Update, of sorts

Tags

christmas, icu, kids, pain, pregnancy, sadness, surgery

There have been many “happy christmas”, “season’s greetings”, “merry christmas”, and “blessed yule” swirling about lately, and it has actually gotten to me. I’m not depressed as such, but I am feeling rather twitchy.

Last night I cried myself to sleep. It’s the the first time since August of this year. I got to thinking of how I was damn lucky that I had the strength to call for an ambulance to get me to hospital – where I promptly fell unconscious and was in ICU for over a week.

I live alone, and generally I don’t mind being alone — solitary time can be good and I generally enjoy it. But being alone terrifies me now. My two cats do not have the ability to take care of me. I don’t have a partner, I don’t have kids, I don’t live with my parents or anywhere near them. I am terrified each and every single night that I will not wake up in the morning.

During this festive season this has all come roaring back for me – how alone I truly am, how when I go home at night there’s nothing except for the two cats and my tenacious grasp on living. But each time I get sick it’s that much harder to recover. Before the surgery two years ago I tended to bounce back quite easily after surgeries… but the one two years ago wiped me out, and I was in ICU for 5 days after falling unconscious and my blood pressure plunged to dangerous levels … just a few scant hours after being moved from Post-Op to the ward.

The surgery 2 years ago was so bad that it was highly recommended that I not even contemplate having kids — the strain of a pregnancy and the birth could very well kill me.

So during this Festive period I get quite sad, because of all that I will never have .. I will never have kids, grandkids, and I have no partner. So if you don’t get a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays from me, it isn’t because I don’t care .. it’s cos deep down I’m shutting down.

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Homework a Homewrecker

Tags

homework, kids

I enjoy reading the Toronto Star online, and not because by reading online I save any trees – though that is a good outcome. I mostly read it online as it helps with not cluttering up my tiny apartment with excessive newsprint like the sports section.

I did find an interesting article on how homework is a homewrecker. The gist of this report on education is that children have too much homework each day. It cuts into family time, which is the biggest complaint from parents. Now the odd thing is that most schools in the province of Ontario finish classes between 3:00-3:30pm, and if the kid happens to be in secondary school, depending on their spares, they may actually finish by anywhere between 12:00 noon to 3:30pm. Parents are still working during these hours and what are the kids doing? Shit all is what they are doing. These kids have many hours to complete their homework and still have family time, but they choose to piss the time away on video games, watching television and chatting on the phone with friends. Then come the evening it’s “mum, dad, I have like two hours of homework…help”.

In Letters to the Editor this morning two letters stuck out for me:

I have three grandchildren who are in senior kindergarten to Grade 2. I think children should have enough time to do 30 minutes of homework each night. These same children spend at least two hours a night watching mindless TV or playing video games, so they have plenty of time to do homework.

But not all homework leads to a learning experience. Students are sometimes given elaborate projects where the parents do most of the work, and this generates little benefit for the child. Assignments that can be completed by children on their own are the most beneficial.

I am convinced that a good deal of true learning takes place when children solve a problem on their own, and that is often done while doing homework.

Michael D. Smith, Oakville

My kids are 4 and 6, and they enjoy doing their homework. Their teachers provide fun, challenging exercises for both. They also enjoy completing their homework and doing it well. They love to show us their finished work. They love to read all the books that come home with them, and we love to read with them. They feel good about all that they achieve.

They have an hour or more to play right after school, and then they have an hour within which they can do homework, but it never takes that long.

There is a balance. Play is good, but so is homework. It prepares them. I can’t help but wonder if the parents are stressing out more than the children.

Sarah Eddenden, Brooklin, Ont.

Homework is necessary. If any of these parents expect their sprogs to do well in university the kids need to get use to homework. If nothing else it teaches them discipline, time management, and develops their abilities to focus. All necessary skills for university and for life within the workforce.

These complaints from parents about too much homework feeds into the underlying problems within society with regards to kids – they are coddled to the point that they are not self-sufficient.