Word of The Day

Hello out there netizens. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a huge believer in the formality of language. There is a proper word for EVERYTHING. With such resources at our disposal I find it both sad and disheartening that so many words are woefully underused. In an effort to help make conversations both more accurate and entertaining I thought I would share some of these gems with you. Today’s choice –

OTIOSE

Idle, redundant, serving no useful purpose, sterile, fruitless. From the classical Latin ōtiōsus = ineffectual or superfluous

Example – Most people who comment on mainstream news sites are otiose.

So merry readers go forth and use this beautiful word. Show it off, spread the knowledge. The looks you get from people make it well worth the effort.

~Cheryl~

Well Hello Again

A quick break turned into an almost 2 year absence…. isn’t that the way it goes? I always meant to post but it seems life has a way of happening and things you “meant” to do get buried in the process.

Ah well, it’s never to late to start over. I had previously taken down all my posts just because I was throwing a woah is me pity party and had a “net-tantrum”. I’m going to be putting some, not all, of the posts back up. Reestablish myself as a netizen.

With the restart of my blog I’m going to be a little more realistic, aiming for once a week instead of everyday. It was starting to feel more like something I had to do instead of something I wanted to do.

So stay tuned… or don’t… your choice.

I Am A Bad Parent

This came as quite a shock to me, but apparently I am a bad parent. I am precisely the type of parent that is turning out kids that are going to run society into the ground. I am misguided and erroneous in the way I am raising my children. Care to guess why that is?

I think it is perfectly acceptable to give a child a swat to the ass if the situation calls for it.

I will start off my saying I was in NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM an abused child. Quite the opposite in fact. My parents were brilliant, loving, warm, caring and tolerant of my shennanigans to a fault. My Dad never had to spank me… not because I was a perfect child that never needed discipline but because it was understood that he could do it if he so chose. That niggly little threat hanging in the back of my mind was more often than not enough to keep me on the straight and narrow.

I think it’s a shame that parents have lost that power. Now before all you arm chair child abuse experts get your nickers in a twist let me be very clear. NO ONE SHOULD BEAT THEIR CHILD. PERIOD.  That’s appalling and anyone that does it should be locked away from society.

Let me define a swat to the ass for you. It is open hand tap to the rear end, hard enough for them to take notice, not hard enough to leave a mark. Once.  The only thing hurt in that scenario is their pride.  Now I have been told that it is deplorable that I would make my children afraid of me. To that I say give me a break, my kids are certainly not afraid of me, but they think twice before they act like a jerk. Also a little bit of parental fear is not a bad thing.

I have been told that I should consider where the behaviour is coming from and address the underlying issues. Talk with the child, explain why the behaviour is wrong, use it as a learning experience. To which I say… the behaviour is coming from a pre-teen child who is pissy because they are not getting their own way, the underlying issue being that they are a pre-teen child who is pissy becuase they are not getting their own way, I don’t need to explain why the behaviour is wrong, they know it’s wrong, that’s precisely why they are doing it. They’re playing the odds that if they keep it up long enough I’m going to crack and cave. And I’m going to make it a learning experience alright. They are going to learn that MOM’S WORD IS LAW.

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the matter. Whichever side of this particular fence you’re on I’d like to hear it. We may end up agreeing to disagree, but a little discourse is never a bad thing.

~Cheryl the OCM~

Truth Hurts

This is something I’ve been mulling over in my head for quite a while. I’ve let it bother me more than I likely should. It’s been niggling around at the back of my brain for longer than I should let it, so I’m finally going to let it out.

Several months ago I was having a conversation with someone who casually told me that they always warn people about me before they meet me. At first I laughed, then it kind of struck me that I’d just been backhandedly insulted. “What?” I said. “No, I don’t mean that in a bad way, it’s just sometimes is hard to know how to take you, you can be kind of abrasive.” That was the explanation. “Oh” I said while in my head thinking gee glad you didn’t mean that in a bad way.

The conversation continued on with more explanations which all boiled down to essentially the same point. I’m a bitch.

