I've been thinking a lot about being a mother in law and wondering why some of us become meddling, judgemental, critical, interfering cows when suddenly our children choose their life partner and get on with their own lives.
I am not quite one yet but practising…being a mother in law that is, not necessarily an interfering old cow.
I am trying to be supportive but distant.
I never had mother in law problems just because both (yes twice) of mine had already left this mortal coil by the time I came on the scene so it was pretty much a MIL free zone for me.
And, as for father in laws, well they are never any trouble are they?
I wonder why that is. You never hear of father in law jokes do you???
I think many women become more of a MIL from hell with their son's partners as opposed their daughters. Am I imagining that?
I recall my father’s mother telling me horrific stories about her mother in law. For instance, when my grandmother's mother in law came to her kitchen tea (do they still have those things?) just before her marriage she gave her a beautiful fine bone china dinnerset. However, when the party finished her MIL picked up the present and took it with her. It was all for show. Their relationship never improved her whole married life. Her MIL just didn't think she was good enough for her blonde, blue eyed boy.
The sad part of that story is that my grandmother treated my mother, the wife of her own blonde haired blue eyed son, in a similar way but could never see it at all. A beautiful grandmother and mother but for some reason a problematic mother in law who had to have the attention of her son as often as she could.
Then a friend told me this week that after 15 years of arguments with her mother in law she had made the decision to cut her off completely. She said that her mother in law had tried to cause so much trouble between her husband and herself that they both thought it best to remove themselves from the pressure of never meeting her expectations. They didn’t make this decision lightly but after years of constant conflict and of making no headway with her.
Kind of sad for everyone involved really. What makes some women who seem perfectly lovely people want to become so entwined in their grown children's lives that they create such havoc to the point they are ostracised and cut off from those they love the most?
Do MILs from hell really exist the world over and why? You know my future son in law will appreciate the advice I am sure....
braindumps.com
http://www.actualtests.com/exam-70-341.htm
http://www.pass4sure.org/Cisco/650-082.html
http://www.test-king.com/cert-CCNP.htm
http://www.icdl.com/
Wednesday 22 June 2011
Saturday 18 June 2011
An orangutan saves a duck chick
At Dublin Zoo
Way too cute!
Although I hope at the end it was mouth to mouth he was administering and not sizing him up for dinner.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Way too cute!
Although I hope at the end it was mouth to mouth he was administering and not sizing him up for dinner.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Monday 13 June 2011
Dear Melbourne Dentists
Wherefore art thou?
Well the normal ones anyway.
The fact my last blog post was about chocolate and this one is about dentists is purely co-incidental and not in any way connected.
Although, if I'm to be perfectly honest, the frustrations felt over one might be driving me to do the other..... in some kind of dentist enraged excess.
As you know when you move cities you have to find new hairdressers, shoe shops, chocolate shops, gyms, doctors and dentists pretty much in that order. Yes, that order.
I am still working on the last one. Finding a good dentist.
It shouldn't be hard in a city of 4 million. Right?
Well the fact is, there is something seriously wrong with dentists these days. I am just going to put that out there hanging in the breeze.
And this is coming from someone whose last dentist Heidi, was a little on the unusual side given she is a plastic surgery junkie. You can read about her here and here because bless her, she is well worth discovering.
My search for a new dentist started in my local neighbourhood.
I made an appointment, filled out the 24 page questionnaire and 40 minutes later was sitting in the dentist's chair. I cannot tell you what the dentist looked like as his 24-carot ultra white smile blinded me.
All I know is, apart from his perfect pearly whites, everything in his office was the palest of blue. Walls, chairs, uniform, eyes and even possibly his hair. One hour later, I felt like I had just been a part of "the fast food shuffle". No, he didn’t offer me fries but ol' blue eyes sure was keen to upsell, cross sell and oversell in order to get me to commit to a full mouth makeover.
What's more, he promised to give me "a winning grin". Is everyone morphing into Charlie Sheen? Winning?
