Kids - young tao naturalists

[thelerner]

Marriage gets a bum wrap not because of the strained male/ female dynamic, but because its simply hard for people to live w/ each other with out driving each other nuts.

 

That goes double w/ children. Unless you have quite a bit of experience with them before hand, you tend to fantasize and project perfection onto them. Set up false expectations and forget what a dopey kid you were back when.

 

Daniel Reid said Children were the best teacher of the tao but no one take the time to listen to them. True. The stuff that causes the most conflict is the non consequential stuff, time to go places, time to clean, don't poke your little brother etc.

 

Having kids is a form, not of reincarnation, but incarnation. Little you's, newer, younger updated models, running around trying to figure out the universe. The thoughts you had, the wants, the insecurities, the dreams, all there.

 

A chance to be better then our parents. A chance to light a fire that burn through 1000 generations.

 

ya da yada. This thread is to discuss the young'uns. The proper care and feeding. A few of us are so blessed.

 

How do you feed yours? I have an 8 year old vegetarian, who doesn't each most vegetables. He'll eat apples, carrots, pizza and PB&J's. Oh and whole wheat waffles for breakfast. And fries, he loves fries.

 

Thankfully my other 2 are omnivores.

 

Its late, must sleep

 

Peas

 

Michael

[sean]

*bump*

 

Good topic that got kind of lost sitting in the root of of the PPD. Lot's of parents here, should be a good chat.

[Yoda]

If I can figure out how to use the aneros 24/7 or stick my tongue up my nose, family life should be smooth sailing! I'm thinking the tongue thing is probably more convenient.

 

My theory is to just to focus on their strengths and praise them as much as possible and then get out of their way while carving out some me time. I tend to feed my kids lollipops. The key is to be *really* into kids or to be married to somebody who is like Mrs. Yoda. She's good with the kids all the time and knows how to work with Yoda's chi-manic ways.

 

I've watched Super Nanny a few times and it seems that the problems that people run into is having more kids than they really could handle and then they drive their parents nuts.

 

When I was single, I really had convinced myself that I was quite the bodhisattva, but family life revealed my compassion had its limitations. I think marriage was designed for an era where people didn't live much past forty and feared God. I'm not sure it still has any validity for today's age.

 

My inner life and hence parenting have become "smoother" and more methodical since taking up meditation a few weeks ago, so I hope this trend continues.

 

With Mrs. Yoda's skillful editing, I'm a fun dadster with an overall "good" score. I'm hoping the tongue trick for bliss on demand and meditation for smoothification will bump me up to Super Nanny levels.

 

That's the plan.

 

As I stated to Hagar, the new Taodaddy to be, I was terrified of having kids originally. Now I think that kids are little crazy wisdom rinpoches and we'd like to have more if and when we convince ourselves that we could deal with it without going completely insane.

 

FWIW, I believe there are benefits to spacing your kids out to 3 years between them to make things more managable.

 

-Yoda

[thelerner]

This is about as mundane as you can get. Here is a great and simple oatmeal cookie recipie. Fast, no flour, pretty healthy and flexible. Good for care and feeding of kids and adults. Its from the back of McCanns Irish Oatmeal.

 

2 Cups McCanns quick Cooking Oatmeal

1/2 cup Light brown sugar

1 egg

4 tablespoons vegetable or Canola oil

2 tablespoons maple syrup

 

 

preheat oven to 375. lightly greaste baking sheets.

Mix he oatmeal and sugar in a bowl.

Add egg, oil and maple syrup and mix well.

Wait 15 minutes for absorbtion.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until golden brown.

They'll harden as they cool.

 

Throwing in chocolate chips, nuts, raisins, coconut, even a bit of flax seed, work real well. It only makes 10 to 12 cookies, but it doubles easily. And if you too many you'll only eat'em faster.

 

Michael

[Yoda]

mmmmmmmm.

[voice]

Michael - I'll be trying that recipe tomorrow when a PD day puts me on duty.

 

Funny that the recipe is flourless as your post on your finicky eater had me start one on my problem eater, only to have the server reject it repeatedly!

 

In any case, my 6-year old (at home today with one of his two girlfriends from whom he gets kisses) has all sorts of later-heaven diet problems:

 

anaphylactic to nuts, which means that many candies are off limits

intolerant to dairy (gets really stuffed up and immune system goes down)

intolerant to gluten (gets really itchy and immune system goes down)

throws up when given chicken and sometimes egg

doesn't like anything mixed (no stews, soups etc.)

 

But, he loves lamb, burgers, fruit...and sour candies.

 

____________________

 

About their Taoist natures, things just flow on - it was halloween yesterday, so lets take down the decorations! That was last that he was into dinosaurs, then it was reptiles, then Australia, then...., and now planets! Yet, I am still in the past: whenever I see a train, that he was into when he was 2 or 3, I still want to tell him all about it when I get home!

