Free Republic

I'm sorry, I seldom post. But I think you 'spoke' hastily. We are active duty, and moved to NOLA in July.

Thank God we did have insurance, but it only adds to our pain to read sentiments such as yours. We are still living in a temporary, rented furniture situation. It's a bare bones sort of thing right now. Our lives have definitely had a surreal quality since Aug. 29th. There's life across the USA....football games, music lessons, etc...and then there's us...the Gulf Coast, where the climbing out from the devastation just doesn't seem to end...parallel lives...ones WE are living so that you have the freedom of speech...to bash us.

>>You ladies are amazing................and make me embarrassed when I feel overwhelmed with just one..........>>

I was overwhelmed with just one as well. You really do grow along with them into the job. Ten are far easier than two or three. Promise.

One last one.
I invariably hear, when folks learn that I have ten, :

"We know what you've been doing!"

I finally came up with a nonembarrassing reply:

"Yes, lots of laundry!"

Your comment reminded me of the time a Capt . in the Navy said to me, who was pregnant with number 4 or 5:

"Don't you know what causes that?"

Before my better sense could could prevail, I quipped back:

"Ahh, but we ENJOY what causes that!"

He blushed and so did I.

Another time, a stranger, upon learning that I was pregnant with number 8, sidled over to my young teen daughter at Price Club, and says, "You should buy your parents a TV for their anniversary".

She didn't get it, thankfully. But I said to him in an aside,
"oh, no, not a TV! There's too much sex on TV these days!"

LOL

Thanks for your comment on amnio. We are also prolife. Our 8th child has Downs. We didn't find out about the Downs until 3 hours after birth. Noone knew whether or not to congratulate us or to extend condolences. The whole birth experience was sad, overwhelming, and emotionally exhausting. I had no clue we would have a special needs child, and I wasn't on God's sign-up sheet that I knew of! LOL Today she is a rambunctious, delightful, tiring six-year old. She does add a lot of strain, and she does add a lot of joy. When I get overwhelmed and weary, I just think about "when you do it for the least of these, you do it for Me." Not that she's least in my sight, mind you.

However, on our tenth child, I had an amnio. I just couldn't face another delivery day surprise. I wanted to be emotionally prepared, ready to welcome whoever God sent. I'm so glad I did it! We moved a month before delivery, and in the midst of that upheaval, the peace of mind helped a lot.

Ten kids are a piece of cake, but a special needs child is the icing. We are all grateful that God chose us.

>>A child with constant correction but no fun will be an adult who is incapable of happiness (he can't believe it is possible). A child with no correction will be an adult who is incapable of happiness (he believes it is possible but can never find it).>>

Well put.

I have a *great* book to recommend. It's called "Child Training Tips by Reb Bradley. Available at Amazon.


Some of the topics:

>Can children obey when spooken to calmly and only one time?

>Can different children be held to the same standard?

>How can a parent determine if a toddler understands simple directions?

>What are the characteristics of rebellion?

>What is a "child-run" home? How can parental control be regained?

>What exactly is "sass" and how can it be stopped?

Practical, wise, helpful!
MotherOfTen

I'm with you.
We have ten, the youngest is 2, and a total of three preschoolers. We sit together through the 90 minute sermon easily. Libraries and restaurants are a breeze. I don't think we have ever gone out to eat, in toto, without someone coming up and remarking on the behavior of our children.

Ok, So some observations.
First child training...we have three simple rules for the uninitiated:
1. Obedience should be first time obedience. You'll never yell at your kids.
2. Obedience should be sweet and cheerful.
3. Delayed obedience is disobedience.

Other observations:
If you read at HSLDA's website (www. hslda.org) you will realize that the great frontier of family terrorism is the dreaded new Gestapo- Child Protective Services. Horror stories abound. Liberals consider spanking to be child abuse. Now I don't know how you are going to have authoirty with no real consequences, but the restaurant/ public places stories recounted by my fellow freepers all attest to the folly of this permissive parenting.

We actually enjoy our children immensely- all of them. the best part of all is that the teen years so far ( we have 5 who are 14 tears old and up) have not been what we feared- tug-of-wars, rebellion, youthful alienation. Instead, they are our best friends.

One last thing. We ask successful families as we meet them, what they consider to be key ingredients for the homes they have so wonderfully built. We all expect to hear about making your children mind, giving chores,etc. But one recurrent theme is, we have FUN with our kids. Camping, joking, playing...we make it a point to HAVE LOTS of Fun.

And I second that!