That bothered me. I didn’t let on to the person I was talking to just how much it bothered me, but it really hurt. I never thought of myself as someone who required a “warning label”. I’ve always joked that I am a bitch, but deep down I never realized that that’s exactly what most people thought of me.

You know what they say however, the truth hurts. The more I’ve thought about it, the more I realize just how true it is. I have a tendency to call it like I see it. I don’t sugar coat and I don’t pull punches. I am in no way, shape or form a tolerant person. Stupid people irritate me and I don’t hide it. For clarification, I don’t mean that someone who is lacking knowledge on a given subject, I’m talking about a person who wouldn’t know common sense if it slapped them. To me that is what stupid means.

I will occasionally give people the benefit of the doubt, but only once, and not for any extended length of time.

I think I might start up an advice column. Call it “The Truth Hurts”, I mean I might as well play to my strengths right. People can send me their situation and as an uninvolved third party I will just call it as I see it.

The OCM’s Dumb A$$ of the Day

Hello all, it’s a bright and sunny Thursday here in my little corner of the planet and I have to say that after enjoying some much needed and sorely missed vitamin D I’m in quite the mood.

I’ve recently started a new job in the downtown core of my city. This means I am seeing a whole lot of people every day on my way to and from the office. Anyone who knows me even a little bit is aware of my general attitude towards John Q Public. I am a firm believer that at least 50% of the population is made up of obliviots and they irritate me in a way that nothing else is capable of doing. I heard a great saying not to long ago, don’t remember where but that doesn’t make it any less true….

YOU CAN”T FIX STUPID.

I’m not sure how I am still surprised by people’s actions, but I am left baffled and amazed at least once a day by a citizen that for all intents and purposes looks to be a normal human being but turns out to be a complete dumb a$$. Thought I would share my find for today.

The Great Cross Walk Mystery

In Canada we have handy lighted signs to help out those who are perceptionally-challenged (meaning they lack the ability to look both ways before crossing a street). It flashes a friendly walking figure when it’s ok for you to cross and a great big menacing orange hand when it’s not. Seems pretty straightforward right?

WRONG – I watched a cell phone chatting, latte-carrying, stiletto wearing twit go strolling out into the street (in direct contradiction to the big orange hand) right in front of a car. Luckily for this numbskull the driver in question was paying attention and just barely managed to stop.  Now for most of us this would mean we would have had the bejeebus scared out of us, then apologized profusely to the driver then slink away in shame and embarrassment. Not for this awesome example of just how shallow the gene pool is getting, she proceeded to smack the hood of the car, flip the driver off and walk away head held high.

I wanted to chase her down and throttle her.  I didn’t of course… but I really wanted to.

How about you? What’s your best example?

Well that’s it for me for today, hope this post finds you well and happy! Thanks for stopping by

~Cheryl the OCM~

Quit Your Bitching

Hello all and welcome.  Today is just one of those days. I’m angry and I’m not quite sure why. I get this way sometimes. It’s to be expected I guess, you can’t be little miss merry sunshine all the time.  For the last while I have been watching people on FB, Twitter and out in the real world whine about how they have it so gosh darn rough. Someone cut them off, they didn’t get to go party because they couldn’t find a sitter, that guy at the drive thru screwed up their order, and on and on and on and on. Every once in a while I want to scream at these people. I want to get right in there face and say “Oh ya,  I’m going to have to bury my first born child, how’s that for a bad day?”. I want to do it just to see the look on their faces. I want to see that look of shame in their eyes as they realize just how good their lives really are. Does that make me a bad person? Probably. Do I give a rat’s ass? No.

I wanted to write this post so that people would have something to look at the next time they think that things are so darn bad. Give them something to really think about and maybe appreciate their lives a little more.

With my son Jamie, there will never be a first word. There will be no first step.  He will never hear me tell him a bed time story. He will never see a sunset.  There will be no first dance, none of the childhood wonderment for special occasions.

He has to fight for everything. Every moment, every breath and it is a battle that he will eventually lose and he will be gone without ever knowing how much he is loved.

