We don’t have a television, but my younger son and I sometimes watch YouTube together. His favorite? Funny cat videos. Here are a couple that we watched this morning–thank goodness he didn’t “get” the ending of the second one. Watch them in order–hilarious!!!
It’s a small world, Jason at Gorilla Sushi is the person who first Stumbled this next one. 
Photo by Miss Magnolia Thunderpussy
My oldest son was born right when the self-esteem movement was really taking off. He also happens to be very intelligent. Of course, everyone around him told him what a smart boy he was. He believed it, and it was true, so why not?
Perhaps gushing about my son’s intelligence wasn’t the best thing to have done. I recently read a study that showed that children who have been told that they are smart resist doing difficult tasks, because the hard work involved in completing the task is threatening to their sense of identity. It makes sense.
How many of you have said something like, “I made an 85 on the test, which isn’t bad, because I didn’t study.”
As a teenager, I said this sort of thing all the time, and I never studied. If I had studied and gotten a B, then I wouldn’t have felt as smart, whereas if I didn’t study, I could even fail the test without my self-esteem being challenged.
My son is a lot like me. I hope that someday he learns that it’s okay for things to be difficult. I’d hate to see him limit himself to the easy things in life.
It’s taken me a long time to learn this lesson.
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I have a novel that I finished three chapters of and abandoned. I was really excited to get an invitation to join a local writer’s group. The first meeting was today, and what we focused on was accountability. So, it’s a bit like a class, really. We’ll email each other the chapters that we promised we’d write by the date we promised we’d write them. I’ve been needing this for quite a while. I wonder if there are any blogging support groups? I know there have been times I’ve needed one!
I absolutely could not live in Washington or Oregon. I’ve considered it before, because they are beautiful places with the added benefit of cool people. Still. Today has been dark and rainy, with 50 degree temperatures. I’ve never heard of it happening before, but I believe it may be possible to get Seasonal Affective Disorder in only one day.
At the library tutoring, I told my student, “Sorry, I’m so tired I can hardly speak.” He asked hopefully if I might prefer to go home and get some rest. I know this exhaustion has to do with the weather. I don’t see how folks up North deal with it. Give me a desert any day.
