June 22, 2009
Sexy Autism Ads – Helpful or Hurtful?
By now, I’m going to assume that most of my readers have seen the new Sexy Autism Ads. If you haven’t, well, here they are. But please, don’t get so distracted that you don’t come back here for my thoughts on them!
http://rethinkingautism.com/Videos.html
The theory behind these ads is that if the anti-vaccination movement can use celebrities and sex appeal to promote their views, let’s fight back with the same. But doesn’t that just let the pro-vaccination movement stoop to the same level as Jenny McCarthy and Generation Rescue?
And don’t get me started on the harm we’re doing to positive body image. Are we only able to get our message across if we are sexy, and let’s face it, big-breasted? Really? But I digress…
I’ll show my age here, but I’m brought back to a time of pantyhose commercials. Specifically, one famous 1970’s pantyhose ad. Joe Namath, wearing pantyhose. It was shocking, and really grabbed the attention of the viewers. But the problem was, no one actually remembered the BRAND of pantyhose he was wearing. So was the ad effective?
The same can be said of Rethinking Autism’s ads. The sex is too distracting, AND has nothing to do with the actual message.
And then there’s the name of the website. Is this website really “rethinking” autism? Let’s think about it:
- The anti-vaccination movement is harmful to children with autism and society in general, no doubt. But the group hawking those views is a very vocal minority. Yes, VERY vocal. But also a minority. Most people still vaccinate.
- The website states a lot of facts without anything to back them up. Even Jenny McCarthy has examples to support her views. Jenny fails to consider that correlation does not equal causation, and some of her “facts” are based on disreputable studies, but she has something to point to when stating her views.
There is no “rethinking” occuring here, because most people already are pro-vaccination, and there is no apparent thought behind any of the statements on the website.
The founder of Rethinking Autism is trying to fight Jenny by fighting fire with fire. When I told Steve that, five-year-old Kate said, “But Mommy, that doesn’t make sense. You fight fire with water. Fighting fire with fire would only make a bigger fire.” Brava, Kate. My five-year-old had more scientific fact in that statement than Rethinking Autism shows on their entire website.
Water? Water is calming yet powerful. In our fight against the anti-vaccination movement, let our words be the same. An excellent source of information about mercury and vaccinations, and how they do NOT cause autism, can be found in an excerpt from the book Baby 411 by Ari Brown, MD. If you haven’t read it yet, her “Vaccine Q&A” is an excellent source of information, and I highly recommend it.
Are the ads helpful or hurtful? At the very least, the ads are harmless and will be enjoyed by a handful, but the message will be forgotten. At the worst, they are adding fuel to the fire, sensationalizing the autism/vaccine debate, and {shudder} possibly giving the anti-vaccination movement some credibility, as the ads have no scientific facts to back them up.
June 19, 2009
Pilling a Cat
Nothing more fun than having a cat! Wait, there is…having a sick cat!
Last week, I came home to a pool of cat urine on the floor. No way to know which cat, Boom-Boom or Rocket, left that present. It had never happened before. Clean it up, mop the floor, and move on.
Sunday, Boom-Boom started vomiting small amounts of mucus, then shaking and just lying around. (or is it laying? I never get it straight) Off to the Emergency Animal Hospital. I think they should have a bouncer at the door. There might as well be a $200 cover charge just to get in. That would let you know what you’re getting into.
A few hours later, they still hadn’t been able to “collect” the necessary urine sample, so I went home, leaving poor Boom-Boom to whatever fate would befall him. Six hours later, at 10 p.m., I called the vet to see if I could pick him up. Still no pee, but his X-ray showed a lot of hard balls of you-know-what in his colon. Would I want to bring him home with a stool softener? All I could picture was the next week spent running around the house with the steam cleaner. Tough choice, but I decided to leave poor Boom-Boom there overnight for an enema (ka-ching!).
The next morning I brought home a slightly humiliated, if not lighter, cat. Plus pills and liquid medicines to be given twice a day. Have you ever pilled a cat? It’s something that must be experienced at least once in a lifetime.