I encourage you to bookmark this page, the next time you think that your life is so damned horrible, give this a read. Then see if you still think that way.

~Cheryl the OCM~

The Competitive Parent

Hello friends and welcome to Pot Luck Saturday here at the OCM. Today my randomly generated topic comes from my daughters new venture into the world of competitive gymnastics. She is excited and I am super proud. Gymnastics makes her happy and she has fun and for me that is what counts.

What I was a little unprepared for was my new role.  I knew from the literature that I would be expected to help with fundraising, and I would be expected to help out at club events. I am ready for that, what I wasn’t expecting was that I would be scrutinized by the more established “competitive mom’s”. “Oh this is Sam’s mom, she’s new” was how I was introduced and was generally greeted with a slight head nod and a critical once over. It was a wee bit uncomfortable. The other mother’s were dressed impeccably, hair done, makeup on the whole 9 yards. I was in jeans and a comfy oversized sweatshirt, baseball cap with pony tail and no makeup whatsoever. Guess I missed the memo regarding dress code.

Then there was the topics of conversation. Each criticizing their daughter’s performances, some to the point where they appeared they were actually getting mad at their child. Like they were the ones putting in all the effort. Here I was grinning like a fool, clapping my hands and shooting my daughter a thumbs up every time she looked in my direction. I guess I also missed the memo about being a b**ch.

What is it about a child moving into a “next level” situation in any given sport that brings this out in parents?  These kids work hard and train long hours and yet it’s the parents that act like they are the stars of this particular little play. I don’t think I’ m going to fit in. That’s ok though, I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t like myself very much if I did.

Well that’s it for me for today, hope you are all having a great weekend wherever you are. 🙂 . Thanks as always for stopping by, and hopefully I’ll see you again tomorrow!

~Cheryl the OCM~

10 Reasons I LOVE Coffee

Hello friends and welcome to Topical Thursday here at the OCM. Today for a topic I am joining in to Mama Kat’s Weekly Writers Workshop. I chose challenge #3 which stated  “3.) A list of 10 reasons you or do not drink coffee.”. I mean how could I pick anything else? This challenge has my name written all over it!! So here we go with my 10 reasons for partaking in this wonderful beverage.

10 – It’s Good.

9 – It  helps me to wake up, or stay awake depending on the time of day.

8 – It’s better for me than soda (or so I keep telling myself)

7 – It makes me a nicer person.

6 – The smell of it freshly brewed reminds me of my Mom.

5 – Have I mentioned that it’s good?

4 – I always wanted to be Juan Valdez when I grow up, so I figure coffee drinking is the best way to prepare for this future life path.

3 – It’s less pretentious than a champagne cocktail at 6am

2 – It is really, very very good.

and the Number One reason that I drink coffee is……..

1 – It keeps me out of prison, as without my jolts of caffeine I am very likely to commit a felony at some point during the day.

Well that wraps it up for me for today. Thanks as always for stopping by, and hopefully I’ll see you again tomorrow!

~Cheryl the OCM~

Mommy’s Little Helper – For Parents of Special Needs Kids

Hello friends and welcome to Mommy’s Little Helper Monday here at the OCM. It’s the day of the week that I share a nuggets of wisdom that I’ve managed to gather in my 14 years as a wife and 13 years as a Mom. This week my is specifically targeted to the parent’s of special needs little ones. As all parents can understand life is a roller coaster with all sorts of unexpected twists and turns, but for the parents of special needs children we tend to get an extra loopty loop or two thrown in for good measure. Today I’m going to go over the importance of having, and what is most usually found in, the Mommy Go Bag.

Life is Too Short

Hello friends and welcome to Thursday here at the OCM. Usually today is the day I do Mama Kat’s Writers Workshop, but I had some news today and decided to take my blog another way. Today I realized just how much we all put off because we just assume there is always going to be time to do it later. How utterly naive of us. There are no guarantees that we are going to get a later so we need to do what we can, while we can. Grab your coffees, get comfy and let me tell you about my day.