PreK360

Yesterday my mom and I went shopping for a dress for my son’s graduation.  I found two dresses, one for the ceremony and one for the party.  Just like when I was a kid, my mom took me shopping and I came home with more than I really needed. Just like when I was a kid, my mom and I talked, laughed, shared, and completely relaxed as we shopped ’til we dropped.

When I was growing up, after every mother/daughter shopping spree, I would subject my dad to a fashion show. The very cool thing is, he would sit patiently while I put on EVERY SINGLE new thing I got in every combination possible.  My dad was a very busy dad, yet he would stop and attend to me, just me, for as long as it took.

I clearly remember his attention, his praise, how he would stop whatever he was doing and make me feel like gold as I paraded for him my new stuff.  Half of the fun was the shopping, but it was just as much fun to race home, lay everything out on my bed, and proceed to show the most important man of my life my new clothes.

My dad helps me around the house and today he stopped by and mowed my yard for me.  As soon as he was done guess what I did?  I showed him my new dresses!  Just like the good ‘ol days, he told me how pretty they were, how he loved the colors, and he just had to ask if I really need a new pair of shoes for EACH dress or if I could just get by with one pair for both. (DUH! Of course I need a new pair for each dress!  Did I not teach him anything?)

My dad warmed my heart as a child, he made me feel important, he praised me, and he loved me.  Dearly.  And he still does.  I love how he treated me as I was growing up.  I wish all children could have the type of love and attention my dad gave me, and gives me.  I am so blessed.

In honor of the Week of the Young Child, I challenge all adults, with the distractions of technology, work, housework, and yard work, to stop everything we are doing and just give attention and shower praise on the children in our lives this week.

I know firsthand just  how wonderful this is for a child.  It’s my hope that today a child in your life will be blessed with your attention and praise. It is my hope for everyday.  In fact, let’s change it to Day of the Young Child and celebrate little ones everyday!

Photo on Flickr by betsyjean79

The following information is from e medicine health.

Choking is a true medical emergency that requires fast, appropriate action by anyone available. Emergency medical teams may not arrive in time to save a choking person’s life.

In children, choking is often caused by chewing food incompletely, attempting to eat large pieces of food or too much food at one time, or eating hard candy. Children also put small objects in their mouths, which may become lodged in their throat. Nuts, pins, marbles, or coins, for example, create a choking hazard. In the United States, almost 200 children die each year from choking, most of them younger than four years of age, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is estimated that more than 17,500 children 14 years of age or younger are treated in U.S. emergency departments for choking episodes annually

Someone who cannot answer by speaking and can only nod the head has a complete airway obstruction and needs emergency help.

Please click here to learn more about the signs of choking and what to do when it happens.

I share this with you because a few days ago my daughter choked on a mozzarella stick and was not able to breathe. Though I tried to help her I was in such a panic that I wasn’t able to.  Thankfully a fast-thinking restaurant employee did know what to do and consequently, saved my daughter’s life.

Choking is actually quite common. The last preschool consultation visit I went on I was told that they no longer serve hot dogs because a 3-year-old recently took a bite while walking with his lunch tray to the table and choked on it.  He wasn’t able to breath, but again, an adult knew what to do and saved him.

Would you know what to do?  Would you be able to do it in an emergency situation?

I thought I did.  I thought I could.

I found out the hard way that I didn’t so now I am taking steps to prepare for the next time I’m with someone who is choking.

I don’t think it’s a matter of if, but of when.

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• What Should You Do If Someone is Choking? (homesecuritysource.com)
• Hot Dogs, Choking, and Child Safety (usnews.com)
• A Hot Dog Patty? (homesecuritysource.com)
• More awareness needed of risk of kids choking (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Pediatricians Urge Choking Warning Labels for Food (abcnews.go.com)

Today I was in the YMCA woman’s locker room when I overheard a conversation taking place between two young women in the row of lockers next to mine.  One of these young “ladies” was complaining about a member of her family and thought it necessary to use about every version of the F word imaginable in her description of what this person did and how she felt about it.  She was unabashedly bold in both her descriptions and her voice level.

I tried to ignore it…for about 8 seconds.

And then a thought occurred to me, “how can an advocate for children stand for this, in a public place, where children are present?” So I did the most reasonable thing possible…I told on her!

It reminded me of my childhood.  I have a cousin who is a couple years younger than me.  When we were growing up my brother and I and the other cousins used to torment her.  As the teasing droned on my cousin would inevitably stomp her little foot, squeeze her tender fist into tight balls, and SCREAM at the very top of her petite squeaky voice,  “YOUR TOLD ON!”  She would then proceed to stomp, like an elephant in a china shop, to follow through with her promise of tattling.

So today, after a quick peek at the young woman mouthing the offensive language told me she could, and most likely would, use her not-so-tender fist to rearrange my face if I asked her to please stop shouting naughty words out loud, I, just like my little cousin so long ago, stomped to the front counter at the Y and told on her!

I’d like to extend a thank you to the nice young woman to whom I tattled,  who immediately proceed to have a talk with the one spewing the offensive language, which, thankfully, came to an abrupt halt upon “getting in trouble” with the YMCA staff.

One of my own children once asked me how naughty words, and the naughty finger, came to be naughty. I didn’t have an answer for him.  I guess I still don’t, but we all know they are inappropriate, so why is it that filthy language is becoming more and more common place in public?

This trend is unsettling, and unnerving, and unfair, to young children and their parents who don’t want their children to be exposed to filth.  I don’t use language like that at home, and I don’t want my children, or yours, or any children, to hear it while at the Y, or at Wal-Mart, or in the movie theater.  I don’t want to feel like I can’t take my children out in public for fear they will be exposed to the very things I passionately try to protect them from.

When I hear people use the F-bomb in public, especially in the presence of children, I feel somewhat terrorized, kind of like a real bomb just dropped, leaving me dazed and confused and leaving a wake of destruction in its path.

Speaking up, protecting children’s young innocence from such negative influence, is our adult responsibility, even if it means using that ageless child-like tactic known as tattling.

How have you stepped up to the plate to protect children?  Please share your stories and inspire all of us to do what it takes to do what’s right for children.

Photo on Flickr by yoshiffles