Dance it out, people, dance it out.

I saw this article on The Daily Buzz the other day: The Competent Adult’s Checklist. For me, being an adult means being able to bake a pie. CHECK. But here’s what’s on their list, and what I think of it.

What’s on your list of required adult skills?

1. Understand Body Language – Yes, this is a good one to have, if you want to avoid being punched on a regular basis. But it does amaze me how many adults are able to get through everyday life with no apparent understanding of this one.

2. The Genuine Apology – I’m Canadian. COVERED.

3. Adhering to a Budget – Critical, so much so that I think a course on basic money management should be a high school requirement.

4. Showing Compassion – This seems to me to be a basic thing I call Being Human. The idea that someone would have to learn this seems odd, and the idea that you can’t learn it until you’re an adult also seems odd. Don’t be jerks, people.

5. Be Your Own Tailor – I am very, very passionate about this one. Just the other day I spent an afternoon sewing patches on various Scout/Guide/Brownie uniforms and it occurred to me that by the time I was as old as my oldest two kids, I was sewing things on a regular basis. By grade 8 I could also knit and crochet. I feel like these are dying arts – for shame, the loss of home economics. Memo to self: teach kids to sew (in my spare time HA HA HA).

6. Learn Photoshop. DONE.

7. Asking for Help – um, NOT DONE. Man, I suck at this. But I can make a pie! Six of one, half a dozen of another.

8. Learn to cook more – done, not by choice, but it was probably good for me. I just realized that this is also something I want to work more on teaching the kids. And, in fact, this whole list is really a list of “stuff you should teach your children.” Except Photoshop, they can get their own damn license someday.

9. Public Speaking – definitely a good skill to have for any adult. I still get nervous but it’s not debilitating, I can get through it.

10. Speaking a Second Language – I count this one as a “nice to have.” It definitely helps you be more aware of the global stage and open to new cultures, as well as (I hear) upping the flexibility of your brain. But I got a lot of other stuff to do first. Maybe when I’m retired.

11. It’s OK to say No. TOTAL FAIL. Send me back to high school!

12. Time Management – Something else I feel should be actually taught in high school, instead of assuming that throwing six projects and two essays at a kid at once will help them figure it all out, in a sink-or-swim kind of way.

13. Being Open to Feedback – Something that’s hard for everyone. I give myself about a B- on this one.

14. Learn a Lot of Keyboard Shortcuts – Hm, maybe – but isn’t that more of a requirement for being a whippersnapper teen? Perhaps this one should be changed to “text using only your thumbs at the speed of light and use at least three acronyms.” Actually, now that I think about it, the true mark of adulthood in this category should be, “LEARN TO USE PROPER GRAMMAR AND SPELLING.” SHEESH.

15. Have Quality Alone Time – YES. A lot of people need time to learn that being comfortable with yourself while alone is a must-have skill, and that the company of jerks just for the sake of having company isn’t worth it. (I’ve had this one covered since I was about six days old, so we’re good here.)

16. Always Back Up Your Computer – Um, excuse me, I just thought of something I have to do.

17. Approaching Someone For A Date – I agree, this is a critical adulthood skill, as well as its counterpart, “Gracefully Accepting a Rejection and Moving On.” Can’t claim to be able to do either, though.

18. Mastering the Power Nap – DONE.

19. Learn to Negotiate – NOT DONE. I hate confrontation so much I never, ever, negotiate. EVER. And I agree, this is something real adults should be able to do competently. I smell New Year’s Resolution.

20. Make Friends Anywhere – A great skill to have in your back pocket and a hard one to cultivate. I’m in the B range on this one, too.

A commenter on this post added some more that I think are great – learn to drive, basic first aid, learn how to take care of a house (still working on it), know the maintenance schedule for your car (DEFINITELY still working on it), basic tool use, and basic personal hygiene. How do you stack up, and what would you add?

Don’t really know what to say on a day like today except this: thank you.

Photo by Derek Winterburn on Flickr Creative Commons

One thing I’ve been thinking (idly) about lately is that perhaps we push pop culture on our kids too early. I’m not talking about things like sex and violence – that’s a whole other topic – but I’m talking about showing things to kids that you love, that you’re excited to share, but they just aren’t mature enough to really follow what is going on.