There was nothing wrong with my teeth before I visited him but I came out with my hand clasped over my mouth, full of shame. A broken smile. A psychologist has now been added to the bottom of my list.
All I wanted was a check up and clean. If I had wanted to look like the woman above I would have asked.
I then found an Holistic Dentist. Very promising I thought.
That find resulted in a dental consultation in which I never even had to open my mouth. The dentist talked at me the whole time and my mouth remained closed. A most unlikely scenario for anyone visiting a dentist and, as you know by now, hell nigh impossible for me to achieve.
He told me I needed $1500 of tests to determine what might be impacting on my dental health and when he had the test results he would look at my teeth. Why I needed to get x-rays and other assorted tests for every part of my body supposedly linked to my teeth is beyond me.
Right. $99 without opening my mouth. Holistic dentists are now crossed off the list.
I realise that dentists have had to drastically change their business plans over the years because people have far less cavities and have far more interest in looking 'perfect'. However, it's gone a few steps too far.
I don’t need to use my teeth to see in the dark or to grace the pages of any fashion magazines. I just want to be healthy. Healthy teeth, healthy gums, happy smile.
In fact, I really just need strong teeth to chew 'real food' but, if this keeps up, I will be using them to BITE… some poor unsuspecting professional in a white coat.
Very. Very. Hard.
http://www.actualtests.com/exam-70-331.htm
http://www.pass4sure.org/Cisco/648-244.html
http://www.test-king.com/cert-A-plus.htm
http://www.ibqh.org/
Well the normal ones anyway.
Although, if I'm to be perfectly honest, the frustrations felt over one might be driving me to do the other..... in some kind of dentist enraged excess.
As you know when you move cities you have to find new hairdressers, shoe shops, chocolate shops, gyms, doctors and dentists pretty much in that order. Yes, that order.
I am still working on the last one. Finding a good dentist.
It shouldn't be hard in a city of 4 million. Right?
Well the fact is, there is something seriously wrong with dentists these days. I am just going to put that out there hanging in the breeze.
And this is coming from someone whose last dentist Heidi, was a little on the unusual side given she is a plastic surgery junkie. You can read about her here and here because bless her, she is well worth discovering.
My search for a new dentist started in my local neighbourhood.
I made an appointment, filled out the 24 page questionnaire and 40 minutes later was sitting in the dentist's chair. I cannot tell you what the dentist looked like as his 24-carot ultra white smile blinded me.
All I know is, apart from his perfect pearly whites, everything in his office was the palest of blue. Walls, chairs, uniform, eyes and even possibly his hair. One hour later, I felt like I had just been a part of "the fast food shuffle". No, he didn’t offer me fries but ol' blue eyes sure was keen to upsell, cross sell and oversell in order to get me to commit to a full mouth makeover.
What's more, he promised to give me "a winning grin". Is everyone morphing into Charlie Sheen? Winning?
There was nothing wrong with my teeth before I visited him but I came out with my hand clasped over my mouth, full of shame. A broken smile. A psychologist has now been added to the bottom of my list.
All I wanted was a check up and clean. If I had wanted to look like the woman above I would have asked.
I then found an Holistic Dentist. Very promising I thought.
That find resulted in a dental consultation in which I never even had to open my mouth. The dentist talked at me the whole time and my mouth remained closed. A most unlikely scenario for anyone visiting a dentist and, as you know by now, hell nigh impossible for me to achieve.
He told me I needed $1500 of tests to determine what might be impacting on my dental health and when he had the test results he would look at my teeth. Why I needed to get x-rays and other assorted tests for every part of my body supposedly linked to my teeth is beyond me.
Right. $99 without opening my mouth. Holistic dentists are now crossed off the list.
I realise that dentists have had to drastically change their business plans over the years because people have far less cavities and have far more interest in looking 'perfect'. However, it's gone a few steps too far.
