American Idol, How sweet the sound?

No Balmy Florida here. Or coffee. And a certain someone seems to want to rub it in that it got down to a freezing sixty degrees in Florida today.
I'm not holding grudges, but she also has coffee, and I'm out. That might be the last straw.

But on to brighter subjects. American Idol is back, with Simon's sharp wit still with us, dashing the hopes of talentless children all across the country. I love that man.

And kudos to all of the loving moms out there who keep telling their children they are the future rock idols of the world, while oblivious to the reality that their children can't sing. Thanks to you, moms, grandmas, aunts, uncles and best friends, we are entertained for hours each week as some poor dear child gets her self-esteem cut down by Simon's English wit.

This really isn't funny, it's actually very sad. We want to encourage our children, tell them they are the best at everything, want them to succeed in every direction they turn. Reality TV has brought us to this place in our lives where we believe that every child can be a superstar with little or no work on their part. Sometimes with no talent. And in the end...Simon calls MOM onto the stage to ask her why she encouraged her child to sing.

DON'T LET THAT BE YOU!

It is time to be honest with our children. "HONEY, I love you, you're a genius at math, but YOU ARE TONE DEAF so please stop singing. Can't you see that the cat has lost all her hair?"
The words sound harsh, but do you really want to be the parent watching this episode of American Idol on TV as your child screeches a song to the idle judges, realizing with a sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach that your child can't sing and now the whole world knows?

Worse yet, singing in a superhero costume.

Let's put the word 'no' back in our vocabularies. Our kids deserve it.

girls, girls, girls

PACK
a. A group of animals, such as dogs or wolves, that run and hunt together.

They forgot to add girls to this definition. I took my daughter and 7 other little girls to a waterpark for her birthday. And it was fun.
If you define fun as: totally exhausting, please yank all of my teeth without novocain, and hit my little toe with a hammer.

Girls are great. We all want one. We dream of how we'll dress her in bows, cute clothes, and maybe we'll do our nails together as she gets older.
And then we get one. We learn that they have meltdowns at the drop of a hat and they have 'a look that can kill' figured out before their second birthday.They are so much more than cute clothes, manicures and hair. They're complex little creatures, miniatures of us. That fact is both enlightening, and frightening.
Girls can be the sweetest people, helping the younger girls, tending to a friend who is sad, and then...
something strange happens.
I'm sorry, maybe this is too much reality for a Saturday night, but really, we have to get it out in the open, we have to face the truth, frightening as it might be: girls grow fangs and their claws come out.
Someone talked to someone else's BFF...and war is declared.

We came home with the same number of girls we left with. I tribute that to God and small miracles.

RIGHT TO BARE ARMS

Every parent, when holding their tiny baby, believes they are holding the next great inventor, president, doctor, or even actor. When they say their first word, we're amazed, and have every right to be. We let family brag that no child has ever talked so early or with such clarity.

And then comes the moment. The day the 'next president' comes home from school and says, "Mom, today we were learning about the constitution. And you know that part where it says, RIGHT TO BARE ARMS, well, I thought it meant right to have short sleeved shirts."


ON A POSITIVE NOTE....I still believe he'll be president someday.

A COWBOY'S HEART, available February 2009 at most major retailers.