Moot Thoughts & Musings

(I just got comment spam advertising a place to go to order essays. Yea, you can order an essay so that you don't have to write one. Hmm. I wonder if I can order a thesis...)

Back in my previous life when I was commuting to grad school 85 miles each way almost every day, I had the little things in life to keep me sane: my little rituals that I did every day. I always filled my car with gas first thing in the morning(where are you, $1.35 a gallon!?!?), I saved my travel mug full of coffee or tea until mile 30 (because then I would have had to go to the bathroom before I got to school) and drank it along with a granola bar (how I wish I had Kashi back then). And I always listened to Morning Edition on NPR, except when news would be so ad nauseum the same thing (like an election or a stupid war in a Middle Eastern country) that I couldn't take it, but that was only occasionally. Listening to Morning Edition was like a cup of coffee, just part of the morning. Okay, so maybe it's a little cliche. Whatever.

It's really hard sometimes to be staying at home with the boy now. Sometimes, I just look at myself and am like dude, I'm a stay at home mom and it's so surreal. One of the hardest parts is having to impose my own schedule, and not having one I can slide into, one like a handy semester.

There's a radio in the kitchen. I've been better about our morning routine since I've been back from mad travels. I'm showered, and Ellis and I are both dressed by the time we go down for b'fast. And I can listen to Morning Edition on the radio while I empty a yogurt container into my hungry boy's mouth and simmer a pot of oatmeal for myself.

So anyway, on Morning Edition this morning they had something about how more parents are using signs with the young children affording them something to communicate with before they can say words, alleviating some frustration. This isn't really news, but it is noteworthy, as it is spreading in popularity.

The report kind of approached it weird, though. They started with a baby sign language class in the background, with quips from the teacher. And that sort of became the definition of normal. That is, parent wants to sign with baby, parent and baby sign up for baby sign language class. The author of the story on Morning Edition did say something about how lower-income families can't afford these expensive sign language classes and how they (whoever "they" are) are trying to make resources more available. This whole scenario struck me as weird. Yea, it's helpful to take a class if you want to learn ASL hardcore as a language. But there are so many simple, straightforward places to learn the few signs to you need for the purpose of baby signing.

Am I missing something about educated middle-class? Taking classes, signing up for this and that? Is that the norm? this gets kind of expensive rather quickly. I was a little disappointed in the radio report, because I felt like it gave a nuance to what is available for someone wanting to sign with their baby, a nuance with a price tag that is not accesible to everyone, and a price tag that simply doesn't have to be the case.