i've moved
My blog has moved. Visit my new home on the web at: KatieAllisonGranju.com
Friday
my neighborhood - this weekend
We in Old North Knoxville hope you can attend the 16th Annual Victorian Holiday Home Tour.
When: Saturday, Dec. 4th from 4 - 9 p.m. and Sunday, December 5th from 1 - 5 p.m.
Where: Old North Knoxville
What: 10 homes and 1 church representing late 19th and early 20th architecture
How: Buy advance tickets at area Kroger stores. Tickets now are $8 a piece.
On the days of the tour, the price of tickets is $10 a piece and must be purchased at the booth in the St. Mary's lot on Woodland Ave. Trolleys will be provided to take on the tour and will stop at each home and the church so you can get out and go inside to tour. Trolleys leave from and return to the St. Mary's parking lot.
There are also three door prizes that you can register for.
The Fulton High School Choir will be singing Christmas songs and will be dressed in period costumes.
You can also purchase a Christmas ornament featuring the Brimer House Inn, the first bead and breakfast in an historic neighborhood in Knoxville.
For further details, call 523-HONK (4665) or visit www.oldnorthknoxville.org/hometour.htm.
When: Saturday, Dec. 4th from 4 - 9 p.m. and Sunday, December 5th from 1 - 5 p.m.
Where: Old North Knoxville
What: 10 homes and 1 church representing late 19th and early 20th architecture
How: Buy advance tickets at area Kroger stores. Tickets now are $8 a piece.
On the days of the tour, the price of tickets is $10 a piece and must be purchased at the booth in the St. Mary's lot on Woodland Ave. Trolleys will be provided to take on the tour and will stop at each home and the church so you can get out and go inside to tour. Trolleys leave from and return to the St. Mary's parking lot.
There are also three door prizes that you can register for.
The Fulton High School Choir will be singing Christmas songs and will be dressed in period costumes.
You can also purchase a Christmas ornament featuring the Brimer House Inn, the first bead and breakfast in an historic neighborhood in Knoxville.
For further details, call 523-HONK (4665) or visit www.oldnorthknoxville.org/hometour.htm.
no sale
Trying to sell writing is hard work. It also involves a lot of rejection. In fact, I would say that being able to accept and then shake off rejection may be the most critical business skill a writer can have.
I was rejected this week by a major publisher that had shown strong interest in a book proposal my agent has been trying to sell for about a year. I'm disappointed, but not crushed. I just don't think this book was meant to be, so I am moving on to some other ideas.
But early on in my writing career, this would have kicked my ass. Now I can shake it off and there's something satisfying in that.
I was rejected this week by a major publisher that had shown strong interest in a book proposal my agent has been trying to sell for about a year. I'm disappointed, but not crushed. I just don't think this book was meant to be, so I am moving on to some other ideas.
But early on in my writing career, this would have kicked my ass. Now I can shake it off and there's something satisfying in that.
Thursday
camera?
i want to buy an affordable small video camera that also takes good stills. it needs to do well with distance & action shots, but will rarely be used in low light situations.
i don't really care what format it records in as long as I can also use a firewire to transfer the pix and video directly to my computer.
I welcome any and all suggestions because i'm pretty overwhelmed with all the options. so let me know if you have a video camera that you like.
Katie
i don't really care what format it records in as long as I can also use a firewire to transfer the pix and video directly to my computer.
I welcome any and all suggestions because i'm pretty overwhelmed with all the options. so let me know if you have a video camera that you like.
Katie
Tuesday
star struck
I've had the opportunity to interview some really interesting people for various magazine and newspaper articles, but tomorrow, I get to have a real fan moment when I interview David O'Connor.
He's the head of the
He's the head of the
Saturday
choosing not to hit
My friend Hilary Flower is working on her second book for La Leche League. Her new book is about gentle discipline, and she asked me to write the foreword. You should definitely buy Hilary's new book (as well as her wonderful first book).
This is the foreword I wrote for her:
The Discipline of Gentle Discipline
by Katie Allison Granju
Sometimes, I really, really feel like hitting my kids.
There, I’ve said it out loud.
It’s not something I felt comfortable telling people in my earliest years as a mother. I was afraid that my occasional urges to grab, scream at, shake or whack my children meant that there was something wrong with me. I was afraid these urges meant that I could never be the kind of gentle, attached mother I wanted to be. And mostly, I was afraid I might lose control and actually do the things I sometimes felt like doing.
Now that I’ve got some parenting experience under my belt --my children are 13, 9 and 6 years old – I am less afraid of the powerful and angry feelings each of them can sometimes evoke in me. I am also less afraid to admit those feelings. I have come to discover that virtually all mothers, including the ones whose mothering I most admire, sometimes feel the urge to smack one of their kids upside the head, or at least turn them over their knee.
