Chicago Moms Blog

Shout Out for a Chicago Teacher! Help Us Help Budding Writers!

All month long, Chicago Moms Blog is raising money for projects at DonorsChoose.org,a non-profit organization that lets donors help fulfill teachers' needs for specific classroom projects.  I have chosen to highlight one such deserving project, Mrs. W's Writers' Workshop in her Chicago classroom. 

Here's Mrs. W's introduction:

I am a second grade classroom teacher in urban Illinois. The majority of students in my classroom are identified as English Language Learners and speak a variety of languages at home including Spanish, Polish and Urdu. Our classroom also includes many students with special needs. In all, I have about 30 students in my classroom that form a diverse and tight community!

He needs his mommy, and his mommy needs him

These days are psychologically challenging for me. I know my reality is a very fortunate one, knock on wood. I have a strong marriage, a healthy son, and—perhaps the rarest in these tough economic times—a job.

 

But like so many mothers, when I sit at that job day in and day out, my heart aches because I’m away from my baby. The irony is that I don’t really see myself as the stay-at-home mom type. In fact, sometimes just spending the entire day Saturday and Sunday with my son is trying for me. But those trials are the stuff of mundane life—the waffles thrown on the floor, the tantrums over putting on socks. The deeper, indescribable maternal core in me needs to be with him, even when my conscious self is ready to run away.

 

And when I sit in my cubicle, that maternal core is screaming. My need to be with my son feels like a thirst, an urge whose satiation is not optional. My mind says, Go to work, have it all and be grateful that you do. My heart tells me otherwise.

There's No Place Like Home?

I joined a moms' discussion group at my local park district recently.  This past week we had our second monthly meeting.  The topic was education. 

I mentioned that I was a former public school teacher, the third generation of educators in my family.  I got out of teaching because it was too overwhelming.  There was too much pressure to please everyone: the students, the parents, the administrators, and anybody else interested in high standardized test scores. 

I mentioned that I wasn't the only new teacher to get chewed up and spit out by the teaching profession.  A lot of teachers leave teaching because of job dissatisfaction, which is something that I knew from both anecdotal and statistical evidence.  I said that I was concerned about the quality of education my 18-month-old would receive in the public school system from kindergarten through high school graduation in 2025.  Then I added, "And homeschooling just isn't an option for us."

Weight Watchers Woes

Two months ago I wrote this post about my struggles with depression and the meds used to treat it.  About a month after writing it, I finally reached a point where I felt normal again, and happier than I had been in two years.

So, I figured, why not throw a wrench in things and shoot all that happiness to hell by going on a diet?  It seemed kind of necessary because, in addition to gaining a new perspective on life, I had gained 30 pounds during my recovery from depression. 

It was time to again travel the well-trod road to my local Weight Watchers branch.  (This is actually more of a metaphorically well-trod road, since technically the Weight Watchers had changed locations.  Not to mention the fact that I think the term "trod" refers to walking, and while I would have earned a lot of activity points by walking to Weight Watchers, I actually drove there.) 

The Couple Without Kids

Last night we hosted a very casual late summer/early fall barbecue.  I invited our usual guests, two other couples with one toddler each.  We always make a perfect group, since my husband and I are also a couple with one toddler. 

Then my husband decided we should invite another couple we know, a couple without kids. Apparently men don't realize the major shift in dynamics that happens to friendships when a child is born. 

This is not to say that I have no childless friends, or that I refuse to hang out with childless people.  It's just to say that I think it's cruel to make this poor couple endure a toddler-centric barbecue when they are the only people who don't yet have a toddler of their own.

Dear Museum, Sorry We Missed You

I was determined to do something interesting with my Labor Day weekend.  I always feel like a three-day weekend is wasted when you basically turn it into an extended version of your normal two-day weekend laundry-fest.  Three-day weekends mean you have to seize the opportunity to get out and do something really fun, something that lets you spit in the face of mundane responsibility and say, "Take that, Monday, I'm not at work today!" 

I decided our extra-fun, adventure-filled outing would be a trip to the Museum of Science and Industry.  My son (18 months) is really into trains, and they have a huge train exhibit.  Plus there's this giant pinball machine for my husband, and a replica of the original Jewel grocery store for me.  Something for everyone!  (Although, clearly, when your main interest is old-fashioned grocery stores, you really need to get a life.) 

A Silver Medal in Motherhood

By now I think we're all a little sick of the Olympic commentators' ability to make silver medalists look like complete losers.  "What's going through your mind right now?" they sympathetically ask the second best athlete in the world in his/her particular sport.  "What happened?"

Even as an Olympics viewer, I have bought into the whole "silver is trash" mentality.  I sit on my couch eating chips straight out of the bag, a million steps removed from the atheletic prowess of these Olympians, and say, "Damn, the American got silver." 

And then I step back.  It would be an honor just to medal, I tell myself.  It would be an honor just to be there. 

We're Date Night Flunkies

When I was pregnant, I was terrified that my husband and I would lose our connection after the baby was born.  I vowed to do everything in my power to get out as a couple for "date nights."  We wouldn't become those people who had no life outside of our child.  We wouldn't be those annoying people who didn't trust anybody to watch our precious child.

You can probably see where this is going.  We became those people. 

Who wants to think about Christmas?

I just had one of those "I have to blog this" moments.  It was the morning rush at the Starbucks drive-thru, which gave me a lot of time to sit in my car and stare at a poster in the window of the Hallmark store next door. 

The sign indicated that the 2008 Hallmark keepsake ornaments debuted July 12. 

July?!!!

I Should Not be Allowed to Own Electronics

My old Mac laptop from my single days crapped out a few months ago, leaving all forms of un-backed-up electronic media locked inside its defunct little walls.  (Yes, I know there are ways to recover these things.  No, I haven't done anything about that.) 

I realized yesterday that it was time for a replacement.  Husband was headed out of town with our other laptop, leaving my only computing option to be our desktop computer in the basement.  Now, while this is technically our newest, best computer, it is also located in our basement, home of all the boxes we never unpacked when we moved, umm, a year ago.  Being down there stresses me out.  I certianly didn't want to be trapped down there during my telecommuting day this week.