For once.
Usually I'm a talky-talky person with opinions on everything. We've gone a round or two on the sexism discussions and I'm having some personal connection with those issues, but they're not really FanSci topic worthy. (Try arguing with a four year old that just because McDonalds call them "boy toys" and "girl toys" does not make it so.) I think I've been spinning this issue around in my head too much and I haven't been able to get beyond it.
I think the examples Husband and I set make this less of a real issue for my little ones, but I still worry.
I put down a tile floor this morning -- only a small one, in the bathroom, but I did it. (That's where the tile chips came from. Those things fly off the tile saw with some serious velocity and I find them in all sorts of unexpected places.) I'm the one that tiled and mostly rebuilt the kitchen when we bought this house. (Husband and a friend of his hung the cabinets, but that's a heavy lifting issue.) I swung the sledgehammer to pull all the walls down when we realized we needed to see all the possible piping issues before we could build anything new.
Then again, we went traditional in that I'm a home-mommy while Husband works. (I threw up all day every day for the first six months of both pregnancies. It was a practical decision. Also, I have trust issues with strangers and my babies.)
It's still not a FanSci issue, but I can't seem to get past it. I can do the step by step work of rebuilding the bathroom, but every time I sit down and try to think, my head spins on the same topic. Should I have made a different argument? Does he really believe this stuff? How much of this is because my mother-in-law can't recognize the sexism in her words and phrases.
So, since I can't get my head in the right place, I wondered where your heads are. Are you thinking Valentines thoughts? Planning Valentine's plans? Ignoring the upcoming holiday to build your own projects, read your own books? Write your own books?
I have a pile of books to read. I think I'm going to make the weekend computer-free again and spend the time reading. Maybe that will help.
Next week, I'll be on topic.
I promise.
I totally skipped over "tile" in your title and thought you were just digging chips out of your bra. Like, potato chips. And I was like, I've soooo been there!
ReplyDeleteBut I respect your ability for home repair. I am hopeless at it. But I've got a very good head for heights, so whenever something around our house needs to be climbed, I'm the one that does it.
I've seen girls devastated by the boys/girls toys issue. Especially when they want the batman toy and an employee or family member objects. I don't know if there's much you can do until the kids are old enough to really understand that "you can't do/have that, you're a boy/girl" is a very hurtful thing. My dad was very bad about that sort of thing, and my mom helped me through it by assuring me I was not "weird" no matter what I wanted to play with. I still can't tolerate the word "normal". ^_^
As for this weekend, I want to get back to writing. Yes, please!
Wow, I wish I had the guts to handle the saw and do the tiling work. I think I'd enjoy it. I think I'd see it as an artistic outlet like scrapbooking. I'm just scared I'll cut off my fingers. Plus my husband has no interest in helping in any way. You're lucky yours did the cabinets. I DO love the idea of putting the computer on the shelf for a weekend. I've got WAAAAY too much to read to be out here. That's probably why I AM out here. LOL
ReplyDelete@Barbara - I've been there with the chips. It's really amazing what kind of stuff can wind up in there. Recently I'd picked up what looked like a fluffy comfy sweater -- that happened to have a cowl neck, which I quickly found out might as well be a funnel created to deposit things in the bra. --Also, I hate heights. I get dizzy and nauseas. If you'll get the brances off the roof, I'll put the tile on the floor, happily.
ReplyDelete@Victoria - Good news is that tile saws are probably one of the safest for this. I'm terrified of the table saw because I'm so clumsy, but the tile saw blade has no teeth. That's why there's water to keep it cool -- it grinds the tile away instead of cutting it. You can touch it while it's spinning and won't even bleed. The most dangerous part is the sharp tile edges. --We were able to buy a larger house than we could have otherwise afforded because it hadn't had even general maintenance in twenty years. We've redone the kitchen already, and the inside-the-walls leak made the master bath jump up to next on the list. :) Still can't afford professionals, and it must get done, so it does. ...Halfway there.