Archives

Cheer Mom

Jun10

I have currently received a new title to my name, and I completely love it. Cheer Mom, how delightful that sounds. My daughter is only four and has recently joined the cheer team at a local gymnasium. She has been there participating in gymnastics, so it was only natural that when I heard cheer team I signed her up.I of course made sure she wanted to attend to cheer herself first! She loves cheerleading. The first practice was a uniform fitting, and from that point on she was hooked and so was I. She looked so adorable in the uniform, how could I not be? After looking over the prices for the whole season I found myself being quite skeptical. Who knew that cheerleading for 4 year olds was so expensive. The uniform itself is 300 dollars, and competitions are 150 a piece, not to mention shoes, makeup,practice clothing, whew! Yet even with the expensive season I find myself being ultra excited about this cheerleading mom journey, and I have already met some other great cheer moms and looking forward to a fun season! This should be a fun experience for my daughter and I, one I will always cherish! Look out for random cheer mom pics to come!

Becoming A Parent!

May31

Omg, today has been a long day for this momma, and my frustrations have hit the fan! My 4 year old is giving me a run for my money and my nerves. Becoming a parent has been one of the most rewarding and meaningful things in my life, but it has also become one of my most frustrating task to conquer. Which leads me to the question, Do we ever conquer parenthood? Is there anyone in this world who felt they knew how to handle all the demanding,joyful,crazy task of parenthood? I have yet to encounter such an individual.

I became a parent at the ripe age of 19 years old, right after I joined the Air Force and got married. Getting pregnant at such an early age was a surprise to say the least. My husband and I had just joined the military and all I was thinking about was partying and tasting the Independence of life. So when I got the phone call after getting blood taken for another medical issue I was shocked. Here is how the conversation between the nurse and I went:

ME: Hello

Nurse: Hello, Mrs. Mcknight How are you?

me: Fine

Nurse: Well, I wanted to call you about your test results for XYZ

Me: Oh Is everything alright?

Nurse: Yea, but did you know you are pregnant?

Me:_______________________________________________

Nurse:Hello

Me: Huh?

Me: Pregnant

Me:Are you sure?

Me: (laughing) Are you serious?

Nurse: Yes, your hcg results came back positive

ME: What is Hcg results?

Nurse: The pregnancy hormone

Me: Oh my FFFFFFFFFF!

Nurse: Well, we will schedule you a check up and send for a profile

Me: Ok, thanks and bye!

Me: Blank Stare!

This was amazing. All kinds of thoughts ran through my mind, what am I going to do, my life is ruined, this can’t be true, how did this happen(of course I know how babies are made),Whoa! I then called to tell my husband whom thought I was playing a joke, and from then the joys of pregnancy began!

It took me a while to come to terms with parenting,three years to be exact and my daughter is now 4. I am not saying I have perfected being a parent, but that I now finally realize how impacting my role is in my child’s life. I have to teach her, discipline her,keep her away from strangers, instill values in her, and sometime I just don’t know what to do! Those are the times when I wish there was a parent rule book or guideline to go by.

All in all I think most of us strive to be the parents we can be (no rule book included), there are sometimes situations that arise where we are lost, and there are times when we make bad decisions as parents. So, as I sit here pregnant with my second (a girl again!) I now realize parenting is something we take day-to-day. I have 4 years of experience to go off of for the next one, and some techniques will change while others will stay put. As long as we give our best efforts, we can never fail as a parent.

So bless all the wonderful mommies and daddies out there for parenting without a rule book!

Random Thoughts: Childhood Obesity and the media

May21

Obesity is an epidemic that is taking our country by storm. Unfortunately it is not only affecting the lives of adults but also our children. Today I watched a program on HBO about childhood obesity. The name of the program is The Weight of the Nation, and I believe it is a four-part series but when I turned to it the discussion was on children, so I have not seen the other parts. Any how, the show sort of saddened me. Although I am very aware of the epidemic of childhood obesity, and I am a first hand witness to the problem with some of the children I have been around in my daily life.It still brought some intriguing thoughts to mind. While the program was very adamant about the roles of media, and schools on children’s diet I believe there was not enough focus on the fault of the parents.As I said the program really brought some great insight into what the media and schools are doing to affect the children. The media is as one man put it is”powerful and predatory”. Children are watching a lot more tv these days and are constantly exposed to the images of sugary drinks, cereals, candy, that in essence are damaging to their health. I have a personal belief that sugar is culprit of obesity,and an addiction that leads to numerous health problems, but that’s another topic, so back to the story! The marketing of food products is a billion dollar a year industry!(While!!!) wonder the man said powerful, these people are banking off of our kids being unhealthy. As I said above the children are not as active. They are spending constant  time on TV, computers, games. So their access to the media food advertisements is constant, but this is where I fault the parents. Many of us parents are either oblivious to the time spent on these sedimentary activities or to busy to notice, or maybe it has become the norm of our society because a lot of us spend our time on computers and other gadgets. Whatever it may be we as parents are a major enabler of our children’s obesity, and I think it’s about time that we take the time to realize and acknowledge that. Parents play the strongest role in childhood obesity. We need to aim to keep our kids active in sports,playing outside,or exercising. I am not preaching to the choir because I definitely need to clean up my eating habits, and those of my daughter, but I will say that I have taken the time to make some minor changes that will hopefully lead to a healthier life choices not only for my daughter but for me and my family. I know first hand the struggle of losing weight and fighting our food addictions, but with a little encouragement we can all accomplish a much healthier life style.

Look out for more post on this topic and  some minor changes I have made that I believe will help our overall health!

Here is the link to the program on YouTube http://youtu.be/T24B6T-hp0E