The Best of Uncool Mom

If your kids think you're cool, you must be doing something wrong…

Month: December 2011

Movies

Two Family Movies Worth Watching (Again)

Posted on by uncoolmomdotcom

I cried a bunch yesterday. When the doctor finally came in to see us after two hours of waiting
at Primacare (a walk-in clinic) and saw the tears rolling down my cheeks, he probably thought I was worried about Emmie (she has bronchitis)… or that I was fed up with having to wait so long
with a bunch of sick people ON THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS. But Primacare was showing The Rookie on their in-clinic movie system– why wouldn’t everyone cry at that?

It was the second time I’ve seen it. But I think I cried not only because it’s a great, true story about second chances, it’s also a really well-made movie, and well-made movies are hard to come
by– great soundtrack (tunes by Steve Earle, Willlie Nelson, John Hiatt, and Ryan Adams, among others); great acting (Dennis Quaid in the lead role of Jimmy Morris); …

Celebrating Holidays, Humor

Who Spiked the Punctuation? Why Most Holiday Cards Need A Ride Home From The Party

Posted on by uncoolmomdotcom

Okay, okay, I know…who am I to criticize holiday cards when I haven’t sent any out in…
hmmm…a couple years? But I’ve been wanting to say something about them for a long time. No, not about how good friends I haven’t seen in ages expect me to read the long letters they’ve composed
but don’t even bother to personalize it by signing their name at the bottom, let alone write me one or two lines. And no, not about how some families spend tons of money and time on getting that
perfect holiday card portrait taken by a professional photographer when sadly most of those gorgeous cards just end up in the trash…but my biggest beef with holiday cards is with the use of the
apostrophe. Or, I should say, misuse. I know most adults have long forgotten many punctuation and grammar rules they learned in school, but I think most remember …

Being a Better Parent, Humor

Helping Kids Study for Tests: Just Do What You’re Told and No One Gets Hurt

Posted on by uncoolmomdotcom

I did something last night I’ve never done before– I helped two teenagers study for semester
final exams, at the same time. See, this is the first time for Emmie to have an exam week like this, and we discovered yesterday that today, she and her sister both have
finals in similar subjects– for Emmie, Texas History, and for Allison, U.S. History. So last night, I asked them if they needed anyone to quiz them on definitions or dates or anything. “We can
sit in a circle and I can fire off questions to each of you, and when it’s not your turn, you can figure out if you know the answer, too, or just listen.” Surprisingly, they were
enthusiastic about this, and so we sat in the living room, dogs and all. To my left, I’d fire off questions about early Texas Indian culture to Emmie …

Celebrating Holidays, Random Thoughts

Jim Bob, John-Boy, and Me

Posted on by uncoolmomdotcom

If you’re familiar with The Duggars of Arkansas, the family with “19 kids and counting”, you may have looked at them like they’re crazy. I know I
have. Packing up the family for a road trip must not be too easy, y’ know? And cooking for that many must take all day. But…I bet their holidays are a blast…

For some reason this holiday season, I’m feeling “big family envy” more than ever. Maybe it’s because it’s the first year my mom, who is 87 and lives 13 hours away, is choosing not to spend
Christmas with us or any of her children. (“I’m 87 years old,” she said, “and I don’t want to travel in winter weather, and I don’t want to worry about anyone else traveling to see me.”)  Maybe
I’m missing Cleo, our French exchange student who lived with us from August 2010 to June 2011. Last Christmas was extra special with her here. Or …

Being a Better Parent

Too Many Wimps, Not Enough Warriors

Posted on by uncoolmomdotcom

Sometimes it takes awhile to get inspired to write a post and sometimes a topic just keeps bugging me until I
do something about it. One that has been knocking on my door a lot lately is the topic of doing the right thing when you view an injustice or crime or something just plain wrong,
especially when it involves a child. Do you stop it from happening? Do you call police? If it involves bad parenting, do you say something to the parent? If you catch the child doing
wrong out of sight of the parent, do you let the parent know later? What do we teach our children about “doing the right thing” and how do we act ourselves?

Of course, the highly publicized Penn State/Jerry Sandusky case brings up some of those questions. After assistant football coach Mike McQueary witnessed Sandusky allegedly committing child
sexual …