The problem is that far too many people give in to those urges, and that as a culture, we continue to believe that “spanking” -- our benign-sounding euphemism for hitting children – continues to enjoy widespread acceptance as an effective and humane way of guiding children.
But spanking isn’t effective or humane. Study after study has demonstrated that parents who spank do not raise healthier, more productive, or more mentally sound adults than those who do not. In fact, the opposite is more often true. Yet many otherwise thoughtful and loving parents continue to buy into the myth that spanking offers important benefits, and that it’s an inevitable part of parenting.
I knew before I gave birth for the first time that I didn’t want to use corporal punishment to guide my kids, but when I would tell people this, they would respond with, “Oh, you say that now….,” with a knowing grin, assuming that I would eventually give up on this ridiculous idea of gentle discipline. But I didn’t give up on it.
I readily admit that I have not been perfect in my goal of gentle discipline. I have screamed at, threatened, and come very close to hitting my children on more than one occasion, but these behaviors have never found a permanent place in my parenting toolbox.
I will never forget the one time I did totally lose it and hit one of my children. It happened when my daughter was about three years old and had decided she would no longer wear clothing. At all. Ever.
We were late for some event and I had gotten her completely dressed, but when I went to scoop her up and dash out the door, she was stripped back down to her underwear. At this point, I snapped and smacked her on her rear end. Except I missed her very small bottom and my hand instead landed on her lower back, where it left a red, hand-shaped mark.
She stared at me in horror, having never been struck in her life. I stared back in equal horror. Then she said to me in a small, quavering voice I will never forget, “Mama, why did you hit me?” I burst into tears and held her and rocked her and assured her that I was very, very sorry and that she could trust me to never hit her again. I told her that it was never okay for anyone to strike her.
That night, as I tried to fall asleep, I couldn’t get the incident out of my mind. I realized that I certainly did not want my daughter to grow up believing that sometimes, under the “right” circumstances, she deserved to be hit by the people she loves. I reaffirmed my vow to myself that I would raise my children without violence.
Despite several near-misses over the years – times when I have had to leave the room, scream into a pillow, or take deep breaths and count to ten to avoid lashing out at my children – it’s a vow I have managed to keep. And wonder of wonder, it’s working.
My children are polite, well-behaved (most of the time), thoughtful people. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding, and when people compliment me on the kids’ behavior, I always make a point to say that I don’t spank them. And on the days when one of them is making me feel like sticking my head in the oven, I find that it helps for me to vent to friends who have children even older than mine – parents who also avoid physical punishment - so these mothers and fathers can remind me how well their kids have turned out …without spankings or other harsh disciplinary methods.
This is why I recommend that parents of very young children who want to avoid punitive and physical discipline methods spend time around parents of older children who hold the same views. On the days when your toddler is making you insane and you feel ready to pull out the wooden spoon for a few swats on a diapered bottom, it helps to see the end product of gentle discipline: kids who behave well because they trust and believe in their parents’ guidance, not because they are afraid they will be slapped, spanked or worse.
As for whether spanking is a humane method of discipline, it is not. The fact that so many parents continue to employ corporal punishment doesn’t make it any more humane. After all, it wasn’t so many decades ago that many people believed that, should a husband feel it necessary, he had the right to strike his wife.
One of these days, our attitudes about hitting kids – the most vulnerable members of our families – will similarly evolve so that we will look back on the practice of “spanking” as another form of domestic violence. These are strong words, but I believe them.
Getting through the days, the weeks and eventually, the years of parenting without using physical discipline is, in itself a discipline. I find that having made the promise to myself that I will not resort to hitting provides me with the parenting “North Star” I can use to re-orient myself when I feel angriest. And I have also found that when I am feeling most out-of-control in my parenting, it’s a signal to me that something else is going on in my life, something that needs some of my attention and reflection.
In picking up this important book by Hilary Flower, you have taken a first step in finding your own parenting “true north.” In it, you will find many specific ideas and strategies for raising healthy, happy, well-behaved children using gentle discipline that really works.
And remember, on the really hard days, there’s always the tried and true method of finding a place in your home where no one can hear you, closing the door, and screaming at the top of your lungs until the urge to throttle your child passes, at least for the moment.
Copyright Katie Allison Granju -- 2004 -- All Rights Reserved
This is the foreword I wrote for her:
The Discipline of Gentle Discipline
by Katie Allison Granju
Sometimes, I really, really feel like hitting my kids.
There, I’ve said it out loud.
