I just finished reading an article on the ABC News website and I am stumped. The story is about a junior high school in California that is requiring female students to wear something over their leggings. It doesn't matter what -- shorts, a long shirt, a skirt. As long as the garment over the leggings is fingertip-length, then the student is in compliance with the dress code. That part is fine. What stumped me is why one of the mothers pulled her daughter out of school for a week when she was in violation of the rule. Huh?
We are experiencing the same problem with leggings at our schools here. The teachers are repeatedly sending out emails and reminders on the weekly voice mail that leggings are NOT pants and shouldn't be worn as such. As a mother of two high-school age daughters, I don't have a problem with this. I'm not a prude and I let my kids do a lot of stuff that other parents may find inappropriate, but when it comes to how my daughters dress I lean toward the conservative. I'm not as strict as their father, who would have them both in burqas until they were married, but I see it as part of my job to protect their virtue. The fact is that leggings give others a good view of your behind and that may be a bit much for teenage boys to handle. Yes, teenage boys need to be taught to control their urges but teenage girls should do their part by not putting it all out there, especially when they are too young to know what they are giving away. If you think the school is overstating the distraction, then just talk to my husband. He has been dealing with the same issue at his job, and these are grown women who should know better. They are causing a lot of chatter around the office, either because their tushes are cute enough to be titillating or so wide that they are stretching the fabric of the leggings to the limit.
Perhaps that California mother believes she is teaching her daughter to protect her freedoms. What about teaching your daughter that there are rules wherever you go that need to be followed? When she grows up and gets a job, I'm pretty sure her job will have a dress code. Either she will wear a uniform, or she will run up against rules like "no denim" or "no open-toed shoes" in an office environment. Should we teach our kids to fight that hard over something as simple as covering your butt before you go out in public?
Showing posts with label In the news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label In the news. Show all posts
18 April 2013
12 May 2010
Married but Living Separately? Rich People's Problems
This morning I read an article on MSN Lifestyle about married women living separately from their husbands. The women in this article, most of them married 20 years or longer, have experienced the typical scenario of moving straight from their parents' houses to their husbands' houses. They talk of never being able to paint a wall the color they want or set the temperature at a comfortable level for them without it always being a compromise. Renting an apartment in the city and visiting the husband for conjugal visits supposedly helps them learn more about themselves and experience a sense of independence that they never felt when they were younger.
My first thought when I read this article was, "This is a rich person's problem." Practically every woman I know who has been married for more than 10 years, myself included, could benefit from having a space of her own where she could do whatever she wanted for two or three days each week. Being able to afford it, however, is pretty much a pipe dream. I can't even get a corner in my house to myself, never mind a separate apartment to go to three days a week. I can't imagine my husband being OK with a large chunk of our income going to support a separate residence that he has no say-so over.
Let me be clear. I don't expect that my husband is supposed to be my everything. I engage in many activities without him. However, if you need so much independence that you have to live in another house, then maybe you shouldn't be married. In the article, they call it a new definition of marriage. I personally call it dating.
My first thought when I read this article was, "This is a rich person's problem." Practically every woman I know who has been married for more than 10 years, myself included, could benefit from having a space of her own where she could do whatever she wanted for two or three days each week. Being able to afford it, however, is pretty much a pipe dream. I can't even get a corner in my house to myself, never mind a separate apartment to go to three days a week. I can't imagine my husband being OK with a large chunk of our income going to support a separate residence that he has no say-so over.
Let me be clear. I don't expect that my husband is supposed to be my everything. I engage in many activities without him. However, if you need so much independence that you have to live in another house, then maybe you shouldn't be married. In the article, they call it a new definition of marriage. I personally call it dating.
10 March 2010
Random Thought: Selective Overdraft Protection
I was listening to the Marketplace Morning Report today, and there was a story about how Bank of America was changing their overdraft policy on debit cards. Apparently, many banks automatically sign you up for overdraft protection, which can be a pain. In Marketplace's example, you could end up paying $38 for a $3 cup of coffee because you didn't realize your balance was low when you used your debit card and the overdraft protection kicked in.
According to the story, there have been surveys done that show people don't mind paying a high overdraft fee if it keeps a big payment from being rejected, like your mortgage. That got me to thinking. Wouldn't it be nice if some bank had a selective overdraft protection program? I would like to be able to set up an automatic withdrawal for my mortgage payment and tell the bank to only charge me an overdraft fee if this particular payment is in danger of bouncing. Considering the late payment fees I've paid in the past, a $35 overdraft fee on occasion would be a savings. Of course, since I never have an original idea, I'm sure there is some bank out there already doing this.
