Monday, June 6, 2016

The Myth Of The Family Meeting

With graduation less than a week away, I've been taking a lot of stock. (And Tylenol, actually; I've been taking a lot of Tylenol.) Eighteen and a half years of parenting behind me. 

For the record, that's the longest I've ever stayed at any job. 

What did I do particularly well? What did I screw up?

Becoming a mother is the greatest act of faith we can undertake. It can also be a huge slap in the face. It rocks our inner vision and is at once a source of great pride and the most humbling experience in the world.

My husband and I were a little late to the game and we had already watched most of our closest friends deal with transitioning from being happy-go-lucky "DINKs" (dual-income, no kids) to sleep-deprived, car-pooling zombies. We weren't ready yet, but we were very self-satisfied. If and when we were ever parents, we assured ourselves, we wouldn't make this or that mistake. We would never raise our voices. Or let our offspring walk all over us. We would do everything perfectly.

As my favorite classics professor Dr. Zarker would have remonstrated, "Hubris, hubris, hubris!"

Raised in the 1960s and 70s, I had a wonderful weekly example of perfect parenting: Carol and Mike Brady. Their six (count 'em, six) children were respectful and remarkably well-groomed. Their house was orderly; their dinners were on time.

And, Mr. and Mrs. Brady never lost their sh*t.

If there was ever an issue in the Brady household, they simply had a family meeting in that tiny little room off the kitchen. Crisis averted.

Last week, I insisted on a family meeting in our house. I was feeling stressed over our packed schedule of school events (white water rafting, graduation rehearsal, awards banquet and the big day itself), out of town visitors, horse shows, theatre tickets, work deadlines, business trips, and more. And, yes, I was ready to lose my sh*t.

Lest you think I'm just an anxious person (I am, but that's beside the point), let me give you a couple of examples ...

So far, I'd rescheduled my daughter's tuberculosis test three times. (No, she doesn't have tuberculosis. Well, I assume she doesn't have tuberculosis. But, she has to have the test for college.) I can practically hear the receptionist cringing every time I call the doctor's office.

Apparently, my daughter needs polypropylene long underwear for the rafting trip. This is not something I had on hand (or had time to run to the mall for), so we ended up using my sister-in-law's Amazon Prime account to get it here in two days.

We gave my husband a flying lesson for his recent birthday. But, finding a day when all three of us can take a few hours to drive up to New Hampshire and watch him fly a Cessna 172, take pictures (or, in my case, pray) was anything but clear skies.

Add to all this year-end activity the arrangements we still need to make to actually transport our little freshman and all her gear to her out-of-state university, and I think you can appreciate why I'm having trouble sleeping.

So, we had a family meeting, but it wasn't as peaceful or productive as the Bradys'. It required more than a little bullying on my part — before, during and after. We walked through the next nine weeks and took notes. I gave out some assignments (and ignored the eye-rolling). 

And, for a full five minutes after the meeting, I actually felt better. Even if things still slip through the cracks — and they will — I can smugly say, "See? That's why I wanted to have a family meeting."

At this point, I'll take what I can get.

Thanks, Mr. and Mrs. Brady.
 
If you've enjoyed this post, I invite you to order the book Lovin' the Alien here.  




8 comments:

  1. Are you worried about what your kids are doing on the internet and you don't want to be left in the dark ? Get easy access to their social network account and know what they are up to . Contact codelordexx@gmail.com for inquiries and also all other hack related services

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello, If you want to hack your spouses or girlfriends Email, social account, phone and other means to get contact of someone without him/her knowing, contact cyberhackpros@gmail.com. They are very good and affordable and also based in the USA. contact him via email/phone CYBERHACKPROS@GMAIL.COM or +1 512 605 1256 Tell him i reffered you.He will help you INSTAGRAM:Cyberhackprofessionals

    ReplyDelete
  3. My wife was so smooth at hiding her infidelity and I had no proof for months, I saw a recommendation about a Private investigator  and decided to give him a try.. the result was incredible because all my cheating wife’s text messages, whatsapp, facebook and even phone conversations was linked directly to my cellphone. (worldcyberhackers@gmail.com ) Mr James helped me put a round-the-clock monitoring on her and I got concrete evidence and gave it to my lawyer..if your wife is an expert at hiding her cheating adventures contact Mr James

    ReplyDelete

  4. •★COMPOSITE HACKS ★•

    Are You Seeking For A LEGIT PROFESSIONAL HACKER Who Will Get Your Job Done Efficiently With Swift Response?? CONGRATULATIONS, Your Search Ends Right Here.

    ★ WHO ARE COMPOSITE HACKS ???
    • We are a Team Of Professional HACKERS , a product of the coming together of Legit Hackers from the Dark-Web (pentaguard, CyberBerkut, White Hack and Black Hat,) we have been existing for over years, our system is a very strong and decentralized command structure that operates on ideas and directives.