 

Chris

[thelerner]

Put enough chocolate chips on something and and most kids will take at least one bite out of it.

 

I don't remember any allergy issues when I went to school 30 + years ago. Wow have times changed. So many allergy issues, the worst being Peanut. One of my kids friends has it so bad the mother leaves us w/ an emergency shot whenever the child comes over. Another friend can't sit near someone eating a PB&J sandwich.

 

Nasty stuff. Thankfully my kids are picky not allergy prone. I don't really believe in reincarnation but I wonder where my 8 year got the idea to become a vegetarian. (he's a subclass, a dessertarian) Me and my wife aren't big into meat but I don't think he has any friends or acquaintances who are. Past life habbit? He certainly looked like a buddha when he was a baby.

 

He was so plump and he'd laugh and laugh, w/ a sound like a bell. Now he's a thin, mean green nintendo playing machine .

 

Michael

[farooq]

We've got 3 girls one boy.

 

It definately is not easy being a parent but i must say it is a blessing and a honour.

 

And when they are all asleep..... its pure heaven

[Yoda]

Farooq,

 

You need kechari more than I do!

 

-Yoda

[Lozen]

You can make herb candy--grind raisins, dates, apricots and walnuts or mix nut butter with honey in equal proportions (or maple syrup or rice syrup if you're concerned about reports of botulism poisoning in small children from honey use), stir in unsweetened shredded coconut, and carob powder, herb powders, then roll into balls, roll the balls into powdered carob or coconut, store in the fridge.

 

You can make herbal pops by making a strong tea with triple the amount of herb and then dilute with equal amount apple huice, pour into ice-pop trays and freeze.

 

You can make herb baths with calendula, chamomile, lavender or rose.

 

You can make a rescue remedy flower essence spritzer with 3.5 ounxes distilled water, 1 tbsp brandy, 4 drops Rescue Remedy or Five-Flower Remedy, 3 drops lavendar essential oil, in a spritzer bottle with a mister top.

 

Dose of course is lower for kids divide their age plus 1 by 24 and that's the percentage of the adult dose.

 

Just some ideas lovingly stolen from Rosemary Gladstar.

[Tenguzake]

When my 4 year old gets wild, I hang a small punching bag from a tree and have him punch and kick it. Or I will give him a wooden shoto or escrima stick and have him take shots at a padded jo that I hold in various positions. It helps burn some energy, but not enough...

 

Number two is due on St. Paddy's Day. I plan on sneaking some Guninness into the delivery room for a proper blessing.

 

Lozen, your recipes sound great and labor/time intensive.

 

Be Genki,

 

Tenguzake

[Lozen]

Only the first one is time-consuming. And not any more so than baking cookies.

[voice]

Michael - the cookie recipe is right on: easy, fiber-filled, gluten-free, and tasty! Even a neighbor kid enjoyed them. All we did is add some salt to the recipe...plus the chocolate chips.

 

Chris

[VCraigP]

Number two is due on St. Paddy's Day. I plan on sneaking some Guninness into the delivery room for a proper blessing.

 

Guinness eh.

 

Did you know that the polyphenols in guiness are stimulating towards lactation.

Sharethe brew with the new mom!

 

Though you might have to chase the nurse away first.

 

Cheers.

 

Craig

[Lozen]

A Welsh nurse I met in Ireland told me that Guiness helps wounded soldiers as well. She wasn't sure whether it was the nutrients or just that it cheered their spirits a bit.

[thelerner]

Its funny but I've always considered Guiness to be like mothers milk, that and Boddingtons. Actually I've read its recommended to nursing mothers by Dr's in Ireland(not my recommendation).

 

Michael

[Yoda]

As of a few years ago, they were still advocating pregnant women to drink Guinness in Jamaica. One a day actually would be healthy imo.

[TwoTrees]

I wasn't given the gift of giving life, but I sure am a great nurturer.

I have my two nieces and nephew QUITE the often...my sibling and his wife have their own factory going on, and they really have no desire of being parents at all, kind of sad. The kids are left suffering most of their days with them, being ignored, mistreated mostly in the sense of boredom...etc. When my mother and I get the little monkeys, they are starving for fun and get so excited its really a difficult test of patience...but my mother and I are also ROCKS when it comes to that. After the first day, they kind of settle down and thats when we break out puzzles, thinking games, and interactive activities-mostly outdoors, to get them really cultivating some useful tastes for healthy good clean interests. They are so bright, and are getting better at understanding that their parents are total idiots, but they still have to respect them for aiding in the life that they are currently gifted.

