Quiz: Are you a Robotic Parent?
Instructions: choose (1) or (2). Add up the points at the quiz's end.
1. For you, a "driving range" is defined as:
(1) green grass, blue skies, and your yellow golf balls
(2) the miles between hockey rinks (soccer fields, etc.) your child plays on during traveling team games
2. How well does your child know spiderman (barbie, etc.)?
(1) pretty well, by reading or watching a dvd they were in
(2) very well, as spiderman (barbie, etc.) has come to see him personally, at his birthday party
3. You artfully arrange a double sleepover (away) for your two kids on a Saturday night so you can:
(1) seduce your husband
(2) finish up studying how to help your kids with their homework
4. After a game of tennis with your daughter, you:
(1) give her a bottle of water, to rehydrate
(2) give her your remote control, thank her, and leave the room
5. You are cleaning the dinner dishes yourself because:
(1) your kids are in full body casts from a freak accident and can't help
(2) your kids are busy texting their friends
Scoring: If you scored 5 points, you are still a human person. If you scored 7-9, you are in the danger zone. If you scored 9 or 10, you have crossed over and become a robotic parent. Time for the 10 steps...
1. For you, a "driving range" is defined as:
(1) green grass, blue skies, and your yellow golf balls
(2) the miles between hockey rinks (soccer fields, etc.) your child plays on during traveling team games
2. How well does your child know spiderman (barbie, etc.)?
(1) pretty well, by reading or watching a dvd they were in
(2) very well, as spiderman (barbie, etc.) has come to see him personally, at his birthday party
3. You artfully arrange a double sleepover (away) for your two kids on a Saturday night so you can:
(1) seduce your husband
(2) finish up studying how to help your kids with their homework
4. After a game of tennis with your daughter, you:
(1) give her a bottle of water, to rehydrate
(2) give her your remote control, thank her, and leave the room
5. You are cleaning the dinner dishes yourself because:
(1) your kids are in full body casts from a freak accident and can't help
(2) your kids are busy texting their friends
Scoring: If you scored 5 points, you are still a human person. If you scored 7-9, you are in the danger zone. If you scored 9 or 10, you have crossed over and become a robotic parent. Time for the 10 steps...
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Can Multitasking Lead to MRSA?
I had to take my son to the emergency room the other night. (He's fine). I am well versed in going to the ER with kids, having three of them, with a combination of a broken thumb (from soccer, oddly enough, in which you don't even use your hands), a broken leg (or two), a squirrel attack (my daughter is now immune from rabies for life; and, has developed an uncanny understanding of squirrel communication), a scratched eye (again, from soccer, don't even ask)...
Here's the usual drill: make the decision to go to the ER. Cancel everything at home if husband is not home; if he is, yell out a laundry list of things he has to do for the remaining children for the next few hours (with an optional quick list for reference), and then gather everything you can carry that you've been trying to do for the past month and now finally will have time for, as you sit in the ER for two minimum, to maybe eight hours max. This includes but is not limited to: unopened mail, unpaid bills, unanswered or uncrafted emails, the newspaper, your to do list, your appointment book or iPhone calendar, your writing that you're doing in wordperfect, your novel that you're seriously trying to finish reading (or even to start reading).....and oh yeah, grabbing the child who is the conduit to this suddenly (emergently) found down time.
So I get through the drill and am about to leave the house with my son, and my daughter says, "Wait, I'm coming with you." "What?" I ask her. I'm in automatic mode and think I've misheard her. "Wait, I'm coming with you..." did she say "Wait, I need a tissue?" Or, "I'm drumming if you....." (no drums in the house - is she in a band now?)...
"I'm coming with you." she says.
"Sweetie, you have homework you have to do. Plus it's a germ factory in the ER. "
"That's why i'm going, to do my homework."
"You want to do your homework in an ER?" I ask her.
"Yes, 'cause there's no distractions there." she replies.
"Seriously, you'd rather come and spend time in an emergency room and do your homework there, than be home and comfortable?"
"Yes", she responds.
Just as I'm limited on down time, she's limited in her ability (or at least in her faith in her ability) to not get distracted while trying to accomplish one task. This is a learned phenomenon from "these kids today" who have us to model their multitasking for them.
Well into our second hour, as we sat in a hall area of the ER's maze of rooms and bays, I turned to my daughter and remarked, "It's actually incredibly funny that you'd rather spend time in an ER than in your own home." Funny, yet insightful.
Note to self, lessen my multitasking. Model paying attention to one thing at a time. Model just being present. Your kids may just follow suit, and will in turn be able to focus better, and maybe even decrease their risk of contracting the highly contagious hospital predator, MRSA.
I had to take my son to the emergency room the other night. (He's fine). I am well versed in going to the ER with kids, having three of them, with a combination of a broken thumb (from soccer, oddly enough, in which you don't even use your hands), a broken leg (or two), a squirrel attack (my daughter is now immune from rabies for life; and, has developed an uncanny understanding of squirrel communication), a scratched eye (again, from soccer, don't even ask)...
Here's the usual drill: make the decision to go to the ER. Cancel everything at home if husband is not home; if he is, yell out a laundry list of things he has to do for the remaining children for the next few hours (with an optional quick list for reference), and then gather everything you can carry that you've been trying to do for the past month and now finally will have time for, as you sit in the ER for two minimum, to maybe eight hours max. This includes but is not limited to: unopened mail, unpaid bills, unanswered or uncrafted emails, the newspaper, your to do list, your appointment book or iPhone calendar, your writing that you're doing in wordperfect, your novel that you're seriously trying to finish reading (or even to start reading).....and oh yeah, grabbing the child who is the conduit to this suddenly (emergently) found down time.
So I get through the drill and am about to leave the house with my son, and my daughter says, "Wait, I'm coming with you." "What?" I ask her. I'm in automatic mode and think I've misheard her. "Wait, I'm coming with you..." did she say "Wait, I need a tissue?" Or, "I'm drumming if you....." (no drums in the house - is she in a band now?)...
"I'm coming with you." she says.
"Sweetie, you have homework you have to do. Plus it's a germ factory in the ER. "
"That's why i'm going, to do my homework."
"You want to do your homework in an ER?" I ask her.
"Yes, 'cause there's no distractions there." she replies.
"Seriously, you'd rather come and spend time in an emergency room and do your homework there, than be home and comfortable?"
"Yes", she responds.
Just as I'm limited on down time, she's limited in her ability (or at least in her faith in her ability) to not get distracted while trying to accomplish one task. This is a learned phenomenon from "these kids today" who have us to model their multitasking for them.
Well into our second hour, as we sat in a hall area of the ER's maze of rooms and bays, I turned to my daughter and remarked, "It's actually incredibly funny that you'd rather spend time in an ER than in your own home." Funny, yet insightful.
Note to self, lessen my multitasking. Model paying attention to one thing at a time. Model just being present. Your kids may just follow suit, and will in turn be able to focus better, and maybe even decrease their risk of contracting the highly contagious hospital predator, MRSA.
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