Democracy

Like most Americans, Jeff and I wanted to raise our children in a Democracy, namely, the United States of America. I'm not sure that we also wanted our home to be a democracy, in fact, I am pretty sure that we wanted our home to be more of a Constitutional Monarchy (though at times a Military Dictatorship seems like a good idea too!). However, here we are, almost 15 years into the child-raising process, and a democracy is what we have. It's my fault, I suppose. I am so interested in knowing what my children think about things that I ask them, and then I simply can't ignore their opinions!

For example, yesterday when I was trying to start this blog, I had a great name picked out. It was funny, it described how I often feel about parenting, and it was memorable. The problem with it is that I asked the kids what they thought. And Michelle said it was mean. Which brought up a second problem--she was right, it was mean. (The name was "Oops, I didn't mean to ruin your life.") So we started making a list of possible names and I asked the kids which ones they liked and why. After about an hour of polling and voting, we narrowed our list down to 6:

Butt bones and other things I haven't broken yet
Feast of girls
m&ms for dinner
Act like you like each other
Who is the mother here?
5 girls and a bald guy

Ultimately, "m&ms for dinner" got the most votes, and it is my favorite out of that list. And since Sharon didn't agree that it was the best choice, I wrote her up in the disclaimer subtitle so everyone would know of her protest. She doesn't want to be associated with any questionable dinners I guess.