Hollerin @ Hooters - Part 2

I couldn't resist posting a link to this story sent to me by my blogging buddy Going Like Sixty.

As you can see Hooters gives a great deal of money to children's charities and, the Lutheran Church is very happy to accept it. I'd like to hear the rationalization for accepting that money.

(This reminds me of a local church who had a religious retreat for men at a local bar where the video machines proudly displayed animated images of women's enormous "coconuts." And you wonder why I am such a skeptic of organized religion?)

So perhaps I was wrong in my assumption about Hooter's targe market; it's really children, who are so grateful for the charitable contributions that they'll beg to have their birthday parties with the hot girls in short shorts.

I long for the old days of the Playboy clubs, where adult men were sequestered privately with half-naked young women, and no children were allowed.

Hollerin @ Hooters

There was a conversation going on among some social networking friends on the topic of whether or not it was OK to hold a boy's 14th birthday party at Hooter's. The question also was asked if other parents would object to their child attending the party there. (At least they asked!)

I didn't voice my opinion there, but I will here in my own blog. If a parent even considers asking the question, "Is it OK...," most likely the answer is no it is not.

I guess I must be very old-fashioned because the responses there were, yes it is OK and yes I would allow my son to attend and yes my son has been there many times with his dad.

Yes, dads do love to spend some quality time with their sons when large chests are bouncing around.

The restaurant name is a euphemism for women's breasts (just in case you had no idea). You could call it Jugs, Puppies, Casabas, Kahunas, Coconuts, Twin Peaks, Boobies, Mounds, etc., and say all you want about how great the hot wings are that they serve there , but that is not what this restaurant is selling and that is not why one chooses to dine there and we all know it.

Happy birthday, little boy. Wanna try some hot wings?

This is not a restaurant chain; it is a bar that serves alcohol and bar food to a target audience of adult males, not children. The purpose of the eye candy is to encourage spending money there but not on soft drinks.

If the picture above showed three 20 something men in loin cloths leaning close in and rubbing themselves on a 14 year old girl, would these parents be so willing to subject their daughters to such atrocity?

Let the boys be children while they can. There will still be plenty of jug jiggling around when they go off to college.

Losing childhood to fear

Here's another interesting commentary from the UK about adult fear in being near children and its effect on society.

As one person commented following the article: "You think it is tough being a woman near children in a public place, you want to try being a man? Men do not want to be any where near children these days!and for good reason. The whole PC paranoia, all men are viewed guilty just because they are male is a reality..."

Pedophile-mania is getting nearly that bad in the US.

Two of a kind

Jason Whitlock rants about dead-beat dads again. Yes, it's not about the affairs, it's about the kids.

You can throw Mark Sanford , along with Steve McNair , into the growing group of fathers abandoning their kids for some ego stroking.

Between these two, there are eight young sons, who hopefully will learn from some other male what being a good father is all about.

I just don't understand

Why parents gripe about their children, when their children are just being children

Why parents yell at their children when disciplining them

Why parents don't teach their children proper table manners

Why parents do their children's homework and school projects

Why parents drive their children to places/events when the kids could easily walk or ride a bike

Why parents don't make their children accept responsibilities

Why parents coddle and cater to their children's every whim

Why parents can't wait for their children to graduate so they can have the house to themselves.

Why parents spend small fortunes on high school graduation parties (It's only a high school degree, folks)

Please understand that I'm not talking about you, but all those other people. Argh!

Bring back rugged individualism

"To be nobody but yourself -- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you like everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting." e e cummings

Experts often proclaim that one of the problems with today's children is that they succumb to peer pressure. They want to be like everyone else and they are chastised and bullied if they aren't.

But you can't blame the kids. Society is no longer elevating the individual. Parents are to blame because they want their child to be like everyone else - just as smart, popular, well-dressed as John Smith's kid. Have you notice how so many teen-age girls look exactly alike? And of course, every kid is a winner and they've got awards to prove it.

Educators are to blame because they want to make their jobs easier by teaching standardized syllabus to a uniform group of children, without regard to boredom, challenges and intellect, to reach standardized test standards. Even businesses now practice "team building", encouraging employees to be part of a group, because now it seems the "best" ideas come from a committee approach.