The kids are finally OK with drinking medicine off a spoon. It took a LONG time, especially with Jon. As late as five-years-old, I sometimes had to pin Jon down and pour the medicine in his mouth. And I thought that was hard. Little did I know.
Pilling a Cat – the process:
1) If this is not the first day of medicating your cat, the first thing you have to do is track him down. Cats are smart, and he knows what’s coming, so the best place to look is behind the incredibly heavy bed that is placed at a diagonal across the corner of the room. Realizing that you can’t get back into the corner with him, you offer his favorite treats, but he’s too smart for that. Finally, you move the boxspring and mattress, crawl through the opening in the bottom of the headboard, and realize that the cat has run out.
2) When you find the cat, you pick him up and sit down with him snuggled in the crook of your arm. Pet and reassure him, just before you take your thumb and forefinger on each side of his jaw and force his mouth open and head back. Tell the children to leave the room, so you can swear when he bites you.
3) And NOW for the fun part. Take that pill and drop it in there. Watch cat spit it out. Repeat. Enjoy the fact that each time the pill comes out, it gets that much slimier. Enjoy that slime foam on your cat’s mouth, and check the date on the rabies tag, just in case.
4) Finally, get the pill in and clamp his mouth shut. Stroke his neck. This process can take up to five minutes. When the cat licks his nose, he has swallowed the pill.
Unless you’re dealing with Boom-Boom. My brilliant cat has discovered that I look for that tell-tale tongue on the nose, and he fakes it. That’s right. Yesterday Boom-Boom licked his nose, I relaxed my hold, he turned his head and spit out the pill. My friend, a retired veterinarian, has never heard of a cat who could do that. Great time to find out that Boom-Boom is gifted.
If you’re lucky, he’ll need the pill twice a day. Make sure to wear dark clothes, so you can be reminded of all the fun every time you look at the fur all over your shirt and jeans.
And one final thing I learned just this morning – don’t pill the cat right after he fights with his brother, and then eats. This time the vomit wasn’t just mucus. But the food wasn’t entirely wasted. The other cat ate the vomit, until I chased him away and cleaned it up.
I’m waiting for the vet to call back as I write this, to find out if I can have the pleasure of pilling Boom-Boom again to replace what he just lost. While I wait, I thought I’d share some pictures with you.
On the left, Boom-Boom refuses to look at the camera after taking his medicine. He is plotting his revenge. On the right, Rocket poses, always ready for a photo opportunity.
Boom-Boom still won't look up, but has decided to let me take his picture. Steve named Boom-Boom and Rocket after ice hockey players from the 1950's.
The vet office just called back. I’m allowed to re-pill Boom-Boom, since he lost that pill in his vomit. It should be illegal to have this much fun.
June 18, 2009
First Day of Summer
1) We live in abject filth. I’m not kidding. Once it gets bad enough, you just give up. And really, the ants do a great job of taking the crumbs out of the dining room. (I would like to get this under control.)
2) Freezer cooking. This has saved my life. I go to Costco, buy ground meat, chicken breasts, and anything that can be marinated. Also pasta, canned tomatoes, etc. I make pasta sauce, chili, meatloaf, meatballs, stuffed shells, baked ziti, etc. to freeze. This eliminates daily dinner prep and related clean-up. It requires some planning to get food out in time for it to thaw, but it’s worth it. You can google “Once a Month Cooking”. It’s changed my life.
3) TV, videos, and computer games. Jon is not good at playing with toys by himself, but he loves the computer. We use these crutches too much, but I’ve made a promise to myself to cut down some this summer.
4) ESY, or Extended School Year. Six weeks of 4 days/week, 4 hours/day activity for Jon.
5) Barbies, My Little Ponies, baby dolls, and Webkinz. Kate has an amazing imagination, and she’ll play by herself for at least an hour at a time.
