Reading Reviews and Reality

I have been reading a lot lately, and I mean a lot. It made me realize that I am squandering WAY too much time watching TV during the season when most shows are first run. So I have made a big decision.

This is an open letter to ALL docudrama reality shows. You are hearby given notice that I am not longer going to invest my time in watching what happens in your lives. PC - I could care less whether or not you are bisexual or whether your scheme to help Taylor climb the" NYC Prep" school social ladder succeeds. Jenna and Vicky from the "Real Housewives of Orange County" - I no longer care whether or not you get any more plastic surgery or eventually learn that money does not buy you happiness. To the cast of "The Hills" - with Lauren gone, I would not have watched you anyway. I could care less what happens to Spidey. Whitney - please take solace in the fact that you were the hardest for me to let go but I no longer care whether you make it in "The City". And if any of you don't believe me, remember that after being a faithful viewer of "The Bachelor" for some 13 seasons, I abandoned this reality show for well, lack of reality and the same goes for these other docudramas that become more and more a scripted cast of characters all with a hidden agenda to use the genre to turn their 15 minutes of fame into something long-lasting. Good luck and good-bye!

As for the more talent/competition type reality shows that I watch, for now I am going to give myself permission to continue watching them. This includes Dancing with the Stars, American Idol and the Amazing Race.

As for what I have been reading - first off Joe and I finally climbed on board the Harry Potter train. I have seen all the movies (which I usually try to read the books first but it just didn't happen that way) and am currently on year 3 at Hogwarts. I won't bother with a review - either you are on the train with us or you are not but what I love about this series is that for the first time EVER, Joe and I are both reading the same books and the kids love the movies too so it is an obsession we can share together unlike oh say a certain vampire/werewolf love triangle known as the Twilight Series. The only problem is that Joe and I are both trying to read the same copy of Prisoner of Azkaban at the same time.

I also recently read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I am not sure they were the best books to read so close together since both deal with how family, and parents in particular deal with serious illness and/or the death of a child (no spoilers here, just read a synopsis of either novel). With both novels there were times that I felt myself haunted and disturbed and yet utterly engrossed at the same time. I immensely enjoyed both books but was not happy with their conclusions, which would lead me to be lukewarm at best about recommending them. Trust me I am not the kind of person that needs a neat happy ending or even a complete resolution of the plot. Some of my favorite stories of all time (either book, movie or both) should obviously be proof enough - think Wuthering Heights, The Age of Innocence, The English Patient and Dangerous Liaisons. With these two books however, I was just left feeling unsatisfied. The endings both felt disjointed from the rest of the story.So if you have read them, I'd like to know if you felt the same and if you haven't read them, proceed at your own risk.

Finally after not being too impressed with "Even June Cleaver Would Forget the Juice Box", I still found myself needing a good parenting book that might be of some help, particularly right now with the current stage that Jadyn is in. After hearing about "Your 3-Year-Old: Friend or Enemy" on both LauraC and Joanna's blog, I decided to give it a whirl. Since our library did not have a copy, I was happy to find it on http://www.half.ebay.com/ for less that $5 with shipping and am now even more happy that I have my own copy to highlight and doggy-ear because I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the insight and practical advice this books gives - in fact I am promptly going to be ordering the books of the same series for 4, 5 and 6 year olds just so I can be better informed and prepared.

The following excerpt is going to become my mantra as Jadyn is clearly already in this three and half year old developmental stage, "First of all, accept the fact that at this age the child's big emotional struggle is with his mother. She is the one who matters supremely to him. She is the one he needs to conquer. Almost any young child is at his best but also at his worst with his own mother. Never more so than now"

I used some of the practical advice and techniques and in just in one day, I noticed a difference with Jadyn's demeanor. Some of it is pure common sense that I simply needed to be reminded of - like the fact that she needs individual one-on-one time with me (which she is used to but not getting as much of during the summer since Jake is not in school) and making sure to heap praise on good behavior and using distraction whenever possible. It also suggests using phrases like "Let's", "How about" and "Maybe we could" so that I am not making demands that she can turn into a battle. Another great technique is that when she is being uncooperative and pretending to be a dog or cat, I can play along and ask her to "give me her paw" while bathing her or trying to help her get dressed. I cannot describe the look of sheer shock and joy, not to mention compliance she showed when I tried this out yesterday. Simple and yet effective. Can I reiterate this book is well worth the read!

So I have kind of turned this blog post into a novel all of its own, but my point was that I have been reading a lot - around 2100 pages since I first read Testimony by Anita Shreve at the beginning of the summer. Not bad for a work-at-home mom in a little over a month. And I have a line of books just waiting - Hogwarts years 4-7, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and a re-read of the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins in anticipation of the next installment "Catching Fire" (another absolutely fabulous YA series that I highly recommend), which comes out in early September. Then of course I will need to refresh my Twilight memory with either the whole series or the very least New Moon before the movie comes out November 20th. Come to think of it, the kids are playing quietly in there rooms as we speak. I better go sneak a chapter or two in while I can!