Not so long ago in the rebellious 1960's , most of the teens and college-aged kids were preaching and acting non-conformist. Everyone rebelled from the status quo. But when these same people reached adulthood and began raising their own children, individuality went out the window and conformity became the new standard.

It used to be Americans held the individual in high esteem. Every person being considered unique and special. Individual (adj.) individuals (n.). Now it seems to be cool to be homogenized.

When one doesn't conform, he becomes infinitely more interesting. I personally like people who are a bit peculiar, who aren't afraid to stand out or away from the crowd, and are not ashamed of being who they really are. They have inner strength, self-esteen, and resolve that is almost unknown in the conventional circles.

If you think of some of the most memorable real and even fictional characters in your life, I'll bet they were the individualists, the so-called kooks, the out-of-the box thinkers and creative doers. The bland masses never survive tales of the past.

If peer pressure is such a big problem with today's kids, perhaps parents should start encouraging their children to be non-conformists and teach them to love themselves for who they were born to be. Then there would be no peer pressure problem because the kids wouldn't want to be like everyone else and would be perfectly content as the unique individuals they really are.

Math for Kids

As part of their homeschooling, my daughters attended classes held by Don Cohen, better know in the Champaign-Urbana area, as The Mathman. He and Jerry Glynn have been offering algebra, calculus and advanced math classes for over 31 years. They truly know how to make mathematics fun and interesting to both children and adults.

In 1988, Don wrote Calculus By and For Young People (ages 7, yes 7, and up) and developed videotapes and worksheets to coordinate with the book.

On the worksheets cover page, that little girl with the striped blond hair is my daughter #2 (at age 4) and daughter #1 (at age 6) is featured on the inside title page of the book.

Daughter #1 is also featured in both videotapes - Infinite Series By and For 6 year-olds and Up and Iteration to Infinite Sequences with 6 to 11 year-olds. I believe they are now all available on CD.

Here is some of the actual work my younger daughter did at age 4 7/12 (as they liked to say). Mr. Cohen used her workbook for illustration at several teacher workshops.

This graph is from daughter #2's workbook:

What I really liked about the program was they allow children to develop their own problem solving skills in math; they show how one can solve math problems many different ways and still arrive at the correct answer. They also introduce highly complex math problems at early ages and show the relationships of easier math to more complex problems. And all of this is done in an exciting, fun environment.

Both daughters did extremely well in all subsequent math courses in high school and college and received high scores in the math portions of college entrance exams.

If you live in the Champaign-Urbana, IL, area, I would highly recommend their program. If you live outside the area, The Math Program books are excellent for homeschooling programs or for supplemental work in public schools. You can order the books here. We were happy to be a part of Don's publications and we get nothing from the sale of his products. We just really believe in his approach to math.

Gifted kid, smart parents

Here's what happens when parents don't run to a TV station to seek help for a toddler who reads at an early age. She grows up to be a bedazzling diva groupie of Leslie and the Lys. She has always been different, but a whole lotta fun sort of way.

That's daughter (on left) with friend and The Leslie in the middle.

Hubby jointed in the gemtastic attire.

Rhea at Boomer Chronicles also met Leslie in person.

Gifted kid, dumb parents

Here we go again. Another couple shoving their gifted child into the spotlight. The mother, with tears in her eyes, says her daughter is so different - "it's not easy to be different. That worries me."

So worried they were, that they ran straight to the local TV station to "reach out for experts who could help..."

Some of you know that my oldest daughter was doing the same thing at an even earlier age, but we hadn't taught her sign language or drilled her. She just started reading. Did we run to the local tv station for help? Did we put her on display to reinforce the fact that she was different? Absolutely not.

We rejoiced in the fact that she loved reading and gave her all the books she could handle emotionally. By the time she was three it was becoming more difficult to find emotionally appropriate material. Then we sought help, not from television, but at the nearby big university who had experts in early childhood development, and from teacher friends, family physician and other real experts.

If these parents are really worried about their child being different, quit parading her around in the public like a freak and do some real parenting.