Parenting

My whole life is Burning Man right now so I’m sorry if all of these posts sound redundant. The Burning Man theme is simply an undercurrent for other bridged topics.

Every year when I prepare, my parents are on the hook as well. They store a lot of my gear at home so inevitably I’m calling or emailing, “Mom, did you find my bike lock? What about the yellow pant suit with all the fringe?” They set everything aside, waiting for me to haul it away, then haul it back home with a crapload of dust. Dust that my Dad graciously cleans off when I return.

While growing up, truth be told, I hated my parents. Don’t we all? Besides, you let me know if you had strict immigrant parents who scolded you for not getting straight As, for not being at the top of your class. I had ongoing debates just to stay out past 9pm on a week night. I ended up lying all the time, they were so strict.

In retrospect, it’s what all children need. Surely not to that extent. But definitely kids need discipline and structure. They need boundaries, guidelines. I don’t want my kids lying to me. I’d rather hear what I don’t want to hear, than have my children lie to me. I think most importantly kids need attention. These yahoos who massacre, who take machine guns and blast away at their peers…those yahoos are loners. Bottom line, give your kids attention. Show them you care. My parents cared A LOT. They gave me more attention than I needed. They knew who my friends were, what my grades were, what my teachers thought of me. They knew everything! They knew I wasn’t sleeping around when I was eighteen years old. They knew without a doubt that, aside from a few drinking binges, I was at the library working my ass off and they knew it because they saw my grades…every quarter, every semester without fail.

I know I’ve spoken a lot about my childhood, about growing up and the difficulties and heartache that I faced, but I hope everyone knows that I respect my parents for how they raised me and that I love them. I think they know it. It doesn’t necessarily come through in my blog, but I always advocate how I was parented.

I see what’s going on in the media these days. Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie. My God! I feel sorry for them. And I don’t blame them. It’s not their fault, really. It’s bad parenting!!! Parents who don’t know how to discipline their children. Maybe all they care about is fame. They don’t know how to say NO to their children. Maybe they think they’ll be cut off from the money spigot. I have no idea. I swear my Mom could give me one look and I knew that my behind was about to get worked with one of her heels. I’ll reiterate, I hated it at the time. I hated my mom back then. But shit now, I love you Mom, can I get some more? The discipline taught me to be a hard-working kid, to respect my elders, to respect people, to be grateful. These poor starlets. They have no idea, no role models.

A few weeks ago I saw Larry Birkhead on TV and my first thought was here’s some guy out to make a dime. Here he is on the publicity circuit. Note: Larry Birhead is the biological father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby Dannielynn. He was at some charity event (apparently he’s rarely in the media) and I completely changed my mind about him! All he could talk about was his little girl, how he had to rush home to get to his girl. And the dude had the lingo down. Seriously, he was talking formula, teething, cartoon DVDs. I was totally impressed. Then the prompter asked if he was dating anyone, if there were plans for meeting that special lady and he said without hesitation, “Dannielynn is the only girl for me.” I know this all sounds so corny, but to give you more fodder, I was just reading an interview on FOX News with Greta Van Susteren.

Here is a clip from the interview.

VAN SUSTEREN: And I don’t know if the viewers can hear it (INAUDIBLE) we can hear (INAUDIBLE) I noticed the first time you faintly heard Dannielynn cry, I saw your head sort of turn to the side. You do hear it ahead of everybody else.

BIRKHEAD: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: It’s first we see your head turn, and then I hear the noise.

BIRKHEAD: Oh, it’s this superpower sense that (INAUDIBLE) that I just go running and — she probably wants to play.

How friggin cute is that? What a sweetheart.

That’s my post for today. Burning Man and parenting. Doesn’t seem to mesh together, but oh well. Now if I could just figure out how to transport my bike without having to borrow or buy a bike rack.