the spoiled kid generation

Does anyone else notice how spoiled kids are these days?? It is crazy, how kids seem to run the show. It is my worst nightmare to have a kid that thinks they are the center of everything! I think that my kids are just as spoiled in some regards as others. However, I do try really hard to not let them run things and tell me what to do. Is see it all the time, kids yelling at their parents, hitting their parents, bossing their parents around. And thing is, some parents totally give in to the kids or else ignore them without any consequences. I don't know what has changed since my generation of kids, but it sure is different these days. When I was a kid, I was afraid to even ask my parents for something. I would never ask for something in a store, and I never even requested what I wanted in a restaurant. There was no way my dad was going to let us get the happy meal, no way. I never even asked. He always ordered plain hamburgers, and maybe a large fry to share. I ate what he ordered. Now kids assume they will get the big kids meal with toy (that ends up in the garage sale bag), and sometimes they even think they should get dessert. I am avoiding fast food places, and trying to wean my kids from their happy meals! :) Luckily they haven't even asked lately, probably because they are so used to it that it isn't even a treat anymore. They have pretty much realized that they aren't going to get something when we go to the store. I am trying my best to raise kids that are respectful of adults. In B's class, there are so many kids who have no respect for the teacher or any authority. It is really sad. These kids obviously run the show at home and expect the same at school. Those parents need to teach those kids how to behave and give them real consequences for acting out. It is really sad and makes me scared of what things will be like when all these kids grow up and expect everyone to cater to them.

single parenting

After a long break from travelling, my husband is gone this week, all week. I am a single parent once again, like I used to be pretty much every other week in years past. I have been spoiled with him home so much lately. I miss him and I do not like this at all! I am on spring break this week with no one to enjoy it with! I also do not sleep well when he is gone so I'm tired. Also, J had a fever last night and so I'm not sure what is up with her. I was up with her a few times and she was in my bed so that makes for some less than ideal sleeping arrangements! She is staying home from school and laying around today. I am supposed to meet my group from school to work on our project tonight. My parents are taking the kids, so I'm kind of waiting to see how she feels. I took her to the minute clinic and she has "pink" ears. Not red like they are when infected but it could be the start of one. Her throat also hurts and she is stuffed up. So, it may be just a cold/virus and it may be another ear infection. She just finished antibiotics for her last one about 2 weeks ago. So I hesitate to start her up on another round unless necessary. I got the prescription filled but it is unused in the refrigerator right now. They gave her a stronger version of her last antibiotic and of course it would cause more side effects (diarrhea, stomach upset etc) so I really don't want to use it. Many ear infections clear up on their own if left so I may wait to see if the fever comes back or she gets considerably worse. What a pain her ears have been. She has had lifelong ear issues, but it has gotten better in recent years. She does still get a couple infections every winter though. I don't have much else planned. The weather is very dreary and gray, with some rain sprinkling down. It is still pretty chilly out, and even though spring is officially here, I'd have to say it doesn't feel very springy out today. I am cold in my house, all the time. I am sick of being cold. I want it to be so hot I am sweating and wearing tank tops every day. I want to sleep with just a sheet on. (we have a down comforter and 2 other blankets on our bed right now). I want to sit in the back yard and watch the kids run through the sprinkler. I just want to be warm again!!!!!

Tired!

Monday morning and I am dead tired. Of course I had a very busy weekend at clinical. I was out the door at 3:30 Friday to the hospital to get my patient information. I was there until about 6:30 then I stopped at B's wrestling banquet for 1 hr before going home to stay up working on my care plan and drug cards until 1:30 am. I had to get up at 5 am so I was not a happy camper. I worked all day Sat and then was up until 11pm Sat night working again on paperwork. It is much harder this semester because we have to write up a drug card for every drug our patients are on, and my patient this weekend was on 16 different drugs. It took over 2 hr to do those and more to do the actual care plan. The staying up late is the worst part, I am not good without my sleep. Anyway, except for being so tired I had a pretty good weekend. I got to practice lots of new things like changing out IV antibiotics, giving a lot of oral meds, and I got to give 2 insulin shots and 1 lovenox injection. Nice getting that first one out of the way. I am now on spring break and my husband is out of town for business. I plan to have some playdates here while he is gone and also spend lots of time with the kids. I want to take them to a movie, I've been promising that for a while. I hope to have a great week and get some studying done as well.

