Wait!... Don't eat that! It hasn't been tested!

Every year it happens - One of the biggest threats to the physical and emotional health of parents and children alike, all over the U.S.   People are forced to walk for miles, knocking on doors, dressed in clothing not fit for the light of day, begging for tooth-rotting, hyperspastic-coma-inducing, pre-packaged sugar.

The parent tasked with supervising the minature walking dead is especially troubled when that strange, awful day happens on a Monday.  A school night.  When it's even more pressing that all the little goblins must be repeatedly chastised to "Wait." 

"Wait" is the four-letter word of the evening.  It is the mantra of parents everywhere.  Wait until after dinner.  Wait until it's dark-ish.  Wait for us to catch up.  Wait to eat the candy. - It's that last bit that's the hardest for the munchkins.  But the threat of the poisoned treat; The razor blades in the apples, (As if anyone gives out apples anymore.) The LSD-laden candy bar - Those are the threats parents rely upon. The urban-legends of scary wrong things hiding in those sweet, chocolate-covered pieces of bliss that help us keep our children fearful and safe until we can fulfil our parental duty to "Check the Candy".

It is a truly thankless and vital responsibility we must shoulder.  Many parents just can't or won't step up and take the bull by the horns to do whatever it takes to ensure our children remain safe and healthy.  Many of these so-called caring adults actually allow their offspring to eat un-inspected food gathered from strangers! 

It's a burden I'm willing to shoulder to ensure the safety and well-being of my own demented spawn.  Even if I must test each and every piece of chocolate myself, I will persevere.

For I am the parent of a Trick-or-Treater and that makes me:  The Official Candy Tester.

The not-so- SECRET to Being a Great Parent

   It's a thankless labor of love with absurdly high risk, extreme emotional and financial costs and no real rate of return.  It's a paradox of feelings.  It's a personal sacrifice.  It's a great big delusion.

Parenting.

A lot of people out there have questions.  There are hundreds of thousands of books offering advice about parenting.  Some parents who should ask, don't. 
 "Should we even have kids?" 
"They're going to cost how much?!"  
"What can I do about my kid's behavior?"  .
"How can I help my son/daughter get better grades/make better choices?"   "Why doesn't my teen give a crap?"  
"Did they lose their *&^%$ minds?!" 
"When did I get so old?" 

I'm going to share with you the single most important thing you need to do, to be the absolute best parent in the world.
 Spend more time with your kids.

That's it - That's all you need to do. 
FOCUS on them.  Make sure you're present and the time you spend is all about your kid and you.  Spend time playing, listening to and talking with your kids.  Skip your workout.  Eat at your desk so you can leave a little early.  Spending a solid hour a day will help strengthen your relationships and give your children a more solid sense of self, stronger self esteem, a greater desire to succeed and better relationship skills. 
It will also make you younger! (OK, honestly, you'll live longer, be more hip and have more fun, but you're gonna look a lot older...)

I was going to explore reasons why it might be hard for parents to give more time, ways people might find more time to spend with their kids;  Maybe give some reasons why anyone should take my advice and some other stuff, but if you're reading this, you're probably a parent too or, at the very least, you're thinking of another parent who might benefit from a little more kid-therapy, so you already know this stuff - or you can just pass it on or hit the highlights - but all that other stuff is just going to take up more of the time you could be spending with your kid. 

Go play already...!   = >

"Use it up. Wear it out. Make it Do, or do without."

If you lived through the 80's and the decades since you'll understand why we, as Americans, are referred to as consumers.  You, like, totally remember hairdo's with mall-bangs, spandex outside the gym, rubber bracelets, mix tapes and, like, levis commercials, ya' know?  

The economy was boomin', credit was flowin' and you could gag yourself with a spoon and buy whatever you wanted with small monthly payments.  Even more recently that whole digital TV revolution that made your parents 27" console stereo TV seem like the Edsel of TV sets.  Who would've guessed just 5 years ago that a 42" flat screen would be considered small?

You also know how much faster our landfills are filling up and have a good idea of how disposable everything has become.  From diapers to cameras to computers, appliances and TVs.  You and I are living through what I refer to as the "Great Consumption". 

Those ways are changing - They have to.  People can't afford to buy new everything when something breaks.  It's so bizarre that companies are making such expensive appliances and gadgets that are only made to last a few years.   Our planet simply can not support more people and more garbage.

Frugality is way of life in our family.  Passed down from our Great-Grandparents and beyond.  My own Great-Grandfather was the last Wagoneer discharged from the army.  My Great-Grandmother had thousands of preserves put up to last through even the harshest Montana winter.   They lived through WWII and the Great Depression and they lived well on their little dairy farm in Northwestern Montana.   My husband's Grandparents are ledgend in their little part of the world and they had similar family values.   Don't get me wrong - They were every bit as disfunctional as any family today, only without the easily obtained divorce as an option. 

They took care of their home and each other.  They didn't lament over what they didn't have.   They fixed things that needed fixing.   They were "re-using" and "re-purposing" a hundred years before those phrases became such popular buzz words of today.   It's worrisome to me that so many people don't consider canning, sewing, budgeting, hunting and home repair to be vital life skills. It's sad that funding cuts meant the end of shop and home-ec classes while sports are considered vital.

What can we do now to live better for less?  Teach our children those vital life skills.  Teach sons and daughters how to cook and clean and budget and save.  Teach them how to fix things and preserve things.  Teach them that living better doesn't happen at Walmart and lasting realtionships don't happen on Facebook.  Teach them that handmade means more than shopping on Etsy and recycling means more than sorting bins.  Teach them that frugality is not the same as cheap and buying locally matters.