PLEASE--NEVER START A SENTENCE WITH "MY MOM SAYS..."

To all of you who have listened to Stacis version of why we have the change of Daylight Savings Time and how we name hurricanes.. I am going to explain my side of things!---was I wrong in doing so or was I right in my explanations..... Staci won't let me forget it.. I think I did what any mother would do----after so many whys!!!!!!!

A little background first... I have a daughter named Staci. She, at a very young age (as soon as she could talk) would ask question after question after question... until a normal sweet kind mother (myself :-) would go crazy.....

Staci had been around adults until she was almost 5 when her sister was born. Being with adults I think a child asks more questions and gets more attention. And let me tell you she could ask the questions! I was working, a mom and pregnant and to be honest sometimes we moms get sick of answering the why question! Staci has two issues that she won't let me forget.

Issue #1
I believe Staci was kindergarten.... and I told her she would have to go to bed earlier as the clock would be changed and she would lose an hour of sleep. Good Lord... it started.. Why do I have to go to bed early.. can't you leave the clock... Why don't you change it all the time...etc you get the picture.... so I tried to explain why we did the time change but she was little and had that look like.. what are you talking about .. so like any busy, tired mom I told her that we changed the clock so that it would be lighter in the morning for the school bus driver to pick up the children. Now at that time she was absolutely fine with the answer. Seemed to accept it with no problem!

Issue#2
We were watching television and Staci was about 5 or 6 and the news was showing terrible wind and rain and weather and they were referring to it as Hurricane Frances or some such name. She asked who was Frances and I explained it was a Hurricane named Frances. So then it began.. Why is Frances making it rain.. Why do they call it Frances.. more of the Whys... I tried explaining it to her and when she said why did the mommy name it Frances I told her that whoever spotted the hurricane could name it! Simple for her. She quit with the whys...

Now, 20 years later you would think I caused her to need therapy over these issues. What brought me to blog about it is that she brought it up again last weekend. Please... enough already. I pay my school taxes. I certainly thought that the Ionia School system would teach her at least 2 things while she was there for 13 years. She would learn in Science about the naming of hurricanes and about Daylight Savings Time... oh no.. she must have been "socializing" while the teacher taught those two subjects. To this day she states that she never learned either one in school....until college.

Yes, while at Western Michigan University, at the cost of at least $15,000 per year, she did learn two things for sure. One being the truth about Daylight Savings.. and another about the naming of Hurricanes.

I received a call one day from her.. in her class no less (thanks to the invention of take anywhere cell phones). She said, "Mom, I am arguing here with the Professor.. he was talking about the Daylight Savings Time and I told him that my mom said it was so that the bus drivers could see the kids in the daylight--The entire class laughed at me." Well, hello-----you didn't learn about that in Elementary--Middle School or High School???????? Nope--- she didn't. But she trusts her mommy, so my little girl was arguing the point because her mommy said it was for the bus drivers!!!! Uggh! Then talking to friends, told them about the naming of the hurricanes which resulted in another upset mad phone call to me.....

Why am I blogging this? For you moms with small kids...... regardless how over their head it is... explain, explain,explain.. otherwise this could happen to you.

I certainly would have taken the time and answered her 20 million whys to the truth if I thought she understood it... I never had a clue she would go thru life, into college, unaware of why she is really re-setting her clock twice a year! I had more faith in our education system!

Staci brought this up again a couple weeks ago... I am thinking maybe for her birthday I will get her a gift certificate for some therapy so she can finally get over this! I would welcome comments from you other moms!

The best part of the story??? Being on the phone when your child calls from their college class and proceeds to ask you, while in class so that they can correct the professor, these questions!

I have asked her to never start a sentence with "My mom says" anymore! So if anybody hears her starting a sentence that way... keep an open mind!