Hump Day Hmm - What Would Angela Say?

With only one day notice (!! - I like to ponder topics ad nauseum before I post), here is the scenario that I will pontificate upon for this week's Hump Day Hmm, sponsored by Julie Pippert's Using My Words:

You're having coffee with some of your playgroup mom friends when one tells you she has the funniest story. "Some dad wanted in our playgroup," she laughs, "I told him no boys allowed. He was disappointed, but having a man would be too awkward, and anyway, our group is full, don't you think?" What do you think? What do you say?

Right now, our family consists of a WOHM (work outside the home mom) and a SAHD (stay at home dad - I know, these acronyms make my head spin as well), so this is the perfect scenario for me to blow my top over. So here's what I think. I've lived my life as minority and as a woman and have experienced plenty of discrimination, from being called "Chinky" in school, to being asked why I don't have an accent, to comments that women should be secretaries, etc. Excluding someone based solely on sex is discrimination, plain and simple. What is the focus of the playgroup? To get together on the commonality of having children of the same age. Basically, being a parent. Moms and dads face the same parenting challenges, especially in this day and age. I don't know of a dad who doesn't change diapers, get up in the middle of the night or juggle family and work. For the small and brave group of stay at home dads, it is even more important to network with other parents to keep their sanity. Doug has made some connections with other dads from our preschool and sports activities, but the moms mostly keep to themselves. Where does this woman get off? Are we still in junior high school? Do you think he'll start hitting on us or something? What is discussed in the playgroup that couldn't include men? Do we discuss intimate details of our sex lives? Menstrual cycles? Trash our husbands mercilessly? No (hopefully not)! We talk about the latest exasperation that our children has thrown at us. So maybe it would be slightly awkward to include a man at first, but having a different point of view can only be an asset to the group. This sort of intolerance is totally unacceptable and I would seriously consider leaving the group if she continued to be closed-minded about it. It's not that I don't believe in ladies only activities (we need to set up another ladies' night out, Jennifer), but a playgroup is about kids and parents, not just moms.

What I would say is a totally different story. I'm not one to pick a fight and I usually like to mull it over for a while before I confront someone. It would probably go something like this:

Well, I don't think we need to exclude men necessarily, after all they're parents as well. Do you think his kids would get along with ours? Don't you think guys should be involved in their kids' activities?

Ah yes, ever so polite, none of those fuming words in my head making it out of my mouth. Divert the attention to the benefit for the children. At least I have the blog where I can rant about it!

Wordless Tuesday - Triple Play Fish

Let's face it, since Wordless Wednesday is now daily, and I almost always post on Tuesday, we'll just call it Wordless Tuesday. This will clear the decks for the Hump Day Hmm tomorrow. As for the picture, I finally spent some time with my macro lens and our aquarium to capture all of our fish checking out the rocks.

Arr! A Developer's Life for Me

Avast! I found this in me mail at work. Do ya really think it be appropriate for developers t' be known as pirates? Arr! Some o' them code that way, but t' meticulous ones like me would hate t' be associated with a bunch o' scalawags. Download yer own map and game pieces here. Me only complaint be where be t' beauties (women)? You think all coders be men?!?!

(Thanks go to the English-to-Pirate translator for help on the pirate talk.)

Photo Hunters - Free

I wanted to take this opportunity to promote the non-profit site FreeRice.com, which builds your vocabulary in exchange for rice donations to end world hunger (a win-win situation!). I first heard of it on NPR and have been addicted to the game since. It is a great cause and can be really useful for those teenagers preparing for the SATs. Plus it's FREE!

Photo Friday - Valentines

If you're like me, you've had it with the hearts already! I've especially had it with all the knitted hearts showing up on Flickr's Crazy for Knitting group, and I wonder, did I cause the flood of knitted hearts or was that bound to happen anyway? I had wanted to post about this Valentine we made for Dova, but had so much computer trouble this week (enough for a future post and a half), that I didn't get time to do it. Besides it was Valentine's Day yesterday and my husband and family were calling. But thankfully Crazy Hip Blog Mamas came to the rescue today with an excuse for me to post about it.

Earlier this month, Dova came home with yet another homework assignment for parents. They wanted us to decorate this heart as a Valentine for our child using "pictures, lace, construction paper, or words". Pictures I can handle, but lace? Construction paper? Those are foreign materials for a non-crafty gal like me. I was at craft store over the weekend looking for something totally different (plastic canvas to make a tissue box holder for my car so it doesn't constantly get smashed, and I mean smashed to smithereens), and since it took me so long to locate it, I finally remembered that I also needed to get materials to decorate this heart. Dova suddenly came to life, as she had been lolly gagging around complaining that we had been walking through the store for hours. She picked out the ribbon and the foam stickers and lots of other stuff which I convinced her that we didn't need (she'll make an excellent crafty mom some day).

Now decorating was quite a chore for this perfectionist engineer. Straight ribbon doesn't naturally curve. And this was the first time I've used their decorative scissors. They don't curve easily either. And I didn't even know what BFF meant until Doug told me (best friends forever). He asked whether I knew TLA meant and I said Text Link Ads? LOL, this geek is not very romantic (true love always, BTW)! In the end, the heart came out fine, and when it was tacked on the wall with the other kids' heart, I was proud of my effort.

See more Crazy Hip Blog Mamas Photo Friday Valentines here.