My Tin Foil Hat and Cowboy Boots



Alberta Pacific Grain CO, originally uploaded by bealluc.


Iris Evans made a comment last month about family life, childcare, education and mental illness. What she was supposed to be focusing on, as Alberta’s finance minister, was finance - and she was doing that. In fact, what she was proposing was pretty news worthy in itself - the ALBERTA BOOM apparently needs Five Billion Dollars after reporting its first deficient in more than 10 years. I’d hate to think what they would need had they been a “Have Not” province… not that I’m saying anything about how well she does her job at all. She would know the state of Alberta’s finances much better than I.

See what I did there? I admitted that I may not know the full picture.
I’m not saying I don’t have an opinion on it, though.

Just like Iris Evans has an opinion on how to raise children. She’s allowed an opinion. In fact, she has experience in this area. Apparently, she has raised her three sons through some of her own financial difficulties. So when she offhandedly remarked that good parenting requires one parent to stay home, admitting the financial sacrifice that this would incur, she had done some personal research in the area.
And even though this was her opinion and not a move toward changing government policy, the general public went a little wacko. She tried to apologize but the debate had begun and I still get the odd email with a link to her statements.

The thing is, Iris Evans said what a lot of people think. Hell, if more parents stayed at home then governments wouldn’t have to fund day cares or consider full time Kindergartens - regardless of the research proving the benefits for these programs on children’s development.

Five Billion Dollars.

If one parent stayed at home then perhaps we wouldn’t be using our tax dollars for funding those Baby Boomers and their nursing homes, either. They can move in with the grandkids!

Five Billion Dollars.

What about that comment regarding mental health issues? Seriously? We are up in arms about the Stay At Home Parent thing (which is nothing new) and let the fact that a former minister for Health and Wellness links parenting skill to deficiencies in mental health?!? Of course, parents who might be plunking their children in front of Sesame Street telling themselves that they are teaching their precious offspring to read are better simply because they are at home? I highly doubt this is what she was saying and yet… this is what she said.
Or perhaps children with mental health issues are less likely to be diagnosed at home? There are no educational professionals at home who notice warning signs, ask for tests, or begin early prevention. From my own experience, if a mother thinks there could be something wrong isn’t she a lot easier to dismiss as paranoid or “searching for perfection” than someone trained in Early Childhood Education?

Again, Five Billion Dollars.

I’m not trying to say Iris Evans is a part of a conspiracy to save the government billions of dollars in social care costs. No one listens to a conspiracy theorist on the internet (or off, really). However, to lump educating your children about the value of a dollar AND raising the stay at home parent flag AND the root cause of declining mental health all in one package either says she’s never had any coaching in public speaking, is extremely ignorant or maybe, just maybe… she’s getting good at her job.

This isn’t Franklin’s brain

Cerebral contusion from head trauma - any other visible injury?, originally uploaded by robhengxr.

I need to repeat that for the grandmothers and grandfathers who read this blog. This isn’t Franklin’s brain. We did not get his head x-rayed.
However, I think there is some kind of Medical Clinic ju ju fairy that read my last [...]

What a Week

London Pink Eye, originally uploaded by LondonSLR.

Sometimes you just need to flog, trudge, stamp and weep through a week. This week was the weeper, the trudger, the flogger and most definitely the stamper.
Saturday, the beginning of Father’s Day weekend. We had such plans. Actually, we didn’t have any plans. We were going to make it [...]

A better version of me

The other day I was at a staff barbeque and co-workers were getting all friendly and attempting casual conversation that didn’t have anything to do with work, work drama, or work gossip. It was going fairly well. I work with what seems so far (I’ve come back from maternity leave only a short while [...]

Strength

Great hammerhead shark (Sphyrna mokarran), originally uploaded by echeng.

Last night I was reading to Franklin about Hammerhead sharks. We were on the Mighty Hunters chapter of this shark book and on each shark they compare the size of the animal to the size of a ten year old boy. I’m not exactly sure why [...]

Crazy wierd people - and I’m not talking about myself

Lurie Garden at night, originally uploaded by wvallen.

So I’m a night gardener. I think I would like this new hobby it if I wasn’t freaked out half the time by well-meaning Australian dog walking men asking about my gardening theories through the chain link fence.These sorts of occasions make me wish I had an instant [...]

Things I would never see if I wasn’t on Twitter

Seriously. Jonas Brothers?
and he’s good looking…
oh my word, what have I done to my brain.

Something to consider

"Odd One Out"!!!!, originally uploaded by Pamela B.

I spent my lunch hour planting soy beans, watering some community plots and cutting the grass around my plot. It’s hot outside. Muggy and hot. H.O.T. It’s hot. Baby, it’s hot outside…
When I returned to the office a competent professional, I had a one inch mud line on [...]

Go Big or Go Home

Witty’s Lagoon, originally uploaded by TT_MAC.

On Friday, on my way to pick up Franklin from school, I got a call that Eliza had thrown up. I knew a call like this was bound to happen. This is what happens when you stick a group of children next to each other - they swap bodily [...]

Walter and Donny

Walter and Donny, originally uploaded by Ada I dirtyolive.

I love this photo. It is an excellent representation of the two of them. Even the fact that Franklin’s a little blurry and in the background and totally concentrating on something other than what’s going on around him - even though I’m calling his name at the [...]