Mom says I am amazing with them, especially with my youngest niece, who is still trying to figure out her own take on everything. She is always in my lap, asking questions for hours. I don't exactly answer her,...I just give her ideas and offer questions to her back to get her thinking and letting her come up with her own opinion. But, honestly, at age 7 she's got alot under the hood and has an extensive vocabulary. Last week at my house she was playing yetisports online (the games where you torture penguins using a mountain yeti and trying to outdo the world of players on simple applets) with a late twenties person and she was carrying a conversation, and when he started talking junk (winning and rubbing it in, his words were NASTY!) she typed in - "I don't appreciate your ignorant attempts to make you feel better about yourself" and she exited the game and asked other players ...

I just looked at her and decided that she was OK at playing the game for maybe 20 more minutes. When I called her then she closed it up and helped me make dinner. Isn't that just delightful???

 

Oh yea...BTW: her parents would never believe she politely helped me make dinner, sang songs, and helped clean dishes afterward. That would be totally unheard of. Reason being: their mother cannot cook and they order take out alot and she hardly eats the stuff...plus that kind of diet doesn't leave much to clean up, but the kids can see that they can play the "I don't know how to do all these things, we never do it to begin with" route. Funny stuff, really!

 

Those little boogers will outdo us all in time. Just give em the knowledge and time to hone their own little powers into fruition...

 

-M

[thelerner]

I've gotten into a nice habbit of walking w/ my daughter as we both listen to an IPod through a splitter. Its great to walk and introduce her to the Beatles and The Bangles and what not. Her favorate song is Chesney Hawkes 'The One and Only'. Its a great way of sharing.

 

Michael

[tumoessence]

I have three kids, two step kids and one my own which I had when I was forty three. We are a no tv family they do have movie times opn the weekends, and consequently are very active in reading stories playing games networking for play dates going into nature. My son and I who is now seven do push hands together. He likes to wrestle and all things with martial arts. He does aikido along with his sister who is ten. The other sister is 14 and is preoccupied with everything that age brings.

when he was a baby I would walk around with him in my arms if he was crying

and I would do an improvised form of waking qi gong and create a large space around my heart area including him in it with my devoted feeling for him alive in this space. We have always been a pair, and I notice as he gets older that he really already has a natural quiet center in him that he can go to. He can spend hours looking at books or national geographics.

It is definitely a challenging path, but few things have left me with such deep change in who I am and inspire me to transorm myself.

[thaddeus]

A Welsh nurse I met in Ireland told me that Guiness helps wounded soldiers as well. She wasn't sure whether it was the nutrients or just that it cheered their spirits a bit.

8901[/snapback]

Kinda off topic, but a Jamaican version of natural viagra is to drink guinness with a raw egg in there..can top off with some nutmeg and cinnamon..I'm guessing there must be a guinness/nitric oxide connection if it speeds wound healing too.

Thad

[voice]

Michael,

 

Interesting that such a simple thread has gotten Danny so crazed. I guess family has a healthy, hidden power to it - good for you getting this out in the open!

 

Chris

[hagar]

Ah, just the topic I've been waiting for!

 

I must say that reading your thoughts on raising rugrats has a strange calming effect.

 

Me and Helga (her real name is Malin) are just kind of dazed and confused as to what we are in for, but at the same time really stoked at the thought of showing this little person the world.

 

A danish writer I read named his book "I have seen the world begin". It was so named after his experience of seeing his daughter being born.

 

My girlfriend told me earlier in the pregnancy that it felt like having this little light-being in her belly. She is a practitioner herself, and quite sensitive. She feels the energetic aspect of pregnancy really strong. And when she tunes into it, she feels that inside her belly this person is full of light and space.

 

And when it comes out, I'll find out it's also full of green shit =).

 

(My step-brother had a baby girl last year, and when she got sick, she greeted him with throwing up in his mouth!)

 

I look forward to taking my baby up to my favourite place in the mountains, look at the western sky and tell stories.

 

Oh, that reminds me of another friend of mine who is a rock climber and hiker. He wanted to show his daughter of 4 the concept of being in "nature" for the first time.

He took her up into a national park in Norway, and stopped at a nice place and said: "Hey, do you know where we are now? " The daughter replied "No daddy". He continued, "Now we are out in Nature". The daughter shook her little head and said "No daddy! We are not in Nature, We are here! "

 

sigh...

 

h

[Trunk]

We are a no tv family they do have movie times opn the weekends, and consequently are very active in reading stories playing games networking for play dates going into nature.

I suspect that being a "no tv family" is probably one of the simplest best things someone could do for their kids.

[Yoda]

Prime time tv is pretty ghastly. Even if you a watching something fun, the commercials for the CSI type shows are over the top ghoulish. I've heard that fewer and fewer people are watching tv in favor of the Internet and video games. I can see it.