Wednesday, Oui? Doubtful- I'm too irritated.

I am becoming increasingly irritated at everyone and everything lately. Well, not everyone, but most people. I can't put my finger on it and for me, a therapist, it's irritating. I am so tired of the "Negative Nellie's," or people who refuse to change their life and continue to complain about it; people who are just plain old lazy and have absolutely no goals what-so-ever. Yes, I choose to work my ass off 10-12 hours per day; yes, I choose to dive, head first, into my career; yes, I ask to be driving home after 8:00 almost every night. But you know what? I don't complain about it. These are the choices I make. Right or wrong, they're my choices- not yours.

That said, I have to laugh when people bitch that they had to get up at 9:00am (Dude, I've already been up for like 4 hours!!) I just don't get what people, who do nothing, want out of their life. They complain and complain and complain about everything they don't have, how unfair life is, how much better off their neighbor has it. What do these people want? Probably a knock on the door from Ed McMahon telling them they won the Publishers Clearing House that they didn't even sign up for. What makes their neighbor so much better off? Did their stoke of luck just come sooner? We need to make things happen. We all have opportunity. Do we all have equal opportunity? Certainly not, but we all can get a piece of the pie if we work at it, and too bad, but some people have to work a little bit harder to make "cents" of the cards they're holding.

As Americans, we are becoming increasingly lazy; a throw away society, and as I see and work with some of the products of this sad society and I'm so scared for what it's becoming. This is the legacy we're leaving for our children? We want "change?" Well, that is a group effort, not just the responsibility one person. We can't expect anyone to change our life for us. We have to do that our self.

The majority of the kids I work for, not all but some, never had a snowballs chance in hell. Now don't misunderstand, I don't come from a social perspective. Psychology is my background. I am all about the individual making a difference in the system not the system making a difference for the individual. But the kids I see, they are hiding from the rest of the world, indulgent, impulsive, self-medicating, manipulative, fallen angels, whose potential is buried beneath a pile of movie rentals, blunt wraps, and Wii games. I work with some of the most brilliant adolescent minds, whose baby brains are jumbled with cravings and aspirations.

Ever heard of nature deficit disorder? Something I have become increasingly interested in. As human beings, we need to be outside. Our body craves Vitamin D, fresh air, sunlight, and socialization. I know when I am trapped in my house, I go stir crazy. I hate breathing the same air, I hate artificial light. Nothing pleases me more than going outside. When we raise our children inside, when they go out, they are most definitely going to be distracted by the outside world, they are going to lack skills navigating life. Children, adolescents and I'm even going to go so far as to say adults, NEED structure, and peaceful surroundings that are free of distraction and clutter. When our surroundings are chaotic, so is our mind.

It's coming to the time when I am thinking LONG and HARD about being a parent. I am craving children and my clock is ticking. I have been reading books about what to expect before you're expecting. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not a parent, I don't have any children, I am not raising little ones. I do however think my education and expertise in child psychology, adolescents, and human beings lends me some leeway in thinking about appropriate child rearing.

I know it's completely different when you get that little baby home. You had plans to do X-Y and Z but things happen in reverse. That's life. If you think about it, that's how life is anyway, no matter what plan you make; but throwing your arms up and saying "it's no use, things don't happen the way I want them to anyway" is definitely going to result in just that. Nothing happening the way you want. Again, you have to create change. Educate yourself. The world does not happen TO you.

Fact: when an adolescent girl hits puberty, did you know her hips begin to shift and re-situate to prepare for childbirth? This happens to each and every girl regardless if they even want to have children. Do you know when this happens it mis-aligns a girl's knees? Many women have knee and hip problems later in life because of this occurrence. Naturally. That's the world happening to you. Why aren't we teaching our adolescent girls to do knee exercises to strengthen their knees? That is you making a change in the world. I just recently found this out, luckily I'm still young enough to incorporate a new exercise into my daily work-outs to accommodate this, but we should be teaching our children way more than behaving in school. We need to teach our children to live in this society. How as parents, can we do this if we're NOT living in society?

I don't know where I am going with this, perhaps I'm frustrated, perhaps some of the awful things I see happening to children everyday are governing what my fingers are typing, perhaps I'm just PMS-ing, I don't know. I'm not writing this at anyone, I'm not writing this for anyone, and I'm not pretending to be a parent. What I do know is that when I have a child it's no longer about me, what I want, my own selfish whims, pack-up-and-go or lie on the couch all day. It's creating a calming, learning and loving environment free from distractions where my child is reared with unconditional positive regard, unconstrained from nurturing their full potential; rarely TV, rarely stuck in side all day. I want to be that person hiking with my kid, teaching my kid to ski, or teaching my kid to play chess, a musical instrument, read, write, and be a functioning member of our society. My child is the change I want to create.