Pawning off kids on others

     Today I got a call from a lady in my ward who has befriended a family that we have also befriended.  This family has a daughter that is the same age as their daughter and one of my daughters.  

     I guess my friend offered to let the daughter say with her family for a few weeks while they had to go out of town for work.  The girl is very nice, and she is not the problem.  The problem is the parents.  They left her there for a month.  They also leave her at the my friend's house for weekends and school nights all the time.  They also never give her any money for food or taking care of her.  My friend is getting tired of it.  In fact, they just asked her if she could take their daughter for the rest of the school year.  My friend said no, but the dad keeps following my friend around begging her to take their daughter.  He was so desperate that he said maybe if I (Lisa) took the daughter on weekends and picked her up for school everyday, would they agree to it.  So she called me to warn me that he or the wife might be calling to ask for this.  

     I guess both of the parents are nurses that work for one person in their home, a personal nurse. The mom works all day in one person's house (practically lives there), and the dad is out of work, but got a job out of town for another individual.  They have a beautiful huge home in a nice neighborhood (that they are literally never at), and they really need money, so they want to pawn their child off on other people.  The daughter is great, I really like her, and having her would not be too bad, but the poor girl feels abandoned.  Her parents are continually dumping her on other people, like she is portable, like a possession.  She has even begged her parents to let her stay with them (her parents), because she is always with other people.  

     I think the best thing for them to do is sell the house at a loss, and move into a small apartment with their daughter, and get jobs that only require them to work during the day, or opposite schedules of each other so one of them can be with her weekends and nights, etc.  It is so sad.  My friend also said that they often leave her for hours longer than they agreed to, and even drop her off at places that my friend is at so she will be forced to take her.  

     My daughter is in the same class as their daughter, and at back to school night, the mom asked me if I could take their daughter in an emergency.  I told her that I would only in an emergency, for a few hours.  I didn't know all this was going on when I told them that, but I knew that they worked alot and sometimes had people watch her.  I am so glad that my friend called me.  If they even ask me to take their daughter at all I will say no.  If they keep begging, I will have to tell them that it is for the good of their daughter, and that she needs them.  That they need to quit their jobs and sell their house and spend time with her.    They seem like such nice people, but clearly the have really screwed up principles.  Their daughter doesn't care about nice stuff, she just wants to be with her family.  Poor girl.  

     I am so thankful that even though I am not the best mom, at least I am there.  Even moms who work all day are better than what these people are doing to their daughter.  I am thankful that my parents were there for me, and I have a husband who agrees that I should be home with the kids as well.  No job or career or big house is worth pawning off your children on someone else.     

It is the little things...

Today I had a really really bad day at church.  I am the leader of the children's organization.  I often feel overwhelmed and inadequate.  I am just not very good of it.  Anyway, in the midst of this bad day, someone said that with my hair longer, I looked like I was in my 20's.  Um, that was a wonderful thing to hear!  So I may be having a really bad day, but, at least I look good (just kidding).  It may be kind of silly, but I feel really thankful to Heavenly Father that I finally found a hair cut that I like.  Even though it might be vain,  I think us women folk like to look pretty and nice.  It just makes us feel better, even when things are difficult.  It is just a little thing, but I really appreciate it.

The Amazing iPhone

Today I am writting my blog from my bed. I just finished making dinner, and I am taking a 
break.  I decided to try some things on my iPhone. I haven't written in my blog for a while, 
so today I thought I would do that. I have had an iPhone for about two months now, and I 
love it. It is like a little computer that you can hold in your pocket. I have used it for so many 
things I never would have thought I could do before. I have looked up and used primary 
lessons to teach a class when the primary closet keys got lost and a teacher didn't show up.  
I have emailed people from various locations, read the news, looked up websites to tell a 
friend about during an assembly. Looked on line to find the closest franchise of a partcular 
store, and down loaded the map. Another time I wasn't following the map, got lost, opened 
the map app, found out where I was (like GPS) and within minutes found my way. The list of 
things that I have done with my iPhone is pretty cool. What a great invention. It can probably 
do many more things I haven't heard of yet. I can't believe it took me so long to give in to 
my husband. He has been bugging me for over a year to get one, but I never gave in. I am 
glad that I finally gave in. I like it because it fits in my pocket.  