I don’t need to use my teeth to see in the dark or to grace the pages of any fashion magazines. I just want to be healthy. Healthy teeth, healthy gums, happy smile.
In fact, I really just need strong teeth to chew 'real food' but, if this keeps up, I will be using them to BITE… some poor unsuspecting professional in a white coat.
Very. Very. Hard.
Is it really too much to ask for??
http://www.braindumps.com/4A0-101.htmhttp://www.actualtests.com/exam-70-331.htm
http://www.pass4sure.org/Cisco/648-244.html
http://www.test-king.com/cert-A-plus.htm
http://www.ibqh.org/
Friday 3 June 2011
Meet me at....
I would love to stay and chat but I'm kind of preoccupied.....
Did I tell you I live right round the corner from a chocolate factory?
The neighbourhood is growing on me. Literally.
So I walk. Everywhere.
Chocolate and Walking.
It's what I call a balanced life.
Yeah, just humor me, you know you can do it...
Have a great weekend everyone!!!
Did I tell you I live right round the corner from a chocolate factory?
The neighbourhood is growing on me. Literally.
So I walk. Everywhere.
Chocolate and Walking.
It's what I call a balanced life.
Yeah, just humor me, you know you can do it...
Have a great weekend everyone!!!
Wednesday 1 June 2011
You have to smile..
 |
| Image: Luna Park, Melbourne - for the young and young at heart |
I was on the phone today with an insurance company call centre and some way into the conversation I had to confirm my date of birth.
"Wow", said the person on the other end of the phone. "That's a real surprise, I wouldn't have guessed you were that old. You sound so young, like you're 30 or so".
So I am that old but sound that young?
Disturbing.
What does a 30 year old sound like anyway?
I mean compared to a 40 something or 50 something or 60 something person?
Alive?
Full of joie de vivre?
All giggly and girly?
Perhaps I should have mentioned to the 20 something person that I also obviously write as young as I sound.
My blog stats are telling me today that my most viewed post of all time (by far) is titled Sex on Moving Motor Cycles.
Well that was a surprise. Not. A. Proud. Blogging. Achievement. Really.
However it does make me smile. Widely.
It must be so disappointing when the Googlers get here looking for such critical advice and find instead a middle aged blogger who would be hard pressed to even get a leg up over a motorbike let alone point out the finer techniques required to achieve such mobile feats.
Maybe I need to start acting my age, whatever that means! But I wish people would quit thinking they compliment us (when we are in our 40s and over) by telling us we act younger, look younger and sound younger than we are. I, too, am guilty of doing the same thing to others and I am going to stop. That's why "growing young" becomes a fixation for us. It's an insult in some ways that our maturing age makes us 'less' somehow . I for one am happy to be where I am in life and want to go forwards not backwards! I think we need to hear more from bloggers in one of those countries where age is revered and not feared.
Tell me what is your most popular post of all time (see stats on blogger dashboard)? I will go read your post and put a link to it here. I wonder what it will say about the people searching for answers via Google?
Go visit my readers' blogs and check out which of their posts Google has loved the most!
Six Decades and Counting - Car Seats for Seniors - so very funny!
Gappa blog - Rukhwat Memories - beautiful post with a wedding theme and a profound message!!
Middle Age Ramblings blog - There is no such place as far away - this post is a must read and a real gem and inspirational!!!
A Glimpse into Midlife - Meet me on Mondays - check out more about Betty and living in Paraguay.
A Few Clowns Short - Ken Burns PBS Series - educational post about the Civilian conservation Corps in the Depression - very interesting.
Over Cups of Coffee - My dream home - post about the author's dream home, great taste too.
Where are my Angels - We were 80s - post about all the things in the 80s that we did and kind of regret now, hilarious!!
Kirti's Take on Life - From paperless to on paper marriage - Kirti discusses her marriage in India and the lengths she had to go to in order to get paperwork to prove her marriage some 16 years later.
Gran speaks - Hijacked Facebook Meme - Are you a Mickey Mouse lover too?
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