I’m a huge, huge pop culture junkie and when I’m not blogging or working I’m probably watching movies, or TV shows, or reading books, or reading magazines about movies/TV/books, or talking to my friends online about OMG JENNIFER LAWRENCE SQUEE. I admit I was counting down the days until I could show my oldest Star Wars and I have tried, oh how I have tried, to get him to love Star Trek and The Princess Bride. IT WILL HAPPEN, DAMMIT.

But something interesting has happened a few times lately – while Little Miss Sunshine, age 8, has been watching something age-appropriate – the older two have LOVED IT. I know they enjoyed it when they watched it when they were 8. But now it’s like they really APPRECIATE what is happening on a whole new level. They GET the in-jokes. They fully understand all plot twists. It’s interesting to me.

And this applies for even younger stuff. My three-year-old nephew was visiting at Thanksgiving and introduced the girls to Paw Patrol, which is apparently very hot right now among the toddler crowd given the volume of Paw Patrol toys I see in all the newly-arrived Christmas catalogues and flyers. It’s an animated show about a team of puppies who, in 10 minute shorts, solve problems and do heroic acts to help kids. And the girls have been eating it up – they talk all the time now about Paw Patrol, which is their favourite, what’s their favourite episode, can they PLEASE PLEASE watch Paw Patrol if they do all their homework first. And although he’d probably die if he knew I was putting this on my blog – even the Captain will sit and laugh and enjoy it. He knows all the names of the puppies, y’all. They are INTO IT.

A few months back we were watching a Winnie the Pooh movie that the older two had seen a dozen times in their youth, but the Little Miss hadn’t seen, and she liked it fine, but the older two – BUSTING A GUT. It was the most I’d heard them laugh at a movie in ages. It was so cool.

So now the older two, because they are interested and curious and gently peer pressured, want to watch things like The Big Bang Theory and Survivor and Glee, and we let them, and we talk about them, and that’s good. But it’s also good to go back to the stuff that is “meant” for little kids and show them that good entertainment is ageless. I think it’s sweet and adorable that they still think In The Night Garden is totes awesome (and I guess a phase is coming soon in which “kid stuff” like that will be SO NOT COOL, MOM, so I better appreciate it now).

I read an article in the summer about how Steven Spielberg was super excited to share his movies with his grandson, and so finally got the kids’ parents’ permission to show him E.T. when he was three. Putting aside any potential scary stuff, I have to wonder: did the kid even understand what was happening? Did he get the subtleties of sibling interaction, of being an outsider, of how a boy and an alien can become linked in some way that’s beyond the typical daily life? I’m not saying he shouldn’t have shown him the movie, but I do hope he plans to show it to him again when he’s 10, and then maybe again when he’s 15, and then again when he’s 30 – so he can actually feel all the wonder and joy and fear and sadness. So he can come away with something learned, something gained.

So that it’s more than just pop culture education – it’s a true experience. Something to enjoy, to ponder, to remember.

My kids’ school has a Facebook group and someone on it has started a weekly lunch feature where we are to take pictures of the lovely, carefully balanced lunches we are creating for our children and post them up there. To this I say: HA HA HA HA HA.

The people who are posting are the people with a) nice lunchboxes, in bright colours, divided into cute little sections, and b) children who actually EAT LUNCH.

I have neither of those things. For starters, all three children are on their third year with the same lunch bags, so you can imagine the staining and smell that is involved (if only the internet were scratch-and-sniff). I did try to replace them this year but they are still in one piece with (miraculously) an intact liner, and none of them actually wanted to part with their beloved bags, so they stayed.

Secondly, all three of my children are of the cookies-only-throw-the-rest-away school of lunch eating. They may drink the drink. And, I have to say, my “good eater” – that’s Gal Smiley – will probably eat her sandwich, unless she’s suddenly decided that the same sandwich she’s taken for the past six months is DEAD TO HER and she will never eat another, which happens about twice a year.

So we get a lot of boomerang fruit and vegetables coming back, as well as things like crackers and granola bars, and buns and sandwiches from the other two. I still, for the most part, diligently pack them with one fruit, one vegetable, and a sandwich/main course like item each day even though I know it’s basically going to just be for my post-school-pickup snack. Swistle posted a while ago about a time when one of her kids was becoming sandwich-resistant, so she sent him to school with a variety of snacks instead, with all the sandwich parts separated out, and then the teacher called home to say that he was missing a sandwich, and oh, the humiliation. I always picture the teacher at lunchtime seeing my kids open what passes for a lunch and sighing with sadness at the poor, poor life they lead.