In addition, I plan to implement some sort of schedule this summer for the kids. Of course for Jon, a routine for the day is calming. I think it will be good for Kate and me, too, a new form of discipline. I hope to work for a few hours each morning, have some good playtime, lunch, then an outing when Jon gets home from school. I’ll finish working after their bedtime. Sometime before dinner, I’d like to have “tidy time” and help the kids put away their toys. I also want them to clear their plates, sweep up their own crumbs, and make their beds. They’re old enough. It’s really my lack of discipline that gets us into trouble.
We did take a crack at cleaning up the playroom today. I still need to wipe it down and vacuum, but here are a few ”Before” shots:
We used to have a floor in here, I know we did.
We're lucky we didn't lose Jon in here for days.
Our real kitchen doesn't look much better than this.
And “After”:
THERE'S the floor!
I actually heard Barbie breathe a sigh of relief.
Jon played a large part in this by sorting the food out from the rest of the mess, and putting it away.
I directed the activity, but most of the credit goes to Kate, and then Jon. Kate organized toys and cleaned the dollhouse. Jon put away Little People toys and helped me sort out the food from the kitchen utensils, flatware, and cookware, then he put the food away. I often looked up to see Jon trying to sneak upstairs.
But you know what really makes this house work? My amazing, patient husband who spends more than his fair amount of “free time” cleaning the house, doing yard work, planning weekend activities, budgeting, playing sports with the kids, teaching Kate to rollerblade and play hockey, teaching Jon to ride his bike, and numerous other things that make this house livable. If not for Steve, JonsRoom would have crashed and burned already. He’s amazing.
June 17, 2009
Movin’ On Up
We went to Moving Up day at Jon’s new school this morning. Over breakfast, he was excited. I kept asking him, “Do you want to go to school by car, or by dog? by car, or by horse? by car, or by bird? Every time he answered “car”. Which is amazing, because he normally repeats the last option given. Good start to the day, and left him giggling. Score one for Jon!
We giggled all the way to the new school. Fabulous, because Jon had never been there before. In the office as I signed in, he jumped with excitement at all the new kids that he saw. They gave him curious looks, but no disgusted looks, and a few came up and introduced themselves. Score two for Jon!
Then, I don’t know what happened, but Jon’s mood changed. There was no big shock, no loud noise, but Jon got upset. We went into the speech room where he read some books. He calmed down, but once we started the tour, he became upset again. That’s when I dropped out of sight. I thought he’d do better without me, so I sat in the school lobby and chatted with other parents.
Then an administrator came up and asked if Jon was independent in the bathroom. We’ve just started working on him going into stalls by himself. Off I ran. When I got to the bathroom, I learned that he’d been flushing for the last few minutes. Ugh. In I go, into the boys’ room. Jon was none too happy for my interruption, but I managed to get him to wash his hands and go back, slightly upset.
When they brought Jon back to me, he was happy again. He had stayed with his future classmates and listened to a story, looking at books to calm him. It’s good that the visit was ending well, that will be his last impression of the school. OK, so it will be of leaving the school. Oh well.
What’s the take-away? Just a reminder that we have a BIG transition in front of us in the fall. I know that the school wants this to work, and I know that they’ll be in contact with his old teachers. But boy, is this going to be hard.
Oh, and we really need to work on that bathroom thing. Wish us luck.
June 3, 2009
To Post or Not to Post? That IS the Question…
JonsRoom has its first offensive post. Or maybe I’m sensitive. You all can decide. I have two opposing thoughts on this:
1) I totally asked for this. I created an anonymous forum for a reason – to encourage honest sharing of opinions, viewpoints, and commentary by users, while not prejudicing them against each other for other discussions. Inevitably, someone will say something to offend at least one community member. And these communities tend to be self-policing, with members defending each other.
2) What’s wrong with presenting your opinion in a civilized manner? This poster likely has a valid viewpoint, but frankly, I can’t get past the rudeness. And he has a few infractions in his post – he identifies himself by initials on an anonymous board (???), and in our “About Us” section, we do ask people to be respectful of each other. I guess respect is in the eye of the beholder, though.
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