    ★ JOB GUARANTEE:
    Whenever We Are been hired as a Team Hackers We typically only take jobs that We find somehow original, challenging, or especially helpful to the community. We’ve never wanted to sit around defending some video game company’s source code from network intruders – We prefer to help nonprofits, private investigators, Private Individuals, government contractors, and other traditionally underserved populations. 
    And We’d rather match skills against the best in the field of state-sponsored hackers engaged in economic espionage than put some kid in prison for pranking the phone company. When a company tries to hire Us, the first question I ask is: “Who is this going to help?”
    I know COMPOSITE HACKS is Well known for LEGIT HACKING SERVICES, but i always try to avoid people thinking We’r proud or making Many individual think its only the big companies that can hire Us, fine, here is Our mail: “”””compositehacks@gmail.com”””” You Can Reach Out To Us for Your Desired HACKING Services Ranging from:
    * Penetration Testing On your Website.
    * Phishing
    * Jail Breaking.
    * Phone Hack: Giving you access to the Target’s Call Log, messages, chats and all social media Apps .
    * Retrieval Of Lost Files
    * Location Tracking.
    * Clearing Of Criminal Records.
    * Hacking Of Server, Database And Social Media accounts e.g Facebook, twitter, Instagram Snapchat etc

    ★ SOME SPECIAL SERVICES WE OFFER:
    * RECOVERY OF LOST FUNDS ON BINARY OPTIONS.
    * Bank Accounts Loading ( Only USA Banks)
    * Credit Cards Loading (Only USA CC’s)

    ★Our Team houses a separate group of specialists who are productively focussed and established authorities in different platforms. They hail from a proven track record Called “HackerOne” and have cracked even the toughest of barriers to intrude and capture or recapture all relevant data needed by our Clients. Some Of These Specialist Includes PETER YAWORSKI, FRANS ROSEN, JACK CABLE, JOBERT ABMA, ARNE SWINNEN And More

    ★COMPOSITE HACKS is available for customer care 24/7, all day and night. We understand that your request might be urgent, so we have a separate team of allocated hackers who interact with our Clients round the clock. You are with the right people so just get started.

    ★CONTACTS:
    * For Binary Options Recovery
    E-mail: Binaryoptionrecovery@gmail.com
    * For Other Hacking Services
    E-mail: compositehacks@gmail.com
    Wickr: compositehacks


    ★CONTACT US AND GET YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED IN THE TWINKLING OF AN EYE

    ReplyDelete
  5. Do you need to hack a Facebook account? i know of someone who can help .I saw a review about him and I needed help hacking my wife’s Facebook account so i contacted him and he said he was going to help me.I gave him the information he required about her account and afterwards i received all my wifes Facebook activity sent directly to me. He was reliable and trustworthy i just want to say thank you. If you need help you can contact him via Email(Worldcyberhackers@gmail.com) or Text/call : +12317945543

    ReplyDelete
  6. My husband was so smooth at hiding her infidelity and I had no proof for months, I saw a recommendation about a Private investigator and decided to give him a try.. the result was incredible because all my cheating husbands text messages, whatsapp, facebook and his phone conversations was sent directly to my Personal computer. Mr James helped me put a round-the-clock monitoring on him and I got concrete evidence and gave it to my lawyer..I say no to infidelity if your husband is an expert at hiding his cheating adventures contact him through Gmail he will help you(Worldcyberhackers) or WhatsApp : +12678773020

    ReplyDelete
  7. I never knew a hacker could improve a bad credit score until i met one on a discussion forum when i googled how to improve my credit score, i read a lady’s comment on how capable the hacker is of solving any problems that has to do with hacking. So i sent him a mail and asked if he had the ability to raise credit scores(all 3 companies) and also eliminate eviction off court records. Then he replied yes and asked me to provide him some info of mine he’ll need to run the hack. when i did just that, he completed the hack within 72hours at a price that’s worth it. I give thanks to the ethical hacker for coming to my aid when i needed him the most. Reach the hacker at Email:arstrongcyberwizard@yahoo.com Whatsapp him +12899600524 and you’ll be amazed by his skills.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I was scammed by an Instagram person faking a celebrity i talked with this scammer 8 months via WhatsApp and I sent money to them via Bitcoin then I was cohered to give my banking login and from there they hustled me out of my 20k from the unemployment money they said oh I routed money to your account and never gave me time to verify that was my unemployment money. They were really patient with me and waited 8 months for my payment then I exposed them...by video on WhatsApp.They asked me to bitcoin the money via atm. But for the timely intervention of Mr. Larry Wizard , who just in kick-off on time got back my $20,000. He is really good at what he does, I have recommended him to friends and co-workers who all became satisfied customers. He has helped me a lot in the trading industry, you can reach him at (Larrywizardhacking57@gmail.com) for Everything. Hacking and Funds Recovering he is the best and has different skills in funds recovering and exposing scammers. Am glad and happy to recover back my money
    (Larrywizardhacking57@gmail.com) WhatsApp +971551744806 You can also
    text or call +971551744806.

    ReplyDelete