Still alive in the Fire Swamp

The children have not killed me. We are, in fact, surviving the lack of commercial television just fine. DH grumbles when he passes through because it's World Cup and he has to watch it on the computer. Thankfully watching it on the computer is a viable option.

The boys barely reacted and have been far better for the lack of Cartoon Network in their lives.
CE told me I had ruined her life. Forever. I think the melodrama of tweendom is upon us. But here we are and she too is still alive and, from all appearances, unruined of life. But then what do I know? I'm just the mom.

In other frightening news, CE has a phone. She's never had one before. She has lobbied hard for at least a year and finally came up with the monthly means to pay for one and found a free phone that she could be happy about. But, like many hotly anticipated purchases, phone ownership is not all she dreamed it would be. There are limits. I won't let her take the phone to church or to her room at night. I monitor her usage and set limits (and she, after not quite a week is very nearly at her monthly texting limit). I get after her when the phone overtakes her ability to participate in real life exchanges and since none of this is going to change, this has added fuel to her melodramatic "mother will ruin my life" fire. She is still, however, getting an almost palpable glee from saying the words "just call me on my cell." So it must not be a totally wasted purchase.

I don't know that I'm quite ready for all the limits and vigilance that motherhood in the modern age requires. The more I learn, the more I realize that although I can't bubble wrap my children or keep them locked up (DCFS would eventually come calling), I have to watch, I have to learn and research and watch and keep tabs and teach and watch and pray pray pray. My job isn't just to keep them physically alive, but to keep them spiritually alive. My job is to teach them the snares and pitfalls that endanger their souls, to give them the tools and limits so they can learn to watch and stand vigil themselves. It was so much easier to keep them from swallowing pennies than to keep them from all that is scary and dangerous and soul destroying in this life.

So, we no longer have TV and my daughter has a phone. Life in the Fire Swamp is more high tech than when Buttercup was here, but no less treacherous.