When will it end?

So far we are not ringing in the new year with bright and shiny bells. We have had the sickness bug going through our house and it shows no signs of leaving.

I had to bring in my 5yo to the ER on Christmas Day. She had bronchitis and STILL had two ear infections. Now she has already been on antibiotics for 10 days. We had to start nebulizer treatments, steroids and MORE antibiotics.
Two days later my 3yo and 8 month old ended up sick with horrible head/chest colds. Three days later the 5yo is better, the 3yo is getting better BUT the 8month old is getting worse - throwing up everything. We ended up going to the ER at 2am on New Year's Day to be told it was viral and there was not much we could do. The next day he started running a 103 fever. I called the on-call pediatrician and they said wait and watch. By this time the poor little guy has bascially been crying for 3 days straight. The next day it is now over 104. Luckily, our pediatrician is open on Saturdays. We brought him in and he had 2 bad ear infections. He is now on antibiotics. My 16yo now has the head cold, ARGH!

Okay, let's go back a bit. We went to my mom's on Christmas Day for dinner. We all knew the my 5yo had a cold (so we thought). At that time it seemed to be no big deal. My mom ended up getting sick two days later and today she is STILL sick and went to her doctor to find out she has a horrible case of bronchitis. I know it was not our fault because how could we know my 5yo would go downhill so fast that day and the give it to my mom but I still feel bad.

So, the only resolution I have is for the sickness bug to leave us alone for a long while. My kids have been getting sick for the last 3 months. We all need a break. Please send some get well prayes out way. We can sure use them.


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Zenses Winner!

I decided to have my DH pick a number this time.

He picked number 127 as the winner (at 3:24pm EST).

Winner: Tanya Wilson said...127
I am following your blog!

You should receive and email. You have 48hrs to claim your prize.

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Happy New Year to All!

I wish everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

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Winners for Story Time Felts and Cushy Closer!

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Parental Alientation System (PAS)?

Remember about a year ago when Alec Baldwin was caught cussing out his daughter over the phone? Well now it has been attributed to a fairly new disorder called 'Parental Alienation Syndrome'. What is this you ask?

What is Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS)?
This is the definition of PAS as described by R.A. Gardner who discovered the syndrome and has become an expert in dealing with the issue.

Gardner's definition of PAS is: "The parental alienation syndrome (PAS) is a disorder that arises primarily in the context of child-custody disputes. Its primary manifestation is the child's campaign of denigration against a parent, a campaign that has no justification. It results from the combination of a programming (brainwashing) parent's indoctrinations and the child's own contributions to the vilification of the target parent."

(Excerpted from: Gardner, R.A. (1998). The Parental Alienation Syndrome, Second Edition, Cresskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics, Inc.)

Basically, this means that through verbal and non verbal thoughts, actions and mannerisms, a child is emotionally abused (brainwashed) into thinking the other parent is the enemy. This ranges from bad mouthing the other parent infront of the children, to withholding visits, to pre-arranging the activities for the children while visiting with the other parent.

Don't you find this reaching too much for an excuse? Hasn't this been around since the dawn of time? I would take a bet that anyone and everyone that has been through a divorce, with children, has been plagued with PAS. Wouldn't this 'syndrome' apply to many other areas of our lives? What about when you are fired? You say things about the company/boss. Wouldn't this be a type of brainwashing? Wouldn't letting others know the 'bad' things about the company and thus causing people to have negative thoughts be considered brainwashing? What if you purchase a product and don't like it? You then tell someone about it. Aren't we brainwashing the other person about the product? Right now, my 18yo son is having issues with his best friend (they are no longer friends). Since they are both talking bad about each other - does this qualify as some sort of syndrome and now they both need help? This happens in everyday life all the time.

I have always thought that a syndrome was something more of a medical condition - like Down Syndrome. So I looked up the definition and here is what I found:

1. Pathology, Psychiatry. a group of symptoms that together are characteristic of a specific disorder, disease, or the like.
2. a group of related or coincident things, events, actions, etc.
3. the pattern of symptoms that characterize or indicate a particular social condition.
4. a predictable, characteristic pattern of behavior, action, etc., that tends to occur under certain circumstances

It is amazing the things they can come up with to justify mad-mouthing others. I don't think that feeling bad about a situation causes the right to be called a syndrome. How is it treated? What do you think?



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