Canada Moms Blog

London Ontario Health Unit Launches Ludicrous Sexual Health Website

15 to 24 year olds can now play their way to sexual health via a new game on the London-Middlesex Health Unit's website.  The problem is in it's condescending delivery and sheer comicality of it's design.  Prepare to be horrified.

Kids can choose to be one of four titillating characters:

a sexually active girl named Power Pap who uses x-ray vision to spot infections; a boy named Willy who believes size doesn’t matter and who's superpower is "rock hard strength";  Captain Condom, a male superhero with a condom on his head; or a virgin named Wonder Vag.

Wonder Vag has the superpower to tell if a person is lying.  That's funny - as a teenage girl, I sure didn't. That really would have come in handy.

It gets worse.

Pelvic Examination Under Anaesthesia: Immoral Teaching Tool or Avoiding Discomfort in the Name of Education?

Like Shannon, I read and was horrified by the Globe and Mail article "Time to End Pelvic Exams Done Without Consent."  My first reaction was that this article was written quite inflammatory and I began to search for a semblance of truth behind the article, or something to prove otherwise.

What's In Your Kid's Lunches?

It is a question we parents ponder on a daily basis: how to pack a healthy lunch our kids will actually eat?

With news of Maple Leaf having food safety problems again, and talk of pre-packaged foods having more salt & chemicals than our bodies know how to process, moms and dads are concerned about both food safety and nutrition as we slam the lids on lunchpails (or zip the zippers on the more popular lunchbags.)  Let's not forget the allergy restrictions on Canada's old favorite either: peanut butter sandwiches.

Look Around, It's a Hazy Shade of Winter

Everywhere I turn, every parent I know is talking about H1N1.  It's okay if you are rolling your eyes at that very first sentence.  I cringed just writing it. 

Yesterday I made a huge decision in vaccinating my kids (the oldest has heart disease, the youngest protected because of his age - he squeaked in under the young children age group). 

Before deciding, I consulted my son's cardiologist, our family doctor, my husband, and Granny.  I talked it over with girlfriends, with Twitter friends and others via email.  This wasn't a decision I took lightly and I just didn't want to be wrong.  The story of how I arrived at that decision is here, if you're interested.

Nobody's Perfect

Yesterday as I sat waiting for my doctor to come into the small room, I stopped fiddling with my phone long enough to notice a flyer on her bulletin board.  Two words flew out of the paper and smacked me square in the jaw:

Nobody's Perfect.

I thought about that morning, how I'd rushed to get the kids out the door, raising my voice when I told my 5 year old to get his shoes on (for what felt like the 45th time, mind you), and scraping my knuckles on a door hinge as I moved too fast to get a box for fund raising out of my son's room and into the car.

Walking With Papa

When I was a kid, my brother and I would visit my grandparents, often at their cottage, and the two of us would be Papa's shadows a lot of the time.  Whether he was going fishing, collecting wood, or digging in the dirt, he was always outside and definitely always interesting.

He was the one who taught us how to fire a shotgun, how to wield an axe, how to bait a fishing line.  He was funny, always telling jokes and singing songs.  He taught us how to drive an ATV, a boat, a snowmobile and eventually was the one who taught me how to drive a car.

One thing we used to do is go for a walk in the bush.  Papa would give each of us a walking stick and we'd crunch through the fallen leaves and twigs or in the snow, depending on the time of year.  He told us if we were quiet enough, we might see some birds or animals.  He mimicked the call of the Chickadee and kept his eyes open for unusual things he could point out to us.

Streetproofing Your Kids in 2009

Victoria (Tori) Stafford was willingly led away from her school on April 8th, and only yesterday, 43 long days later, did we learn that she was killed.  Throughout this entire ordeal, many of have thought, "what if this was my child?"  Perhaps this has raised discussion in your household, as it has ours.

The two people behind her disappearance and subsequent murder are 28 year old Michael Thomas C.S. Rafferty and 18 year old Terri-Lynne McClintic.  A man and a teenager.  Does that grab you as it does me?

My kids are in the same school district as Victoria Stafford was.  Many moms I know are devastated by this entire situation, as am I.  We talk about the fact that Tori looked completely comfortable walking away from her school with McClintic on the surveillance tape.  We hope and pray our children would not be duped simply because a teenager is so much like a kid, in the eyes of a child.

We can't wrap them in bubble wrap.  They need to walk to school, to the bus stop, play outside.  We can't lock them up inside with us.  It isn't healthy.  Besides, kidnapping by strangers is very rare, accounting for less than 1% of missing children cases, according to the RCMP.  Better safe than sorry though.

Friends Across The Miles: Helping Babies Like Maddie Spohr

When I met Sam last October, we had already been reading each other's blogs for years.  Meeting in person was easy and real, and as we traveled across the border to attend BlogHer Boston, we settled into conversations about our kids and marriages, deep discussions about our pasts, and shared a lot of laughter over the miles of highway.

Since then, Sam and I have worked together on our joint baby, Craftastrophe.net, and also worked together on web design projects for each other's clients. 

Much like when I met my husband, getting to know Sam has made me fall in love with her over and over.  The more I get to know this wonderful woman, the more I realize just how lucky I am to have a friend in her.  She is the sweetest, most open-hearted person I think I've ever met, and now more than ever she has proved to be the most generous as well.

Canuck Bucks: Saving Your Money in Canada

Southwestern Ontario has been particularly hit hard by the current state of the economy (Hello auto sector families), and even though our family is doing fine, I have been doing some digging to find out if I could be saving money using The Power of the Internet. 

As fine as we are, we sure don't have a cushion if something happens, and many of our friends are in the same boat.  So here I am, challenging myself (and you!) to get out of debt and sock away some money (Tax Free Savings Account anyone?) if you think you can.  Finance expert Suze Orman recommends having nine months of income saved in the event you find yourself without work.

I've heard of some American Moms pulling coupons from the internet, flyers and newspapers and saving up to 90% on their groceries or even ending up with the grocery store owing them money!  An amazing feat, but unfortunately I haven't found a way to do that up here in Canada.

Not to be discouraged, I found the following websites and tips to help us Canadians save money.

Should We Re-think School Trips?

17 year old Elisabeth Reurink was on a school trip from London, Ontario at the Blue Mountain Ski Resort in Collingwood when tragedy struck.  Reurink, who was wearing a helmet, crashed into a tree at the base of one of the slopes and died.

On February 28, exchange student "James" Boo Sung Moon, 13, was killed while on a school trip at Snow Valley.  Moon was not wearing a helmet, and also hit a tree on a beginner hill.

This morning a local radio talk show host, Jeff McArthur of AM 980 asked his listeners if we should take a closer look as to why these kids are even going on ski trips as a school field trip.  His argument was that a ski trip certainly isn't part of the curriculum, and is not relevant to education.

When I was a kid, we went to places like the Pioneer Village, the ROM and the Science Centre.  In grade 8, we got to ski at Horseshoe Valley.  It was fun and terrifying all at once.  I wasn't an athletic kid, by any means.  I remember the instructor taking about 10-15 of us on a beginner cross-country trail that ended with a bunny hill.  I stood at the top of that hill, fighting back tears.  I did not want to go down.  There were trees on either side of me and back then, we did not wear helmets.