According to the story, there have been surveys done that show people don't mind paying a high overdraft fee if it keeps a big payment from being rejected, like your mortgage. That got me to thinking. Wouldn't it be nice if some bank had a selective overdraft protection program? I would like to be able to set up an automatic withdrawal for my mortgage payment and tell the bank to only charge me an overdraft fee if this particular payment is in danger of bouncing. Considering the late payment fees I've paid in the past, a $35 overdraft fee on occasion would be a savings. Of course, since I never have an original idea, I'm sure there is some bank out there already doing this.
08 March 2010
What's all this fuss about the Granny DJ?
Several news outlets have done a story about Ruth Flowers, the 69-year-old woman who works as club DJ. In the segments, much ado has been made about someone her age being behind the decks. I, too, was taken aback by the stooped shoulders and the white hair in a club setting. However, if you do the math, it doesn't seem so strange. If she is 69 now that means she was in her 30s when disco was hot. The presenter in the video quipped that she should be more comfortable dancing ballroom, but she was in diapers when big band was popular. She is more likely to want to listen to KC and the Sunshine Band than Glenn Miller.
I think that sometimes our stereotypes of people and situations get stuck in a certain era that doesn't jibe with their age. For instance, I had a coworker who told me the story of how she and her husband met and how she had been a cheerleader and they lived in married student housing for his last years of college. I had this picture of her in my head wearing a 1950s cheerleader uniform and having his fraternity pin on her sweater, which was ridiculous because she was the same age as I was! I also get surprised when my kids tell me that their teachers have iPhones and play XBox. Once I stop to think, it makes sense because their teachers are younger than I am, so if I play video games than they probably do, too. In my mind, however, "teacher" doesn't go in the same sentence with "XBox" or "World of Warcraft". If other people make the same misjudgments that I do, then white-haired grannies will be stuck with big band music for at least another 20 years.
07 March 2010
Looks like I'll be growing tomatoes again this year
I saw a reference to this tomato story on the CBS Early Show yesterday and looked up more information online. As I've mentioned on the blog before, I started my first garden mainly because I was craving tomatoes but the prices were too high. I've grown my own tomatoes for the past two years, but I was considering a change this year because I don't have much space. Now that I'm working, I figured I would buy tomatoes instead. They've been 99 cents/lb around here lately, which isn't too bad. However, it looks like that price won't last for long.
According to the CBS story and others, the freezes in Florida have already affected prices in the grocery stores. Tomatoes used in processed foods are mainly grown in California, so thankfully we won't have to worry about the price of ketchup going up. My kids go through gallons of the stuff! However, I've been looking forward to fresh summer tomatoes for months. I guess I'll have to make room for in my little garden patch to grow my own again this year. The one tomato plant that I grew in a 5-gallon bucket last year was rather productive. Perhaps I should do all my tomatoes in buckets this year and save the patch for other veggies.
03 September 2009
Totally Stylin' Tattoo Barbie
I was watching a rerun of Rachael Ray's talk show, and she mentioned Totally Stylin' Tattoo Barbie. This is the Barbie that comes with temporary tattoos that a child can put on the doll or on herself. It caused a bit of an uproar when it was first released because parents thought it set a bad example. I'm not sure if I agree with that.
First of all, I remember that we all had temporary tattoos as kids. They came as prizes in packs of bubble gum and boxes of Cracker Jacks. My sister K obviously doesn't remember because she freaked when I put temporary tattoos in my kids' Christmas stocking. I even let C1 get a professionally-drawn temp tattoo at the mall this summer. I figure it satisfies the urge to decorate their skin without them doing anything permanent. Before I started buying them tattoos, they were drawing on their skin with markers.
The idea that this Tattoo Barbie encourages kids to bare their skin to show off the tattoos doesn't fly with me, either. Because of the way we've raised our girls, they are conscious of whether their clothing is appropriate and most of the time they correct each other without ABM and I having to jump in. I don't have to worry about tattooed bosoms and bellies; my girls prefer their legs and forearms.
Finally, even if you don't want to buy this Barbie for your little princess, why can't it be available for other parents? Parents are always saying that they like dolls to represent a girl's reality. What if the girl has a mother with tattoos? I believe she should be able to play with a doll that represents what she knows of womanhood, just like my girls were able to play with black dolls.
First of all, I remember that we all had temporary tattoos as kids. They came as prizes in packs of bubble gum and boxes of Cracker Jacks. My sister K obviously doesn't remember because she freaked when I put temporary tattoos in my kids' Christmas stocking. I even let C1 get a professionally-drawn temp tattoo at the mall this summer. I figure it satisfies the urge to decorate their skin without them doing anything permanent. Before I started buying them tattoos, they were drawing on their skin with markers.
