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Tanara McCauley

~ Love Knows Color

Tanara McCauley

Tag Archives: kids

Unpopular

23 Friday May 2014

Posted by tanaramccauley in Faith, Relationships, and Other Topics

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

astigmatism, choices, daughters, eyeglasses, kids, lenses, moms, optometrist, optometry, parenting, popularity, understanding others, unpopular

eyeglasses

My oldest daughter wears glasses…sort of.

She has a prescription. And a set of lenses matching that prescription. And a nifty little case to put them in.

It’s a fight, however, to get the glasses out of their felt-coated den to perch stylishly upon her pretty little nose. They spend a lot of their time left at school, buried in her backpack, or “lost” in some obscure location that reeks of premeditation.

Because she has only mild astigmatism, she doesn’t need to wear them all the time. But not wearing them all the time and not wearing them ever are two different cookies.

I try to enlist the help of her optometrist to reiterate the importance of her glasses. If she wears them while she’s young and the condition is mild, her eyesight can be corrected. But if she doesn’t, she runs the risk of worsening her condition and needing eyeglasses on a more consistent, permanent basis.

He knows this. He’s the one who told it to me. Yet, year after year, he caves to the pleading look of nine-year-old doe eyes and the sound of a soft, shy voice, and mumbles something to the effect of, “Oh, I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

Avoiding the look I’m giving him, he laughs and talks with her about school like we’re on a social visit, only to side-speak with me later about different ways to get her to wear them at least when she’s reading or doing schoolwork.

So the need is there. But he chooses to stay cool doctor and leave the villainy to mom.

So villain I become…and private eye for lost lenses, and insurance rep for broken frames. Some days I explain it all over again, other times it’s “the look” and a simple, “Glasses. Now.” That gets results, though it doesn’t make me popular.

I’m sure my ratings would rise if I gave in and let her go glasses-free. Today anyway. In the future, if she did indeed graduate to a more permanent need for optical assistance, she’d regret that I didn’t stand my ground, maybe even resent me for it.

Because at the end of the day, it’s my job as a parent to do what’s best for her, and that’s not always what makes her happy or lets her feel good.

I imagine her older, walking out of a shopping mall (with a dagger in her pocket and a can of pepper spray in her purse like Mama taught her). She’ll take in the scenery around her with pristine clarity–without glasses. Not because she’s not wearing them, but because she no longer needs them. She won’t just see clearly then, she’ll understand too.

And she’ll thank me for it.

 

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Kids Come With! To China and Beyond…

18 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by tanaramccauley in Faith, Relationships, and Other Topics

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

adventure, Bahamas, Beijing, children, China, entertainment, escapades, family, Fiji, foreign food, Great Wall, Hawaii, kids, Korean bulgogi, Lego, meke, memories, Peking duck, poi, souvenirs, stay at home mom, travel

I’ve parasailed in the Bahamas, snorkeled the reefs of Hawa’ii, traipsed the rainforests of Puerto Rico, and danced the meke in Fiji; none of which – as awesome as they were – outshines one of my latest escapades: hiking up the great wall of China…with a twenty pound baby strapped to my front. Oh, and her kindergarten twin siblings at my heels.

And I had a blast doing it.

This new life, the one that comes with larger suitcases, excessive head counts, and hand sanitizer at the ready, is the antithesis of what I was nervous life as a stay-at-home-mom would be (though there are days when we stay in our pajamas and flaunt our very wild uncombed heads like they’re the new chic).

(Um…we’ll skip that picture).

The adventures of life are far from over. I behold a new sight, then get the added pleasure of watching my young ones behold it too. And dinner at home is easier to serve after they’ve braved foreign dishes like marinated octopus, Korean bulgogi, Peking duck, and Hawaiian poi (some of which received rave reviews, and others to which they replied, “Maybe I’ll like it when I’m older” – respectful kid-speak for “Ugh! That’s really gross!”).

Of course we travel less often. Nothing depletes the entertainment fund faster than three extra tickets, three extra plates, three extra attraction entry fees, and a host of “kid souvenirs” (a.k.a. easily broken toys). But when we go to a place where “memories that will last a lifetime” are on the list of amenities, we forego the stereotypical hype of getting away from our kids. We pack those extra bags, grab some mini Lego sets, make sure all the media devices have earphones and a years supply worth of batteries, and we board the plane.

Why? For many reasons. One, the time we have with them flies by in a blink, and even those days are not promised. So while we’ve got the time, we spend it with them. Also, we want them to know early on that the world is not confined to their little house and the small city it resides in. The world is huge…and their options in it are limitless. In addition, we adore these little people. They’re just fun to be around. And when it comes to the different landscapes and scenery, we just can’t help bragging to them about what a great job God did yet again. Of course we take time out as just a couple. But when we go big, they don’t stay home. We line our little ducks up and hit the open sky, or the open road, or the great big blue. Whatever the mode of travel, these kids come with, and I know we’ll treasure that choice as long as we live.

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