Canada Moms Blog

I'll have some aspirin please, some body wash, and a vaccination

Nova Scotia is freeing up some room in your doctor's waiting room.

Amendments to the Pharmacy Act now mean that pharmacists in Nova Scotia will be able to administer vaccinations and order some diagnostic tests.  Imagine! Getting both the shopping done and having your jabs done all at once! Health Minister Maureen MacDonald says the goal is to take advantage of a pool of qualified professionals in order to free up doctors to concentrate on other areas of health care. Although unable to put a dollar figure on any potential savings, Health Minister Maureen McDonald says the move will create efficiencies in the health system.  As more pharmacists graduate, more will begin helping out.It's hoped the program will begin some time this year.

America's Health Care Reform - One Step Forward

Last Sunday in the United States, the government signed into a law a bill that facilitated sweeping changes to the country’s current healthcare system.

Last week in Toronto, I had to rush my two-year-old to the hospital after she suddenly, alarmingly, clutched her neck and stopped moving. She was ok, but man did she give me a scare.

Both events got me thinking.

I got thinking about how very polarizing, controversial and hotly debated the former has been. And I got thinking about how very devastating the latter might have been – that is, if I had to actually deal with the former and not just write about it.

Admittedly, I do not know the minutiae of the health care reform issues on the table, but I do know and understand the big picture issues – I know and understand that millions of people in the United States cannot afford or qualify for health insurance, and therefore, must pay out of pocket when in need of medical assistance. I know that even when you can qualify for and afford health insurance, that insurance can easily be denied by a medical centre or practitioner because they are allowed to say that they don’t like the insurance you are probably paying a whole lot for. I know that my father needed FOUR different insurance policies just to be able to die, broke, in his hometown.

There is no Maternal health without Reproductive health.

It's times like these when I am truly, cringingly, embarrassed by our government.

It's no secret that I'm a pinko commie liberal. I believe in safety nets and socialized health care and helping those who are down on their luck. I believe in women's shelters and drug rehabs and needle exchange programs. I even listen religiously to the CBC. So it's not hard to find something for me to be angry about in most of our Conservative government's policies. However, this one goes beyond the pale, and not just for me. In their recently announced G8 initiative to promote maternal health in the developing world, the Tories have decided that birth control is not part of maternal health.

You Are a What? What's a Blog?

I had a post about telephones ready to go, but then Twitter went all 'OH NO SHE DIDN'T' all over an article in The NY Times with the snarky title 'Honey, Don't Bother Mommy.  I'm Too Busy Building My Brand," and I had to stop and read all the furor and posts in response and so on.

I am not going to respond to the NY post, far better writers have done that...read Mom 101's response to the article or Kelby Carr's piece where she sums up nicely why the main stream media treats bloggers who happen to be mothers this way:

"We get marginalized for a few reasons, including:

• We are women who are, perhaps for one of the first times, far better at something than men in many cases and far better in an industry that is making a major impact. I should explain that I know many, many men who are talented, brilliant bloggers, but that isn’t surprising. For women to stand out in an industry that major corporations are clamoring to get involved with just sits wrong with some people.
• We are excelling in the media landscape, which doesn’t sit well with traditional media.
• We are turning our backs on the mold that has been created for us.
• We are threatening to traditional publishers, mostly old white men who couldn’t write a blog or use Twitter if you put a gun to their heads.
• Newspaper circulation keeps declining, while blog readership and authorship keeps growing.
• Writing snarky articles about mom bloggers encourages mom bloggers to share links and drive readers to the newspaper’s web site. (Here’s a hint, New York Times… we would share positive coverage just as much, if not more).

We are trying to make a living by creating content, and for that we get demeaned, criticized, talked down to, made fun of, and stereotyped as unethical money and swag grabbing whores.

I know of a few other organizations that make their money creating content. Namely, mainstream media."

Let's talk about sex, Mom

When I was in grade four, the brother of a girl in my class brought a condom to school. The news spread like wildfire – by recess, a large group of kids had surrounded his locker, hoping for a glimpse. Having no idea what a condom was, let alone what one looked like, my curiosity had been sufficiently piqued. When I got home from school that afternoon, I broached the subject with my mother.

After her coughing fit had subsided, she fished a piece of paper from a pile on the dining room table and drew her best dome. I’d learned in sex-ed class (led by my hairy-chested and very oversexed Phys-Ed teacher) that a condom was used during sexual intercourse – I just didn’t know why, or what one looked like. Thanks to my mother’s illustration, I thought for years that condoms were made of hard plastic, with finely pointed tips.

That drawing, those sex-ed classes and what was scrawled in the stalls of my school’s second-floor bathroom sums up the extent of my sexual education as a child. I entered my teen years armed with more knowledge about the dangers of sex than its pleasures; when it came to the act of lovemaking itself, I was fairly clueless. It’s not the experience I want for my own children, and when it comes to The Talk, I have no qualms about having an open, honest discussion with them, when the time is right.

And when that time comes along I’m pretty sure that this half of the parental unit will be leading the conversation, as my husband still blushes when I use anatomically correct terms with our kids and shuts down altogether at the thought of them becoming sexually active.