Life

Update:
We had a great time at the tournament this weekend. B had 1 win and 2 losses. I actually wasn't expecting any wins so I think he did great. The competition is unbelievable. We had 14 boys on the team go to state and I think 4 made it to Sunday. Only 1 boy placed and got 2nd. The rest got eliminated somewhere along the way. The best of the best were there and even the little kids are damn good. It is fun to watch, and it is exciting to say the least. We had dinner with the whole team Fri night at a great italian place. My in laws drove up from IA to see his first 2 matches so they went to dinner with us. The kids both sat at the big kids table and had a blast. They got to swim a little Fri and we tried to get them to bed early since we had to be up pretty early. Sat was wrestling until 1:00 then back to swim. All the boys just hung out together, swimming and running around the hotel halls playing tag. Many of the boys shaved their heads that night but B wouldn't do it. He loves his long hair. The coaches had a bet with a lot of the kids that if the cried if they lost they had to shave their head. We had quite a few criers! B got a little teary with his losses but no full blown crying. He takes losing pretty well. Sat night the team had a big pizza party and we then went to bed. The kids were beat!

Got home Sun and now are back to the old grind. I am getting ready for another clinical weekend, then I had spring break. I have to go sign the kids up for soccer tonight. The weather was in the 60's today which is VERY warm this time of year. We are getting another cold front soon so it won't last. But it was nice to not have to wear a jacket for at least one day. We still have snow on the ground and that was weird to have snow but to be that warm. J went to a friend's house and I got some grocery shopping done. I also got a few new shirts on clearance for myself. I am feeling much better about things and think that a positive attitude will help me out a lot. I take myself and life too seriously sometimes. I need to let go and be happy. I went for a walk yesterday and realized how walking really clears my mind, and that being cooped up all winter pretty much puts me in a depression every year. In the summer I feel great, I lose 10 lb, and I am happier. In the winter I gain back the 10 lb, and feel sluggish and tired. Maybe I have that seasonal disorder. Something to think about...

Clinical Weekend

I am done with my first clinical with my new instructor. She is the hardest one, and she expects a lot out of us. Good, but bad too. It went fine. I had a great patient and weekend. My only complaint is that I didn't get to perform as many skills as I would like. 2 students got to give Sub Q injections, so I'm jealous! I got to change the rate on an IV, and other than that nothing more than I've done before. Each semester we get to perform more skills as we learn them in school. First semester we basically were only able to do bed baths, elimination needs, bed changes, vital signs, meal cares, etc. Just easy stuff. Now we are qualified to do IV bag changes, IV piggy back meds, injections, tube feedings, catheter insertions, and probably more things but I can't remember right now. Anyway we have a lot more we can do which is exciting but scary too. I'm looking forward to doing more things with my patients. We are working on a med/surg oncology floor. Lots of pretty sick people. It is sad but it is rewarding to be able to help in some small way. The nice thing about being a student is just having one patient and being able to spoil them for the day. It is very hard to leave and not know what will happen to them. I guess I better get used to it. I have class tonight and Wed night then the weekend off. We are going to the state wrestling tournament, where B will wrestle and we will watch the rest of the team qualifiers as they wrestle. It will be pretty fun, and we will spend some time together as a family and also with the wrestling team. It is about 2 hr away, so not too far. The kids will enjoy the hotel and swimming and B gets to miss half a day of school. I just realized J will miss preschool that day as well. This is his first try at state, so we told him it is just for fun. There will be great wrestlers there so he most likely won't get too far, even though he is pretty good also. We know there will be kids who have had much more training and experience as him. He is in the 1st and 2nd grade 50 lb weight class so he will also have to wrestle kids older than him (he is 1st grade) and a year more experience is big at this age. It is for fun, and luckily he handles losing pretty well! :) I am off to make lunch for J before preschool, then her ride will be here and I'll have 2.5 hr to myself. I told myself no school work today, so I'm thinking of going shopping!