Chicago Moms Blog

AIG Executives Should Give Back Bonuses

Yesterday's news report on the insurance giant AIG really pissed me off.  I know I'm not alone in feeling this way as Twitter, Facebook and the blogs are all showing the emotions of others who are steamed at the thought of a bailed-out bank doling out $165 million dollars in bonuses.  On my Facebook profile this morning, I posted how I felt:

"AIG executives need to step forward and decline those bonuses.  It's the right thing to do."

Within a short time, there were several who responded and shared their outrage as well.

"They have the nerve to ask for a bail out;then turn around and still give bonuses??" 

"And they say that it is in their contract to receive those big bonuses. But as far as I am concerned, the contracts should be voided when you are using taxpayer's money."

According to the Huffington Post, the top 50 executives will receive the bonuses averaging about $112,000 each.  AIG's lawyers insist that that the bonuses have to be paid out as part of their 2008 contracts or the company would face lawsuits.  Seven of the top 50 executives have agreed not to accept the bonus money.

Only seven?

Insurance Companies and Hearing Aids--The Time is Now

There's a drawer in my kitchen that's full of batteries, earmolds, cases, tubes--plus a tube blower.  The drawer holds the vital stuff that powers my family's ten hearing aids.  Yes, that's right. There are five of us with a hearing aid perched on each ear.  Well, make that four of us-- the hubby has a broken hearing aid sitting in the kitchen drawer.  I also have extended family members who sport hearing aids of every kind on their ears.

Thank goodness that insurance companies provide insurance coverage for hearing aids, you may think to yourself.

But they don't.

When the Oldest Kid Starts Driving

I have now entered the scary stage of motherhood.  My oldest son officially is a card-carrying member of the "Behind the Wheel" club, the proud owner of a slip of paper that allows him to operate a moving vehicle in the company of an adult. 

"Do you want to drive home?" I asked him after we left the Department of Motor Vehicles office. 

"Yes!" he said, barely containing the excitement on his face. He grabbed the keys from me and walked around to the driver's side.  As I watched my son get behind the wheel of my van, I found myself wrestling with a kaleidoscope of feelings. 

I wasn't ready for this.

As he moved along the road, I tried to hide my anxiety and calm my pounding heart.  I tried to keep my signs to a minimum, so that he could keep his eyes on the road.

From Part-Time to Full-Time

On Tuesday evening, I'm getting on a plane and heading out for a week of training for a brand new job.  A full-time job as the Sales Manager for CSDVRS, a videophone company.

The last time that I worked full-time was back when my oldest son was born, fifteen years ago.  Yes, that's right.  Fifteen whole years.  When my son was two months old, I went back to work full-time and left him with a trusted friend.  By the end of the first month, I knew I didn't want to continue the 8:30 to 4:30 routine.

Finding Support Through Hands & Voices

"Your son has a severe-to-profound hearing loss," the audiologist said very matter-of-factly.  This was nearly thirteen years ago.  My husband and I were sitting in the office at a local hospital.  It wasn't too much of a surprise, although still a shock, to have our suspicions confirmed.

A few years later, kid number two and three were diagnosed as well.  Suddenly, we were a family with ten hearing aids and an entire kitchen drawer devoted to batteries, tubes and a tube blower.

Hanging On Tight to my Parents

When I said goodbye to my Mom this morning, I hugged her a little longer than usual. 

There's a quiet little voice inside of me that reminds me to be aware of time.  My Mom turned 80 this year and my Dad will soon celebrate his 84th birthday.  Both of them are in great health-- considering that my Mom survived three heart attacks and my Dad battled prostate cancer a few years back.

My husband's parents are a bit younger than my parents and they've had their share of overcoming challenges.  My mother-in-law has macular degeneration and had to stop driving several years ago.  "I don't mind getting older," she once said. "But not being able to get in the car and go where I want to whenever I want-- that is the hardest thing for me to deal with."  My father-in-law has had several surgeries to replace both hips and one knee.  Some days, it is hard for him to get around and other days he is able to move around easily.

"Official Moms" Sling Their Babies, Motrin Says

I'm usually on Twitter several times a day, but over the weekend, I completely unplugged and spent the time hanging with my kids and a bunch of other moms.  As I sat down at the computer this morning, I immediately discovered that there was a media firestorm aimed at an ad produced by Motrin.com.

Here's a view of the ad over on YouTube: Motrin, We Feel Your Pain.

As the first words appeared, my first thought was-- cool, a text-based ad that I can actually access!  So many video ads are done by voice only and being deaf, I can't access them. I sat back to watch the ad. 

"Wearing your baby seems to be in fashion," it begins.  As I watched the rest of the words scroll through, I started shaking my head. "Supposedly it's a real bonding experience," the ad sneers. "Plus it totally makes me look like an official mom," it goes on.  It wraps up with: "So if I look tired and crazy, people will understand why." As the last words flashed on the screen, I had to ask:

How the heck did this get approved by a marketing team and then ultimately, the team that approves ads for Motrin products?

Girl's Night Out with Chicago Moms Bloggers

Last night, I attended the Girl's Night Out event hosted by Sparkplugging and Epson, in collaboration with One2One Network. I was a little nervous attending the event, because I wasn't sure if I would have an interpreter there.  I had emailed the interpreter agency two weeks before and then sent out an email to see if they had gotten my request.  Apparently they hadn't.  They scrambled to find an interpreter and then asked if the interpreter could bring a child with since there was no sitter available.

I said yes, as I really wanted to be able to connect at the event without straining to lipread.

Economical Lessons From My Parents

When it comes to managing money, my parents are experts.  And they're damn good at it. I used to joke that my mom could squeeze a quarter from a penny.  That's not too far from the truth.

My parents are in their 80s and living a nice, middle-class retirement.  It certainly wasn't easy getting there.  My father went off to join the Marines as a teen and fought in World War II.  He stopped going to school in sixth grade--my mom finished her education in eighth grade.  Both of them went to work at a young age.  They grew up in rural Ste. Genevieve, a small town in Missouri.  Together, they raised five children on an income that was pretty tight.   

Join us for the Chicago Moms Blog Donors Choose Challenge!

Here at Chicago Mom's Blog and our sister sites, we are rising up to the worldwide 2008 DonorsChoose.org Bloggers Challenge to help thousands of kids in high-need public schools.  Last year during the 2007 Blogger Challenge, internet history was made in one short month: more than 100 bloggers raised $420,000 for school projects on DonorsChoose.org.  This year, we're aiming to make internet history again.

 

DonorsChoose.org is the brainchild of Charles Best and a group of teachers from the Bronx.  Charles, a science teacher, was frustrated at the lack of materials in the classrooms.  He saw how the students were affected by not having adequate materials to teach and work with. He set up DonorsChoose.org to pair donors with educational projects all over the world.  The beauty of DonorsChoose.org is that donors have complete control over which projects they choose to donate to.