Recently my father sent me a New York Times article written by a self professed Chinese/Tiger mother about the different perspectives and parenting practices between an atypical stringent eastern household versus a general idle western family. Surprisingly I found myself nodding in agreement with the Tiger mom's theme of not giving up on your children and instilling self esteem through hard work and accomplishment. Though some of her more extreme ideas about, no sports or sleep-overs made me cringe, I wondered how Chinese/Tiger kids spend there free time since extracurricular activities are so frowned upon....And then I found this brilliant answer in the above pamphlet, "Baby Mops!" There is no need for batteries so it's economical, it combines cleaning with exercising so it's efficient and is reusable so therefore leaves a low carbon foot print.
So I'm thinking I might try it on the cats if they are so obliged (who are we kidding) or John if he is feeling compliant, heck it might even make for an interesting Halloween costume. While "baby mops" may seem slightly crazy and admittedly very creative, I believe there is more than one way to clean a "not so clean house!" Eric the Great (my husband's self professed titled) would like to point out that crazy and creative is very much my style for preforming most acts of cooking and cleaning.
Signed, the Margarita/Dust Bunny Mother
very funny - and Chris bought me the Tiger Mother book, if you want to borrow it. That woman is insane, but she also made some good points.
ReplyDeletemy favorite bit...
ReplyDelete"After the birth of a child there's always the temptation to say 'Yes, it's cute, but what can it do?' Until recently the answer was simply 'lie there and cry', but now babies can be put on the payroll, so to speak, almost as soon as they're born."