That said, I have really been pushing the boundaries lately on what passes for a balanced lunch – like, Froot-by-the-Foot counts, right? And leftover tater tots make a vegetable, right? My worst offender – Little Miss Sunshine – is likely to get a lunch of a dried fruit bar, a few sad looking baby carrots (which I will eat later), a bun with butter on it (20% chance of her actually eating it), a bear paw, a juice box, and goldfish crackers – what my sister would call a “beige lunch.” All beige, all the time! That’s what we’re about here – but there’s little point in packing anything else, because unless I’m willing to eat it for dinner it’s going in the garbage.

Today in a wild fit of optimism I threw a mini yogurt in her lunch. It should make for a nice tidbit at teatime for me.

I’m tempted to upload my kids’ lunches to the Facebook page in a dare-to-judge-me kind of way, but I think in the end I just don’t have the stomach for it. I’m too busy filling up on leftovers.

Back in September, all three of my kids were judges on the kids’ panel at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

If you’re interested, by the way, it isn’t too hard to get in – get yourself on their mailing list, and they’ll let you know in August when it’s time to apply. Applying means your kid needs to pick an animated short, TV show, or movie, and write one paragraph about why they like it. I forced my three kids to do this as a summer homework project – some had more enthusiasm than others – and yet all three were picked. I think it’s a fairly open-arms kind of atmosphere, and it was also very fun and a fantastic experience, so I recommend it to all. Oh, I should probably mention it’s for kids aged 8 to 12.

Anyway, I went with the older two to their panel which was Animated Shorts for Kids, and then later I went with Little Miss Sunshine to her panel, which was Animated TV Shows For Kids. Both were great, but I especially love seeing the shorts – they are always so charming and inventive and sweet. I feel sad when it’s over that most animated shorts will languish forever on someone’s hard drive, hardly being seen.

So here’s three of our favourites from this year’s festival – call the kids, they’ll love them too.

First up, The Diary of Ochibi by Masashi Kawamura. Ochibi is a favourite comic-strip character in Japan, with adults and children alike, and when you watch this, you’ll see why. It’s just so charming – this one was my favourite. We were lucky to meet Masashi at the festival and it was fascinating to hear him talk about how this short was made (all stop motion, no computer animation – he has 1000 mugs back in his office in New York). It took a whole year of his life for seven enchanting minutes and I hope it somehow finds a massive, worldwide audience. There’s no talking at all, so this one is perfect for all ages.

Second, A Lion’s Life by Yu Nagasaki – this was one of the award winners at the event and it’s just. So. Weird. Weird, yet fabulous. It’s about a pet pig whose family takes him on vacation to Africa and, as one does, dresses him up in a lion costume. So obviously he gets lost and then must live life on the Savannah as a true lion. My kids laughed at this one until their sides burst (in Japanese with subtitles).

Lastly, the one that took home the overall animated short award is, sadly, not available in full on the internet, but you can watch a one minute clip of Compte Les Moutons (Counting Sheep) by Frits Standaert below. It’s the story of a boy who can’t fall asleep, so his father recommends counting sheep – but when his room is suddenly full of actual sheep, he has a problem on his hands. The showing at the Animation Festival was actually the world premiere, so hopefully someday, after making the festival rounds, they’ll put the whole thing online. In the meantime, this short has led to my son making very effective use of the phrase “deux se cache sous le lit” in everyday conversation.

Even if you can’t commit to the judging panel, it’s worth it just to get tickets to see both of these next year – we also went to a “meet the makers” panel and got to see Hotel Transylvania 2 a week before it was released, so fun all around. Worth it!

I’m really interested in the world of publishing, and self-publishing, and how Amazon is changing the face of reading in today’s world. After so many years of bookstores complaining about how Amazon is pushing them out of business, and should be stopped by the government for being a monopoly, something weird and wonderful has happened: Amazon has opened its own physical bookstore.

It’s not like a regular bookstore – books are carefully curated based on ratings and reviews on the website, and then the chosen titles are placed face-out, with a card including user comments and ratings on it, for easy and thorough browsing. Of course, anything you don’t see can be ordered online at one of many handy kiosks.

I’d shop there. Of course, I buy a lot of books. A LOT. But still – it’s pretty. If you live in Seattle, you can check it out.

