Peacemaker and the irony of it all… May 25, 2009

So yesterday I was trying to get the family rallied to talk on Skype. The kids were busy doing crafts and I thought we were golden. However, it all went south when they started pushing and shoving each other with scissors in their hands. We all know how that might have turned out, so I quickly hung up on the family and put each of the kids in time out. Lu was wailing like a stuck pig in the living room and Chichi was doing anything but, in her room. As a result of the bad behaviour, we agreed that neither I nor her father would attend her school presentation. That sent the sound meter off the charts.

We all decided that she could come up with an alternative punishment if she wanted to have us there at her presentation. So I asked her what alternative punishment she wanted. Her response? “Mahatma Ghandi”. Me: “Pardon…”

So it seems the presentation was all about peace. The children presented information about Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. They also presented “skits” which described how to deal with conflicts. The resolutions were to do rock-paper-scissors to mediate disagreements and to say sorry when you take something without asking. So I sat there watching the spectacle wondering again how it was that I live in a parallel universe. My daughter can give a speech about Mahatma Ghandi and act out non-violent conflict resolution but at the same time do nothing of the sort at home with her little bro.

E-mail subject lines that shouldn’t be… April 6, 2009

Have you ever stopped to think about the subject lines in E-mail messages? If so, have you every thought about the ones you never want to read? If not, let me give you an example. My father sent me a message the other day with the subject line: “Head injuries”. I am the kind of person that regularly has low blood pressure, in fact throughout both of my pregnancies my blood pressure was totally normal. Well, let me tell you that all that changed when I read the subject line above. I made high blood pressure history with that subject line.

There are other more obvious subject line no-nos, such as:

you’re fired

I’m pregnant

I want a divorce

and of course You won the Irish Lottery
and my all-time favourite Nice to meet you (from the lovely man in Nigeria who will send you the milllion dollars he can no longer keep if you will just send him ALL your banking details.)