“You can take care of that stuff,” he once told me, which, according to this article, is a popular consensus among fathers. It seems that, along with making meals, scheduling appointments, cutting crusts off of sandwiches and, well, everything else, initiating The Talk winds up on many mothers’ To Do lists as well.

According to the article, a third of kids in the U.S. aged 15-17 have had sex. Among teens aged 15-19, 13 per cent of females and 15 per cent of males had sex before they’d turned 15. A Toronto-based survey revealed that among teens aged 13 to 18, one-third were sexually active. It’s not surprising, really – sex is everywhere these days, and kids aren’t stupid.

Something Beautiful

My childrens' school is collecting money for Haiti - milk dimes, errant quarters, toonies and loonies and paper money shaken from piggy banks and caged in return for chores. It's a lovely thing that our kids are so concerned for other children so far away.

It's hard to know what is just-enough-and-not-too-much to tell my young'uns so that they'll grasp the situation and yet not be horrified into bad dreams. We've talked about how the people that were struck hardest by this disaster were the ones who really didn't have anything to begin with, how we, who have so much, can help these people that we'll never meet by sending a little money so they'll have things like fresh water. Or something to eat. Or maybe a pillow and a blanket.

My daughter's class is young and confused by how someone's house could just disappear. They've been drawing pictures to send to children in Haiti, full of rainbows and smiling faces and birds holding hands. So, she explained, they'll have something beautiful until this is all fixed. Until this all goes away.

The surprising nature of compassion from kids

I think sometimes it's easy for us as parents - or just people in general - to underestimate the amount of compassion a child can express. Children, as a rule, are selfish creatures. I don't mean that as a judgment, I mean it as a general observation. They think of their needs, their wants, their happiness. Over time they learn more and more to think of others ("How would you feel if your friend said that to you? Sad? So how do you think she feels now that you said it to her? Exactly!") but it's a work in progress.

All I have to do is observe my oldest daughter with her younger sister and I can easily assume that there's not much in the way of compassion or empathy there. The amount of bickering over "don't touch my stuff" is unbelievable. And also headache-inducing.

Operation Hestia - Haiti bound

Last April, Canada's first female commanding officer took the helm of the HMCS Halifax. Josee Kurtz has had several months to get comfortable on the big ship, and now she's steaming full-speed ahead again....this time, to Haiti.

The HMCS Halifax and her sister ship, the Athabaskan, set sail for the wrecked shores of Haiti on the 14th of January, and are expected to make port sometime on the 20th.  They will be the second wave of Canadian humanitarian relief, and are loaded with tonnes of supplies and necessities.

 A Canadian Disaster Assistance Relief Team (DART) was sent as an advance team of 20 personnel in a CF-130 Hercules aircraft - comprised of medically trained professionals and experts in assessing needs for relief, communications equipment and personnel, infrastructure engineers and search-and-rescue equipment. It was the data reported from this team that outlined where the frigates will need to be stationed to accomplish the most.

The Canadian Forces have also announced that a  C-17 military transport aircraft carrying a Griffon helicopter and other equipment and personnel will be deployed. That aircraft can also be used for evacuation. 

The crew has been attending trainings since they left port, and have learned how to use rescue and engineering equipment like the Jaws Of Life, blow torches, and chain saws. Sailors who already have had specialized training, like Fire Fighters, Hull Technicians, or Bosuns, are training cooks, radar operators, and electricians so they can all become 'First Responders'. No one will just have one job during this operation - everyone will be doing whatever they can do.

Life is short. Have an affair

Life is short. Have an affair.

That's the motto of an on-line dating site, Ashley Madison, which facilitates cheating. Like a typical on-line dating site, it's purpose is to help those looking for a partner to find one easily: the difference? These people are married and looking for someone willing to have an extramarital affair. Cheat.

Ashley Madison is so confident they can find you the right person to contribute to your infidelity that they have a 100% guarantee.

Join AshleyMadison.com for FREE
and Have An Affair...Guaranteed!

This site isn't new. It's been featured on Ellen, The View, Dr. Phil, Good Morning America and Larry King. They've been providing an easy gateway for those looking to cheat on their spouse since 2001.

Until recently, I really had no idea a vehicle of this nature even existed. That was until the Toronto media went nuts with news of a potential ad for Ashley Madison which was to be displayed by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). TTC had allegedly accepted a deal to provide one street car to be wrapped head-to-toe with a purple ad stating - "LIFE IS SHORT. HAVE AN AFFAIR." - which would sprawl across the ENTIRE length of the train.

OSPCA vs. THS

There is a long standing feud between the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) and the Toronto Humane Society (THS). This feud came to ahead when the THS were allegedly caught off guard and five members of their staff were arrested when the OSPCA and the Toronto police raided their River St. location yesterday.

Charges have been laid against the society's president, Tim Trow, and four other members of their staff. The charges allegedly include conspiracy to commit an indictable offense, cruelty to animals as well as obstruction of a peace officer.

Pretty hefty allegations for a centre that insists they've done nothing wrong.