Spanking is Abuse

How many times have I heard parents say that they were spanked and turned out fine? Really? That is your excuse? You were spanked. You will spank. I don't call that success.

I was spanked as a child. I did turn out fine. I don't spank. Ever. It should never, ever be in a parent's mind to harm their child to prove a point. I don't care if it is a little smack or a big one, it is child abuse.

You cannot hit a child for hitting his brother and then assume he will learn a lesson. What did he learn? That mama can hit and he can't, therefore, he must grow up before he is allowed to do such things. Good job on that lesson.

Some parents justify it by saying their child doesn't respond to anything else. I suspect these parents have not tried talking to their child civilly. A child with a good idea of what is going on will tend to behave much better.  In my experience, spankings only cause children to act out more.

Stop hitting your child and calling it discipline. Call it what it is, abuse.

Should I Feed My Baby Fruit?

My friends all started their babies on bananas and sweet cereals. Then they complained when their cute baby grew up and hated vegetables. I have to shake my head over this stupidity sometimes.

If you feed a baby sweets, they want sweets. Of course they do! It tastes better! Start with things like spinach and broccoli and you will have a child who eats vegetables happily. I didn't start my children on sweet veggies, like carrots and squash, until they were considerably older perhaps 10 or 11 months.

And while we're on the topic, stop giving 4 month olds food! Babies are not developed enough to handle food at that age. Do you know what the damage of that little slurp of ice cream is at that age?

- Leaky gut syndrome
- Food allergies
- Upset tummy and intestinal damage
- Reflux

But by all means, if you want your baby to have a lifetime of health issues, go ahead and think it's cute to feed him before he can even sit up properly.

TV is NOT a Babysitter

I overheard two women talking on the bus. One said she hated TV but she uses it. "It's my babysitter!" Then she laughed. Her friend laughed. I did not laugh.

It's not funny. Babies and small children shouldn't even know what a TV is, let alone have "their shows." Older kids should be strictly limited.

We don't have a TV. We sometimes watch a movie on Netflix. The kids (8 and 6) do NOT watch television shows. They watch a maximum of four movies per month. These are prescreened by us and are watched as a family. Frankly, I consider this a compromise.

Why do kids need television? It stunts their imagination. It ruins their thinking, not to mention their eyesight. Send them outdoors to play. Better yet, go play with them. Toss the TV in the garbage, where it belongs.

Homemade or Not at All

A friend of mine tried to serve us soup. It was from a box. A BOX. What is in that stuff? I don't even want to know. I told her we would eat at home, thanks anyway. She didn't get it.

Homemade is not hard. Homemade is easy. Anyone can make soup. Look:

Take 1 lb. of beef bones, cut into 1-2" pieces. Put in a big pot, cover with water, cook. Easy, no? You just made bone broth. Add herbs and veggies if you want.

To make soup, saute an onion in olive oil, add chopped garlic, carrots, potato and leek. Pour in broth. Cook.

See? Easy. You make enough at once to serve for several meals. Even easier.

There is no good reason to use tinned or processed foods. My kids hate processed foods. That plastic cheese that comes in individually wrapped squares? They gag on it. And they should. There's nothing redeeming about that stuff.

Make it yourself or don't eat. It's that simple.

Why Are You Chopping Up Babies?

My son is 8. He's intact. For those of you new to being nice to your child, that means he is uncircumcised. Not cut.

Who thought it was a good idea to start cutting little babies? Everyone gets up in arms about chopping off baby girl bits, but Heaven forbid we say anything against chopping up little boy bits.

Common arguments FOR this nasty practice include:

• "It looks better." - Says who? You? Really? You think you know what girls in 20 years are going to like? And why do you care? Maybe scars will be in by then. Better slice and dice your baby's face, too.
• "It's cleaner." - Obviously, you would know, since you're against intact boys. It's easy to clean a penis. A child can do it. MY child does it.
• "He'll have problems later in life." - Then you deal with it later in life. The chances are slim he'll have problems. You know what? Your daughter's breasts will probably get cancer, so you better chop them off at birth, too. And don't forget that troublesome cervix.
• "His dad is cut, they should match." - Right. So your child that doesn't look enough like you better get plastic surgery so she matches. Same difference. Please, people. Who is standing there comparing penises with their son? NO one, I should hope.
• "Babies don't even feel pain." - So if I slap your baby in the face, no biggie. He won't feel it anyway.

There may be some medical issues that require circumcision, but outside of that, stop cutting your babies up. Leave them be. 

Getting Annoyed Yet?

By now you know I'm not that sugar coated mama who will praise you up and down for everything. I have my opinion. I say it. Go ahead and say yours, I don't care. Everyone has their own opinion. We should be free to express it.

Just don't expect me to agree.

If you are for chopping up babies, feeding children poison and beating them, that's not ok. You can have your opinion, but it's still not ok. Just so you know.

Breastfeeding vs. Bottles

Bottles vs. breast. Big controversy, right? Wrong. There is nothing controversial about what is best for your baby.

I get that some moms can't breastfeed. This isn't about them. This is about the ones who CHOOSE formula. Formula is not mother's milk. It's not. It's not even remotely the same. Does it work in a pinch? Sure. But don't think there aren't repercussions.

And none of this nursing for the first 6 weeks business. Why would you stop? If you work, pump. Again, another post on working moms!

Your baby deserves to have the best you can give him or her. Not for as long as it's convenient. For as long as needed. Guess what? Your baby knows how long is needed.

There is help if you are having problems. No matter what you're dealing with, other moms have been there. And they did it. Some nursed until 2 or 3 years old, so there's no excuse.