The idea that this Tattoo Barbie encourages kids to bare their skin to show off the tattoos doesn't fly with me, either. Because of the way we've raised our girls, they are conscious of whether their clothing is appropriate and most of the time they correct each other without ABM and I having to jump in. I don't have to worry about tattooed bosoms and bellies; my girls prefer their legs and forearms.
Finally, even if you don't want to buy this Barbie for your little princess, why can't it be available for other parents? Parents are always saying that they like dolls to represent a girl's reality. What if the girl has a mother with tattoos? I believe she should be able to play with a doll that represents what she knows of womanhood, just like my girls were able to play with black dolls.
12 April 2009
Gardening isn't free, but it is better than nothing
At the end of March, Jennifer Reese posted an article on Slate.com about the First Family's vegetable garden. The bulk of the article was about the author's irritation over a comment that chef Alice Waters made about gardens providing free food. Reese feels that Waters misled people with that comment, and she went on to list all the reasons why gardening isn't free.
In some respects, I agree with Reese's article. Vegetable gardening, like knitting, has morphed from a necessity into an upper middle-class hobby and has catalogs full of pricey gadgets to prove it. If you are new to either pursuit, you could look at all the books and catalogs and think that all those gadgets are essential. It's enough to scare a newbie. Reese also mentions the amount of effort you have to put into gardening. Again, she is correct, to a certain extent. If you choose to use traditional gardening methods, then you may spend a lot of time out in your patch weeding and feeding. That isn't the only way to do things, though.
I didn't start a garden patch until I was unemployed and tomato prices in my area reached an outrageous high. Because of my situation, I didn't have the money to buy all the fancy tools, fertilizers, and such that many gardeners consider necessary. If you look back at the pictures I posted last year (here and here), you can get an idea of how low-budget my gardening was. All my tomatoes and cucumbers came from a $2 packet of seeds. I spent about $20 on potting soil and compost and that's it. All the other plants came for free from neighbors who decided they bought too many. I affectionately refer to my garden as the ghetto patch, and to show you how accurate that name is -- I was using a tablespoon from my kitchen to dig holes for my seedlings!
As for labor, I inadvertently used my own weird combination of lasagna gardening and square-foot gardening before I knew any better. My plants were jammed so close together that I had very little in the way of bugs or weeds. My neighbor LJ jokes all the time that all I did was throw the seedlings outside and send the kids out to water. Knowing how obsessive I can get, if I had researched and planned and saved to buy the very best materials, I probably would have worried my plants to death.
Reese was on the mark with her assertion that most people will not be able to supply all of their vegetable needs from a backyard or container garden. Still, I believe that some is better than none. If I hadn't planted tomatoes last year, we would have gone another year without them because my husband was not willing to buy them at those prices. With all the recommendations to try to fit more fresh fruit and vegetables into our diets and knowing how difficult it can be to buy such items in low-income neighborhoods, we really shouldn't be discouraging single moms from putting a plant or two on their patios.
In some respects, I agree with Reese's article. Vegetable gardening, like knitting, has morphed from a necessity into an upper middle-class hobby and has catalogs full of pricey gadgets to prove it. If you are new to either pursuit, you could look at all the books and catalogs and think that all those gadgets are essential. It's enough to scare a newbie. Reese also mentions the amount of effort you have to put into gardening. Again, she is correct, to a certain extent. If you choose to use traditional gardening methods, then you may spend a lot of time out in your patch weeding and feeding. That isn't the only way to do things, though.
I didn't start a garden patch until I was unemployed and tomato prices in my area reached an outrageous high. Because of my situation, I didn't have the money to buy all the fancy tools, fertilizers, and such that many gardeners consider necessary. If you look back at the pictures I posted last year (here and here), you can get an idea of how low-budget my gardening was. All my tomatoes and cucumbers came from a $2 packet of seeds. I spent about $20 on potting soil and compost and that's it. All the other plants came for free from neighbors who decided they bought too many. I affectionately refer to my garden as the ghetto patch, and to show you how accurate that name is -- I was using a tablespoon from my kitchen to dig holes for my seedlings!
As for labor, I inadvertently used my own weird combination of lasagna gardening and square-foot gardening before I knew any better. My plants were jammed so close together that I had very little in the way of bugs or weeds. My neighbor LJ jokes all the time that all I did was throw the seedlings outside and send the kids out to water. Knowing how obsessive I can get, if I had researched and planned and saved to buy the very best materials, I probably would have worried my plants to death.