I think I would like the ipad, but it is big, and so i could not just throw it in my purse.  
Because it is big, you can probably do a lot more, but since it is harder to carry with you, and 
just pull it out, I would probably not use it much. Besides, I am very happy with my iPhone.  
It seems that if you are creative enough, you can do just about anything a computer can do 
(you just have less space to do it in, and it may take longer).


The Church (LDS church that is), just came out with a new app. I just got it today. It is free.  
You can highlight, book mark, etc. You can download various books and lesson manuals as 
you need them. I already downloaded a few of the primary lesson books. And the best part 
is that it is free. I like it alot. You can carry volumes and volumes of scriptures and other 
church books, and it just slips in your pocket or purse. I also figured out today how to get 
my patriarchal blessing on there, as well as a chart for my daughters' Faith in God goals that 
they are working on. It is amazing.

Art or Porno?

Yesterday I went with Christyne on a field trip to the PS Art Museum.  I was excited, because I like that museum.  They have some great things there.  Well, we get there, and I was with a group of 6 kids and a docent.  The docent was an 80+ year old lady who was named Ms. Rose.  She seemed nice, and she was good with the kids, so I thought it would be a great time.  We got onto the elevator and went up to the top floor.  I was in the back of the group, making sure no kids wandered off.  The first thing Ms. Rose took the kids to was a statue that was life size, natural skin colored nude woman who was laying on her side.  I could not believe it.  The most offensive piece of art in the whole place, and it was the first thing we saw.  Because I was at the end of the  group, I didn't get there until they were all staring at it.  And then I thought if I protested, the kids might focus on it more, and we would be staring at it longer.  So I kept quiet, and hoped it would end soon.  We were only there for a little while, but it seemed like eternity.  When we left that statue, the kids kept trying to look at it, I would help them focus on what was ahead, not behind.

Needless to say that was not good, and it bothered me all day long.  I thought about the term "art"  and what a stupid word it is.  Apparently anything anyone feels like doing is art.  The Mona Lisa, a child's drawing, beautiful music, a simple circle on a canvas, two swings hanging in a museum, a realistic statue of a nude woman, pornography, garbage  (there was an exhibit there of filled black garbage bags), heavy metal music, dirty clothes, etc.  To call all of these things art is an insult to the truly good works of art.  I understand that some people may call each of these things art.  So the fact that the statue is in the museum is not the problem.  My problem is that there were no warning signs "Rated R" etc.  Also, that the docent thought it was appropriate to take 8 year olds to see it.  When I signed the permission slip, I never thought they would see something like that.  I am not a prude, I know some art is controversial.  And sometimes you see a little nudity like the back of a woman, or someone kind of blurry from far away.  But this was disgusting.  If a woman had gotten naked and laid on a bench across the street from the museum at the park, and looked exactly the same, she would have been arrested for indecent exposure.  Why is it OK to show it to kids in a museum, but if they saw the same thing outside, it would be against the law.  Even some movie works of "art" are rated R.  Just because it is art doesn't mean children should see it.

Anyway, my daughter's teacher is on the same page as me.  She has taken kids to that museum for 20 years, and has never had that happen.  That statue is new, and she didn't know about it.  She was upset when I told her what happened, and was on the phone with the museum to voice her complaint.  Just a warning to all parents.  Before you send your child to that art museum, go there yourself and check it out, or go on the field trip and tell the docent what you expect of them before they take your group.  Then scan ahead of the kids to stop them from coming into contact with "artistic pornography".  And be ready to deal with the docent if she gives you any trouble.  I was caught off guard.  That will never happen again.  It is sad when a museum is a dangerous place.  I am going to let the museum know how I feel.  The museum is so nice and big, we could have seen so many other wonderful pieces of art, but instead we got disgusting trash.