Breastfeed unless it's impossible. Point made.

Carnivores vs. Vegans

Food is nourishment for our bodies and our souls. Vegans, I don't get. They don't eat any animal products. Vegetarians, I can get. They usually eat eggs. Milk. Yogurt. All good things for the body. Vegans? WTF? Every vegan I've met looks unhealthy. Scrawny, anemic, hollows under their eyes and cheekbones.

In my household, we eat meat. We eat animal products. We eat fish. Chicken. Beef. Sometimes we even eat pork. We don't eat processed anything. Why would we? Why poison your body with that stuff?

Meat is controversial. ok. So don't eat it. No problem. But eggs? Really? What is wrong with eggs? Kids grow with eggs. They grow with yogurt. Milk is controversial since it can be not so great. But still.

Vegans, you want to mess your body up by depriving it, go ahead. But don't do it to your kids. Let them thrive. Don't turn them into pale shadow ghosts of yourself. It's sad. It's mean. It should probably be labeled child abuse.

What is NOT a School Lunch

Do you send lunch to school with your kids? If not, shame on you. This is the least we can do as parents. Give good, nourishing food.

My son tells me his friends eat peanut butter and jelly on white bread. Cheetos and potato chips. Chocolate chip cookies. Candy bars. Tinned fruit salad. Really, people? Is that what you consider good parenting?

It isn't hard to make bone broth. Make it once a week. Add veggies and brown rice and you have hot soup to send every day. Pure nutrition.

Ferment your own cabbage. Give them sauerkraut. Yogurt. Fermented pickles. If you MUST give your child bread, make it with soaked flour or sprouted grains. It's not that hard. You, complaining that it takes too much time to make your own bread. What? You thought kids didn't take time? You brought them into the world, take proper care of them. It's your JOB.

Kids eat raw fruit and veggies. What could be easier than that? Make yogurt dip with herbs. Give them carrot, zucchini and turnip sticks. A baked potato with real butter. Easy. Simple. Good for them.

Junk food is not lunch. It's poison. It's designed to rot your child's body from the inside out. No wonder there are so many learning problems in schools today. Get back to the beginning. Eat right. Feed right. You'll see a difference.

Spanking is Child Abuse

So, parents who spank. Yeah, gives me the shivers. Let me give you a bit of background here.

I was spanked as a child. Hard. With belts and wooden spoons. Did it make me behave better? Of course. I was terrified of my parents. My father in particular. Mom would tell me to wait until he came home and then he'd show up and spank me until my bottom hurt to sit down for two days.

What is child abuse? It is when you hurt your child, emotionally, sexually or physically, with or without the intention of making them afraid of you. It is manipulating the mind. The body. The very soul of your little one.

I'm a mom myself now. I never spank. I have two children, a boy and a girl. For the purposes of this blog, we'll call them Billy and Suzy. Nice standard names. None of those cutesy "Sweetiepie" or "Little Prince" here. That's a topic for another post. Right now, let's look at spanking.

First, spanking is cruel. What are you trying to accomplish? Having a child afraid of you? Congratulations, you big lout, you. You've just proven that you can best a five year old. Big whoop.

Second, how does hitting a child teach him to respond rationally? He hit his sister, so you spank him. Hello, people! That's STUPID.

"Don't hit your sister! So you remember, I'm going to hit you. Do as I say, not as I do!"

Wrong, wrong, wrong. That's not how we raise a responsible member of society. That's how we turn children into violent offenders who shoot up their schoolmates because they think that's how it's done. If hitting works, then maybe shooting is better. Yes? No?

Spanking. Don't do it.

Halloween: An Evil Holiday

No, I'm not that mom. The one who praises Jesus and condemns Halloween for its promotion of witchcraft and whatnot. Which, by the way, is another issue we will discuss soon . . . Christians who condemn Satan and all that, but DO celebrate Halloween. Hello, hypocrisy.

Halloween is evil because it promotes candy. Sugar laden, chemical filled, toxic junk. We don't eat sugar. Why? Because it is poison.

How do I know it's poison? My husband and myself were very sick. We had yeast infections. We were tired. We caught every bug that passed. We stopped sugar, it all went away. Sugar = TOXIC.

So, Halloween may be fun for dressing up. Sure, that's harmless. But if you think even one day of tossing sugar down your child's gullet isn't going to affect him, think again. You are poisoning your child. Did you bring him into the world to make him ill? To make him fat?

Parents, stop giving your kids sugar. Loading them up with candy just shows how utterly ignorant you are.

Keep Your Sick Kid Away from Mine

Ok, another prime time topic. I have this friend who goes to play groups. She has two kids. At this play group, all the moms bring their kids EVEN IF THEY'RE SICK!

Think about that for a minute. You want your kid to be sick. That's what you're saying if you do this in your group of friends.

Please. Infect my child. I want him to cough and cry and lose sleep for the next week.

WTH? I do not understand this way of thinking. My friend says it's to build their immune systems.

You know how I build immune systems? I send my kids to school. They get sick enough there. Also? Garlic. My kids eat garlic. They also eat ginger. We don't eat sugar. That right there gets that immune system going.

All I have to say is, kids get enough germs all by themselves. Let's not help them. Keep your sick kid away from mine.

I Can Be Snarky

A lot of people say I'm snarky. That's fine. I think a lot of people are just plain stupid. So let's face it, we're all disliking each other.

When my friends got tired of my opinions, I moved them online, hence this blog. Why are you here? Who knows. Maybe you like snark. If so, this is the place to be! Just be forewarned that I will offend you at some point. It's who I am.

That being said, I hope I'm not writing for nothing, so go ahead and leave your own snark in the comments.