Goldstategop,
Are you sure there's no right to privacy in the constitution? Here's what I'm thinking...the reason for the Bill of Rights was to lay out the minimum rights; and even then, there was strong disagreement about including the BillOR lest our rights be limited to those enumerated. My understanding- and correct me if I'm wrong- is that ALL rights were reserved to the people that were not expressly forbidden, and that the Bill O.R. was simply a bare bones enumeration of SOME of those rights.
Mind you, I abhor Roe V Wade. But I have rethought lately the whole right to privacy issue. Of course, you do not have a right to privacy to commit murder or any other crime, which thus precludes killing unborn babies.
What thinkest thou?

>>This is a serious question: Why the vehemence against an objective measure like a standardized test? >>

Because it is not necessarily objective. Some of the questions are biased towards political correctness. We have encountered questions about the current PC crowd's heros, with no questions at all about George Washington,etc.

State mandated tests force homeschoolers to teach to the test, and thus dictate curriculum.

Mind you, my oldest two did take the tests, and are National Merit Scholars. But I am still against *mandated* testing. First, it yields the premise that the state cares more for our children to succeed than we do, and then it yields the premise that the state has authority over the education of children. Children do not belong to the state...that is the jurisdiction of families.

Tiamat,
Yes, ten. And I am so very grateful to have them.

And I will say this as kindly as I can, and wish you well. But the viewpoints that you are espousing in your previous posts are,IMHO, part of the problem.

And of course, not all women demanded it. My father-in-law had the reaction of "they demanded it, so make them do it."

But as I said to him, where does that leave us? We have raised our daughters to be keepers at home: traditional wives and mothers. In fact, we believe it is a sin to not do so. What, would we have to go to jail?

And I won't even vent about the reduced standards in the military academies, etc. Androgeny indeed!

My thoughts turn more and more to thoughts that we live in an age of tyranny.

LOL! Your comment reminds me of another Freeper's post about whores near the bus stop...and then the "whores" got on the bus.

This may sound radical, but we just don't wear jeans. Our girls wear dresses, and they think 3 inches below the knee is too short. No, we don't look frumpy...but we do look like chaste, pretty GIRLS!
Even my college girl wears dresses...but then, she is often mistaken for faculty. LOL I don't think this would work if we weren't homeschooling. My kids consider themselves countercultural.

One key here is that we won our daughters' hearts, and this isn't just a topdown imposition from the parents.

>>Firestarters are sick and not necessarily muslim terrorists.>>

They aren't sick...they are choosing evil.

>> That's interesting, because we see the people from what we call "Pretentia Shores Estates" paying for their groceries with credit cards. >>

Hey! Wait a minute! LOL! I always pay for my groceries with a credit card! It's a smart thing to do...I have 5 free air tickets as a result. Of course, I pay the thing in full every month.

>>My ex-mother-in-law gave my ex-wife the formula.
"Keep his stomach full and his cock empty".

Note, 'ex-' >>


Now wait a minute, Vinnie. That formula has been just about totally tossed out as a bare basic formula. I don't often meet women who like to cook anymore. And the divorce rate is through the roof.

I always thought that formula, vulgar and earthy as it is, actually represented a great deal of wisdom. I would have worded it differently, (blush) but it does show a home focus (cooking takes time), and a focus on pleasing your man. Like the original game plan...woman as man's helper.

>>You can spend a lot of money homeschooling, but $4000, unless you have 10 kids,>>

Well, I DO have ten kids! LOL And I have yet to spend more than $400.00 on ALL of them in a school year! We do use Abeka science, language, and history, and Saxon math. Perhaps they meant Abeka video - that would cost around $1,000 per student per school year, give or take a little. We've been homeschooling for 15 years, and our oldest two are now in college. :)

Here's the contac info link:

http://www.walmart.com/cservice/cu_stores.gsp?NavMode=8

We should all freep away!

First off, I agree with your spirit. :)

And I consider the CPS the 'New Gestapo". I have a very healthy fear of ever getting on their radar.

>> They can come into your house with no probable cause, no proof, and no warrant.>>

But this is not true. CPS had to settle with the Calabretta family in California for thousands of dollars for doing that. HSLDA counsels that you NEVER let them in your house unless they have a warrant. If you are a homeschooler, you are wise to belong to HSLDA, and in the event of CPS coming to your door, call HSLDA and hand the phone to the social worker.

There are other strategies to protect yourself in case of contact, such as preempting them by having your private physician examine your children.

However with the subjectivity of the above bill, none of us are safe. The liberals no longer see education as the focus of the public school, but socialization. Which of course translates into being indoctrinated with liberal/Marxist ideology.

Thank God we only have two more years of military duty here, and then we can return to the South, the land of the Bible Belt.

I live on the sub-base...I can see her now.