Sometimes it's hard to be a mom

Levi is going to school in the afternoons now and he absolutely loves it. He loves being with the other kids and learning lots of new things. He is obsessed with the planets now. He loves to tell me all about them including which ones are gaseous. He likes to name them all in order. Including Pluto. We tried to tell him that Pluto isn't a planet, but he doesn't believe us. He learned it at school, so how could it be wrong? This worries me a little. I'm not worried that he'll grow up forever believing that Pluto is a planet, but I'm worried at how impressionable he is and how little I really know about what he's learning at school. I've made the decision to trust the school with my child, and I still think it's a good decision, but it has me worried. I hardly know his teacher at all. As kids move up through the grades, it's not like we interview their new teachers every year to make sure that their philosophies mesh with ours or that they will be good matches with our children. We all know that a really good teacher can make a difference for the rest of a child's life, but would a really bad teacher make that kind of difference too? Especially early on when kids are just getting to know school and deciding if they like it and if they are good at it? It does worry me. For now I'll watch him closely and try not to worry while he's happy and liking school. As time goes on we'll try to strike a balance between instilling a healthy mistrust of authority while still teaching him to be respectful. This whole school business is worrying and confusing.

In other news, Levi had an accident last night while we were sleeping. I got him up and took off his wet clothes and took him into the bathroom. He was so upset. He sobbed and asked, "Why did this happen?" He didn't seem to be looking for an answer, really. I comforted him and put dry clothes on him and put him in bed. My heart broke a little as I wondered how many more times in his life he'll ask that question.

On Politics

I've tried several of those sites that ask you questions about your political opinions and then tell you which candidates match you best. I like this one best. It lets you choose undecided and assign a priority level to things. Plus it has more of the basic questions. And not the sound bite type questions.

Can you guess who it gave me though?


1. Dennis Kucinich (90.48% match)
2. Mike Gravel (88.1% match)
3. Ron Paul (72.62% match)

I had almost no match with Mitt Romney or Guiliani so that's comforting.
All three of my candidates are considered to be loonies I think. I guess my political views are not mainstream. I doubt I will get a chance to cast a vote for one of them.

I'm fairly interested in Ron Paul. He seems to have a big internet following but also seems to be being largely ignored in the mainstream media. I disagree with a lot of the things he says, but I think I might vote for him anyway given the chance. (not that I will be given the chance). I sort of think that things I disagree with would be worth it to get us not only out of Iraq, but get our military out of the rest of the world and stop our Imperialism. It also seems that we are descending into some sort of fascist police state and he seems wholly able to derail that. I'm also sick of overly pragmatic politicians like Hillary that don't seem as if they even have real opinions. They say what they think we want to hear. Ron Paul is really standing by what he says. And he seems to have given it a lot of real thought. What thinkest thou?