam, and I imagine she’ll be using that stuff.

We will be buying a new carseat and stroller, but I’m looking at this and this, and you’ll notice neither is pink (though they do match). Of course, I found the stroller on sale over here for a ridiculously awesome price but it doesn’t match the carseat I picked out (in which case I would probably get the matching carseat instead. Yes, I suck.) But again, not pink. I think most of the pink strollers and carseats look a bit much, frankly and I’m just not used to that level of… girly. I’m sure that sounds silly, but there you have it.

I wasn’t a terribly girly-girl myself growing up. I loved stuffed animals and yes, I did have a major thing for My Little Ponies for a while there. But I also loved to play with Hot Wheels in the dirt with the boy down the street, I loved to play with Transformers and Construx and watch Star Wars and run around outside getting dirty. My big thing was playing “make believe”, and often-times, boys toys were more fun for that than girls’. I had a Cabbage Patch doll or two, but they were tomboys too (the one’s face was so dirty that she became another color altogether). I played with Barbies now and then, but there weren’t really my thing. I liked pink well enough, but had a good variety of clothes. I mostly wore pants as they were more practical (I hated wearing tights). I did like to put belts on my nightgowns to make them into dresses and I would dance around pretending I was a princess (I’m pretty sure my parents have a picture to this effect somewhere). If I had to make any predictions, I would say that my little girl will be much the same. Still, that’s a vast difference from what I have now as both of my sons are very boyish and without any prodding from us at all, Liam has become amazingly obsessed with cars and trucks. Not a doll to be found for miles around here. My old “Beauty and the Beast” movie has about an inch layer of dust on it from lack of viewing. Wow. This is going to be different.

Anyhow, thanks for all the great input. I’m still looking for more suggestions and tips (just what IS the deal with the diaper thing anyhow? Anyone care to clue me in??), so feel free to keep posting your comments on that entry!

In the meantime, I’ll entertain you with some pictures from our trip to Elko. I didn’t take as many as I would have liked, but that always happens, doesn’t it?

Liam and his favorite sippy cup and his favorite dolphin. He’s actually craning his neck to look at the big TV on the wall. That cup will be the death of me as it’s quite possibly the worst sippy cup in existence, yet it is the only one he will drink out of.

This is Spike. He’s my in-laws’ 4 month old Min Pin and he’s cute as a button and only about as big as my boot. His brother and sister currently live with my sister in law. He’s cute, but we found the Min Pins to be a little on the temperamental side.

My lovely, ever-so-stylish wrist brace! Kile keeps snarking that I picked out the most expensive one in the store. Puhlease. It fit and didn’t drive me crazy. This is for the carpal tunnel I seem to have developed. Now that my wrist doesn’t hurt 24/7, I only wear it when doing repetitive tasks (such as dinking around on the computer) or sleeping. It has helped dramatically, even if it does look a little dorky.

On our last night in Elko, we stayed up pretty danged late watching “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”. I forgot how long a movie it was and nearly slipped into a coma before the end. So I took this picture to keep me awake.