Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Helicopter Moms


My baby comes home after her second day of Kindergarten crying her eyes out. When I'm finally able to calm her down to get the story, she tells me she got a "strike" at school. Getting the story out of a crying 5 year old is extremely difficult so... I send her off to take a shower (and listen as she's continuing the flood of tears in the shower) then bring her back in the room to find out what happened. According to her, a boy pushed her at school and another boy said she was at fault. Through minutes of interrogation, I try to get as much of the story as possible. Then, as I'm putting her to bed, I ask her several times whether or not she's telling me the truth. "I want to make sure this is a true story before I go off on your teacher and those kids. And if you're lying and I've made the effort to look like a fool, you're gonna get it!" I must be a Samoan mom because I will go to the ends of the earth for my children but if they lie and make me look like an idiot, the wrath comes home! Needless to say, I'm stewing over this all night and send a note to the teacher. She calls and tells me the kids were in line and someone in the back pushed my daughter which started a domino effect on the rest of the line. The few in the back, including my daughter, were laughing and received strikes. Guess who's going to get a talkin' to today??? Everyone, including the teacher, is telling me not to be too hard on her. Uh... ya'll don't know me! She's AT LEAST going to learn that laughing with the crowd is NOT okay and pushing people can hurt so IT'S NOT FUNNY! On a good note, my daughter came to me and told me what happened so I didn't have to learn about this from someone else. I guess I'm doing something right.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Ancient Voyaging


What an amazing sight it must have been! To watch these voyaging canoes arrive in San Francisco, knowing they navigated just as our ancestor's did using only the stars and current... Just reading the sailing blogs and emails from dad (who was there) sent chills down my spine. I would love to one day step foot on one of those boats. Honestly, I don't know if I would have the guts to sail on one, even for a quick sail, but at least to stand and see what they see would be amazing. I feel like I would be sucked back in time, changing into one of my Polynesian ancestors who made the trek long before me. Moving out of the islands has become the new "trek" for us as Polynesians. Change is always good. But if you can't reconnect with the past once in a while, you tend to lose focus. I actually felt tears stinging my eyes as I read the day to day postings of shipmates and looked at the pictures of the amazing ocean life. One of the postings talked about stopping, listening, and being still. They encountered whales, dolphins, seals, and would have missed it all if they hadn't been still. I think once in a while, we need to sit down, put everything away, and just be still! Listen to yourself, and find who you are!
(Check out www.pacificvoyagers.org)