Reese was on the mark with her assertion that most people will not be able to supply all of their vegetable needs from a backyard or container garden. Still, I believe that some is better than none. If I hadn't planted tomatoes last year, we would have gone another year without them because my husband was not willing to buy them at those prices. With all the recommendations to try to fit more fresh fruit and vegetables into our diets and knowing how difficult it can be to buy such items in low-income neighborhoods, we really shouldn't be discouraging single moms from putting a plant or two on their patios.
27 September 2008
Today's Public Service: Gas Prices Widget
If you look in my sidebar below my Meez, you will see that I have added a live gas prices widget. I did this partly for myself, but also for my readers who are local to me who may want to know where to go for the cheapest gas.
Between the shortages and the rising prices, all of our phone conversations around here have been about gas. As soon as someone spots a station with cheap gas or ANY gas, they get on the phone and start calling everyone else. It reminds me of those phone trees where everyone is assigned to call two other people in case of an emergency. The situation is just as bad in GA. My sister K called me while she was on the road to see if there was a website that could help find a station that still had gas. I couldn't find a site, but there is a topic set up on Twitter where people are reporting what they have been seeing at different gas stations around Atlanta.
I read an article yesterday where a rep in the GA governor's office suggested that the situation would get back to normal if people would stop topping off their tanks. I can't speak for what people are doing in the ATL, but we don't have much of a choice here. For weeks, ABM has been putting just enough gas in his tank to get by. He only fills up if he finds a station that has a really good price. When the shortages started, the van was already close to empty. He had no choice but to get in line. Even then, he wasn't greedy; he only filled up to half a tank so that the person behind him would have a chance to get some gas.
This is the first time since I was a kid that we've had to plan activities around whether there was gas in the car. When I was younger, I spent more time than I care to remember on the side of the road in a car that had run out of gas. One of the things that impressed me about ABM was that he always managed to keep his car filled up, and it has been that way for almost 20 years. He has never said that we can't go somewhere because it would cost too much to fill up the car -- until now. Luckily, we are adept at entertaining ourselves at home. As long as we have plenty of food and electricity, we're good!
What's the gas situation like in your area? Are you experiencing lines or shortages? Let me know what the highest price is where you are. I'm interested in finding out whether the gas craziness is extending across the country.
Between the shortages and the rising prices, all of our phone conversations around here have been about gas. As soon as someone spots a station with cheap gas or ANY gas, they get on the phone and start calling everyone else. It reminds me of those phone trees where everyone is assigned to call two other people in case of an emergency. The situation is just as bad in GA. My sister K called me while she was on the road to see if there was a website that could help find a station that still had gas. I couldn't find a site, but there is a topic set up on Twitter where people are reporting what they have been seeing at different gas stations around Atlanta.
I read an article yesterday where a rep in the GA governor's office suggested that the situation would get back to normal if people would stop topping off their tanks. I can't speak for what people are doing in the ATL, but we don't have much of a choice here. For weeks, ABM has been putting just enough gas in his tank to get by. He only fills up if he finds a station that has a really good price. When the shortages started, the van was already close to empty. He had no choice but to get in line. Even then, he wasn't greedy; he only filled up to half a tank so that the person behind him would have a chance to get some gas.
This is the first time since I was a kid that we've had to plan activities around whether there was gas in the car. When I was younger, I spent more time than I care to remember on the side of the road in a car that had run out of gas. One of the things that impressed me about ABM was that he always managed to keep his car filled up, and it has been that way for almost 20 years. He has never said that we can't go somewhere because it would cost too much to fill up the car -- until now. Luckily, we are adept at entertaining ourselves at home. As long as we have plenty of food and electricity, we're good!
What's the gas situation like in your area? Are you experiencing lines or shortages? Let me know what the highest price is where you are. I'm interested in finding out whether the gas craziness is extending across the country.
28 August 2008
Record rainfall
Now I know why my garden patch looked like a swimming pool the other day. I watched the news last night and found out that we got 8.7" of rainfall in two days. The weatherman said that is a record for our area. By comparison, we got 6.5" of rain in spring and 7.5" of rain in summer. We got more rain in two days than we've had over the past several months!
My gardening methods probably added to the pooling effect. I prepared my beds using the lasagna gardening method, which involved putting down thick layers of newspaper. I bet that the newspaper under my beds hasn't broken down yet, and it slowed down the water from seeping into the ground underneath it. Like I said before, if my green beans survived all that, then they are definitely hardy.