Yesterday I was reading Tudor’s blog post about her guilty secrets, one of which is that she actually likes the fall time change, and the way it makes the mornings much brighter and sunnier. At the end, she asked what our unpopular opinions are, and I thought about it, and here’s mine:

I actually like it that Christmas season starts November 1.

Okay, I can see that the current argument, that it should wait until at least after Remembrance Day, has some merit. But in general I’m happy to celebrate the season for as long as they’ll let me. I love hearing tinkly Christmas music in the stores, and seeing all the pretty decorations. I love the sound of the mall Santa’s Ho Ho Hos and the way every kid starts looking around with stars in their eyes, dreaming of treats and goodies and warm, happy times.

I love making lists, lots of lists, of gifts and cards and recipes to make – it makes me think about all the people I love, and what they are like, and what kinds of things they like, and all they bring to my life. Christmas is a very busy time for me – I always do too much! – but it never feels like a burden. It’s fun, and I like it.

(Remind me I said that on December 15 or so when I’m knee deep in baking, wrapping, and daily Christmas crafts with the kids.)

I’m better now with winter than I used to be, but November and December can still seem like a very sad time of year, with the dark nights and gloomy grey weather and dying gardens. We know we’re going into bleak days of cold and minimal sunlight.

So Christmas, to me, is a bright light in the middle, something to look forward to, but also something to just enjoy for the whole season. Around here we have a rule: no Christmas music, decorations, or talk about gift shopping until at LEAST after November 18, which is my birthday. But in truth, my lists are already started, and I’m already humming Sleigh Ride when I see the seasonal aisle at the Superstore, and I’m already stocking up on chocolate chips and icing sugar.

I’ll take the cheer for as many weeks as I can.

Like a lot of the country, I got wrapped up in the coverage yesterday of Justin Trudeau’s swearing in ceremony, and his walk about at Rideau Hall with the new cabinet. I thought about going down personally – one of the perks of living in Ottawa is that you can actually be there for these kinds of things – but in the end decided to just listen to the coverage on CBC Radio, and then watch a bunch of video on the CBC news that night.

I find I am very surprised at a lot of things.

I’m surprised at how likable he is. In Justin’s interviews (may I call you Justin?), he seems genuine and really, really nice. He’s warm and caring in a way that we haven’t seen – maybe ever, in a PM. He’s always hugging someone – his wife, his kids, his new cabinet ministers. It’s adorable.

I’m surprised at how important this moment in history seems. Many people in the crowd at Rideau Hall said they wanted to be there for the moment when Trudeau became PM – like they expect it to live on as a key moment for Canada. I don’t remember ever caring this much when the other Prime Ministers were sworn in. I certainly have never, ever watched a cabinet dissection for hours and hours, like I did last night. I’m hoping for change, but it’s not like we’ve been living in some sort of oppressive dark ages – it’s just time for some new points of view and new approaches – and yet this does seem, somehow, like the dawning of a new age.

I’m surprised at how hopeful I feel. It made me feel so emotional seeing a picture of the new cabinet – especially compared to Harper’s cabinets which were mostly old, white men. And I swoon a little bit every time Trudeau makes a Facebook post, talking directly to Canadians and inviting the press and public to call him out on any issues we have. There’s an openness here, a welcoming feeling that makes me weirdly teary-eyed when I think about it.

And lastly, I’m surprised at how much I care. I mean, I obviously care about Canada and what happens here and I’m passionate about voting and staying informed about the issues. But I mean I care on a personal level about Trudeau, and how he performs. Of the Prime Ministers that have been around since I’ve been able to vote – Mulroney, Campbell, Chretien, Martin, and Harper – some I’ve admired, some I’ve feared, some I’ve been indifferent to. But certainly, all have been just another politician – not someone who gets treated like a rock star when he shows up at public events. Don’t get me wrong, though, I like that – he’s our Obama, as my husband says – and I like that he’s young, and dynamic, and enthusiastic, and ready to listen.

I really like Canada today – and that says a lot. Welcome to the office, Mister Prime Minister.

I got this in the mail yesterday:

A formula sample and a “welcome to the Similac club!”. I suppose they do have a good point – these puppies aren’t so much with the milk production anymore, so perhaps it’s time to look at substitutes. I’m sure my 12, 11, and 8 year olds will be most receptive to the idea of sitting on my lap while I give them a sample bottle for dinner.

(Actually, possibly yes, depending on what’s on the menu for tonight’s meal. Sigh.)