Practicing being happy
Last night, as I was reading the kids ‘The Magic Dreidels’ (again), Allison turned around & asked me, in a good natured way, “Don’t you ever get tired of reading the same story every night”. I said, “Nope, I still like reading ‘The Stinky Cheese Man’ & I think you heard that every night you were here, backward & forward, reading every word of the Jacks story to the Giant, for your entire year when you were eight years old”. (Actually, I said “Not really - do you remember at all how many times you heard ‘The Stinky Cheese Man’ when you were little?”) She said, “Yeah, but that was a really good book”.
She signed up for next year’s classes, yesterday & told me that she was going to be taking ‘Contemporary Living’ in her 2nd semester next year. ‘Contemporary Living’ is the class where one of the lessons involves carrying around the ‘pretend baby doll’ for a week or so. I know that I’ve told her how I felt about those dolls before, but told her again, anyway.
I think those dolls actually encourage teen pregnancy. Taking care of an electronic doll is NOTHING AT ALL like being a parent to an actual real child. The only thing on the line in those classes is your grade. And, the doll is like a video game - it’s not alive, you don’t love it, it can’t die or get sick (at least not for real), it doesn’t have emotions & a mind that you need to deal with & try to guide. You just have to ‘take care of it’, make sure it doesn’t cry.
I think that kids who carry that doll around & pass the class think “Hey, that wasn’t too hard at all. I took care of that doll OK, so I’ll bet I’d be able to be a good parent, too! I’m going to go out and make a baby to love me”
Got an email from the puppy fostering lady - she says she’s got a transport of puppies coming up next week & wanted to know if we’re still interested. We are! I’m going to call her back in a bit to get more details.
This morning, Maggie (rescue basset hound who’s still coweringly scared most of the time, after years of living with us being nice to her all of the time), was romping around the living room after she got out of her crate & went outside. This is unusual for her, but we’re seeing it more & more lately. Shelby noticed & said to me “Maggie’s probably practicing being happy! Look, she’s running all around with her tail wagging and she doesn’t even look sad!” That’s probably right, though. I think she just never learned how to be happy & just needs some practice 