My gardening methods probably added to the pooling effect. I prepared my beds using the lasagna gardening method, which involved putting down thick layers of newspaper. I bet that the newspaper under my beds hasn't broken down yet, and it slowed down the water from seeping into the ground underneath it. Like I said before, if my green beans survived all that, then they are definitely hardy.
06 July 2008
She's my age!
When I heard this morning that Dara Torres had beat women half her age in the US Olympic swimming trials, I got a little teary. She is 41 and a mom, just like me! Torres even started training for her comeback when she was pregnant with her two-year-old daughter. I started taking dance classes when I was pregnant, so I could identify a little.
I remember when I was a kid, I would always get a kick out of hearing about someone in the public eye who was my age. I guess you never get too old to get excited about what your peers are doing. I know that it took Torres a lifetime of training to get where she is. Still, it is encouraging to see someone your age doing something extraordinary. It is a reminder that you, whether you are 14 or 41, can achieve your own goals.
I remember when I was a kid, I would always get a kick out of hearing about someone in the public eye who was my age. I guess you never get too old to get excited about what your peers are doing. I know that it took Torres a lifetime of training to get where she is. Still, it is encouraging to see someone your age doing something extraordinary. It is a reminder that you, whether you are 14 or 41, can achieve your own goals.
25 January 2008
Weigh daily?
Here's an interesting tidbit I found while reading an article on AOL Body this morning:
Weekly weigh-ins are a staple of many popular diet programs, but studies now show that daily weighing is the key to lasting loss. When researchers at the University of Minnesota monitored the scale habits of 1,800 dieting adults, they found that those who stepped on every day lost an average of 12 pounds over 2 years (weekly scale watchers lost only 6) and were less likely to regain lost weight. The reason: "The more often you monitor your results, the quicker you can catch the behavioral slip that causes weight gain," says Jakicic.
This idea has been cropping up a lot lately, but it is the first time I've seen a study cited. Other accounts I've read have been anecdotal. Until recently, conventional wisdom has suggested that weighing weekly was a better option because our weight fluctuates several times a day. Supposedly this means that weighing daily is useless because a higher number between yesterday and today could just mean you drank too much water or something.
Personally, I think whether you weigh daily or weekly depends on your temperament. Some people have obsessive personalities and weighing daily would drive them crazy. I know that one of the things they tell people in eating disorder programs is not to weigh daily. On the other hand, I know that if I weigh myself and I like what I see on the scale, I am more mindful of my food and activity choices for the day because I don't want to mess up that good number. Perhaps if I weighed more often, I would be motivated to exercise more often.
Weekly weigh-ins are a staple of many popular diet programs, but studies now show that daily weighing is the key to lasting loss. When researchers at the University of Minnesota monitored the scale habits of 1,800 dieting adults, they found that those who stepped on every day lost an average of 12 pounds over 2 years (weekly scale watchers lost only 6) and were less likely to regain lost weight. The reason: "The more often you monitor your results, the quicker you can catch the behavioral slip that causes weight gain," says Jakicic.
This idea has been cropping up a lot lately, but it is the first time I've seen a study cited. Other accounts I've read have been anecdotal. Until recently, conventional wisdom has suggested that weighing weekly was a better option because our weight fluctuates several times a day. Supposedly this means that weighing daily is useless because a higher number between yesterday and today could just mean you drank too much water or something.
Personally, I think whether you weigh daily or weekly depends on your temperament. Some people have obsessive personalities and weighing daily would drive them crazy. I know that one of the things they tell people in eating disorder programs is not to weigh daily. On the other hand, I know that if I weigh myself and I like what I see on the scale, I am more mindful of my food and activity choices for the day because I don't want to mess up that good number. Perhaps if I weighed more often, I would be motivated to exercise more often.
17 February 2007
Britney's New Start
I rarely talk about celebrity gossip on the blog because I don't like to fuel the media machine in that way, even a tiny bit. However, when the CNN report popped up on my home page about Britney Spears shaving her head, I had to say something.
Most of the commentary I've read has called Ms. Spears' new haircut a cry for help, but I wonder if that is true. I've heard of guys with locs shaving their head clean to symbolize a fresh start. Could it be that Britney is trying to take a new direction? With the bald head, she resembles a monk more than a party girl. Perhaps she will develop a more contemplative attitude to go along with the new 'do.
Most of the commentary I've read has called Ms. Spears' new haircut a cry for help, but I wonder if that is true. I've heard of guys with locs shaving their head clean to symbolize a fresh start. Could it be that Britney is trying to take a new direction? With the bald head, she resembles a monk more than a party girl. Perhaps she will develop a more contemplative attitude to go along with the new 'do.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)