What Has Gender Equality Pushed Us to?

There has been such a push over the past 40 years for gender equality that I wonder if we are losing sight of whom we are as men and women. There are people in today’s society who refuse to tell anyone the gender of their child until required by law to do so when registering for public school. People determined to let their child play with any toy, no matter what gender it is stereotyped to be for. Is this what having gender equality has lowered us down to?

At first, gender equality issues were related to women being treated as equals. In the early 20^th century, this meant that both men and women were intelligent beings capable of voting. Later, women wanted to go to work and be paid the same amount that a man was paid. Again, this meant that men and women were capable, intelligent beings. Women were capable of doing the same work, in the same amount of time as the men; therefore, they should be paid the same amount of money that the men were receiving.  It had nothing to do with what kind of toys these men and women played with as children.

Recently, I read a story on Shine from Yahoo! about a couple in the United Kingdom who, in my opinion, took gender equality to a whole new level. This couple refused to tell anyone the gender of their child until just now and the child is 5 years old. The article also says that these parents wanted to avoid all stereotypes with their son, Sasha (Gender). So, instead of trucks and other stereotypical boy toys, this couple offered all variety of toys and clothing to their son. The article even mentions that they have allowed him to wear a glittery girl’s swimming suit (Gender).

In my opinion, these types of people should not be allowed to hide behind ‘gender equality’ when explaining their gender neutral parenting tactics. Believe I don’t want my kids to be stuck behind stereotypes of how a man and a woman are supposed to act.  We have trucks, bikes, drawing boards, high heels, stuffed animals, and many more toys for boys and girls of all ages. I do not stereotype my children, but I do believe they need a sense of gender identity. Children need to know if they are a boy or girl and understand that there are differences between the two genders.

Article Reference:

Couple Finally Reveal Child’s Gender, Five Years After Birth. Shine on Yahoo!. 1/20/12. http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/couple-finally-reveals-childs-gender-five-years-birth-180300388.html

YOU'RE GROUNDED

When you’re a child it seems like ‘You’re Grounded’ are your parent’s favorite words. You would swear that they just want to make your life miserable. When I was 12, I thought my mother was being unreasonable for grounding me when I had left the house and ridden to a friend’s house to play for hours without permission. I thought that I should be able to make my own decisions; I was almost a teenager after all. When I was 16, my folk’s busted me coming in hours after curfew and grounded me. I had been watching movies at a friend’s house, not out partying so I figured that she was just evil. 

So many things in life do a 180 degree turn when you become a parent. All those annoying habits that your parent’s had, you see them creeping up in your parenting style. Things like ‘I didn’t ask if you wanted to do your chores’ and ‘if I have to put the baby down, we are going to have problems’ start coming out of your mouth. Things you swore you would never do to your children become common place.

I have six children and their literally is not a day that goes by in which at least one of the children spends time in the corner or gets grounded. Even though I know that what I am doing is for their own good, I get so tired of having to be the bad guy all the time. Since we have such a large family, I expect them to do as they are told, the first time, and without mouthing off. If one of the kids gets away with talking disrespectfully, we could have a house overrun by children very quickly.

Being grounded in our house means several things. It means that you are not allowed to watch TV, play video games, play on the computer, have friends over, or talk on the phone. Being grounded also means that your chore list doubles. When you are not doing chores, you get to sit in the corner. And it doesn’t matter how old you are, if you are grounded, you have a bedtime of 7pm.

I really was one of those kids that said I would never make my kids bust their butts doing chores just because they made a mistake. However, I learned as I entered the real world that if my folk’s hadn’t taught me work ethic, I would not be even close to as happy and successful as I am today. So, Thank You Mom! And kiddos, I am not sorry, but I love you very much.

Introductions! We could be a while!

Welcome to my Parenting Blog! Four years ago when I created the initial blog page, I was convinced this was going to be my way of making easy money- Online Rebates! Needless to say, I wrote two blog posts that have no common theme or idea and walked away from Blogger for years. This blog has not seen any real traffic yet and it is almost four years old. In coming back to Blogger, I have decided that I am going to write Blogs on things that are important to me. I have a passion for writing so it is important for me to have a creative place to express that writing ability. Money is no longer the object.  I simply want to share my experiences, advice, tips, and stories as I travel this crazy path called Parenthood.
We have a large blended family! Let's start with my fiance, Ben. He drives for Martin Brothers Distributing sometimes 60 hours a week. Nathan is my 13 year old step son who has grown six inches in the past six months. His voice and interests are changing rapidly. Nathan visits us every other weekend and sometimes for a vacation in the summer. Julianna(10), Kaylee(9), and Brookelyn(6) are my three beautiful biological daughters. This group keeps me on my toes and drives me crazy already. I have full custody of my ladies, so they are only gone every other weekend.What am I going to do in 5 years!
Four year old Nicholas is my second step son. Ben has 50/50 custody of Nicholas. So we have him every other week from Sunday to Sunday. I think that Nick is going to be the one that I learn the most from because he is extremely behind for his age. Parenting him takes a whole other set of patience. Finally, Brayden, my sweet baby boy, is almost 2 years old. He talks and talks and is way too smart for his own good.
Now that we have covered the basics, I cannot wait to share the trials and tribulations of our large blended family. My only hope for this blog is that people find it helpful, interesting, and entertaining.