It’s not something I felt comfortable telling people in my earliest years as a mother. I was afraid that my occasional urges to grab, scream at, shake or whack my children meant that there was something wrong with me. I was afraid these urges meant that I could never be the kind of gentle, attached mother I wanted to be. And mostly, I was afraid I might lose control and actually do the things I sometimes felt like doing.
Now that I’ve got some parenting experience under my belt --my children are 13, 9 and 6 years old – I am less afraid of the powerful and angry feelings each of them can sometimes evoke in me. I am also less afraid to admit those feelings. I have come to discover that virtually all mothers, including the ones whose mothering I most admire, sometimes feel the urge to smack one of their kids upside the head, or at least turn them over their knee.
The problem is that far too many people give in to those urges, and that as a culture, we continue to believe that “spanking” -- our benign-sounding euphemism for hitting children – continues to enjoy widespread acceptance as an effective and humane way of guiding children.
But spanking isn’t effective or humane. Study after study has demonstrated that parents who spank do not raise healthier, more productive, or more mentally sound adults than those who do not. In fact, the opposite is more often true. Yet many otherwise thoughtful and loving parents continue to buy into the myth that spanking offers important benefits, and that it’s an inevitable part of parenting.
I knew before I gave birth for the first time that I didn’t want to use corporal punishment to guide my kids, but when I would tell people this, they would respond with, “Oh, you say that now….,” with a knowing grin, assuming that I would eventually give up on this ridiculous idea of gentle discipline. But I didn’t give up on it.
I readily admit that I have not been perfect in my goal of gentle discipline. I have screamed at, threatened, and come very close to hitting my children on more than one occasion, but these behaviors have never found a permanent place in my parenting toolbox.
I will never forget the one time I did totally lose it and hit one of my children. It happened when my daughter was about three years old and had decided she would no longer wear clothing. At all. Ever.
We were late for some event and I had gotten her completely dressed, but when I went to scoop her up and dash out the door, she was stripped back down to her underwear. At this point, I snapped and smacked her on her rear end. Except I missed her very small bottom and my hand instead landed on her lower back, where it left a red, hand-shaped mark.
She stared at me in horror, having never been struck in her life. I stared back in equal horror. Then she said to me in a small, quavering voice I will never forget, “Mama, why did you hit me?” I burst into tears and held her and rocked her and assured her that I was very, very sorry and that she could trust me to never hit her again. I told her that it was never okay for anyone to strike her.
That night, as I tried to fall asleep, I couldn’t get the incident out of my mind. I realized that I certainly did not want my daughter to grow up believing that sometimes, under the “right” circumstances, she deserved to be hit by the people she loves. I reaffirmed my vow to myself that I would raise my children without violence.
Despite several near-misses over the years – times when I have had to leave the room, scream into a pillow, or take deep breaths and count to ten to avoid lashing out at my children – it’s a vow I have managed to keep. And wonder of wonder, it’s working.
My children are polite, well-behaved (most of the time), thoughtful people. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding, and when people compliment me on the kids’ behavior, I always make a point to say that I don’t spank them. And on the days when one of them is making me feel like sticking my head in the oven, I find that it helps for me to vent to friends who have children even older than mine – parents who also avoid physical punishment - so these mothers and fathers can remind me how well their kids have turned out …without spankings or other harsh disciplinary methods.
This is why I recommend that parents of very young children who want to avoid punitive and physical discipline methods spend time around parents of older children who hold the same views. On the days when your toddler is making you insane and you feel ready to pull out the wooden spoon for a few swats on a diapered bottom, it helps to see the end product of gentle discipline: kids who behave well because they trust and believe in their parents’ guidance, not because they are afraid they will be slapped, spanked or worse.
As for whether spanking is a humane method of discipline, it is not. The fact that so many parents continue to employ corporal punishment doesn’t make it any more humane. After all, it wasn’t so many decades ago that many people believed that, should a husband feel it necessary, he had the right to strike his wife.
One of these days, our attitudes about hitting kids – the most vulnerable members of our families – will similarly evolve so that we will look back on the practice of “spanking” as another form of domestic violence. These are strong words, but I believe them.
Getting through the days, the weeks and eventually, the years of parenting without using physical discipline is, in itself a discipline. I find that having made the promise to myself that I will not resort to hitting provides me with the parenting “North Star” I can use to re-orient myself when I feel angriest. And I have also found that when I am feeling most out-of-control in my parenting, it’s a signal to me that something else is going on in my life, something that needs some of my attention and reflection.
In picking up this important book by Hilary Flower, you have taken a first step in finding your own parenting “true north.” In it, you will find many specific ideas and strategies for raising healthy, happy, well-behaved children using gentle discipline that really works.
And remember, on the really hard days, there’s always the tried and true method of finding a place in your home where no one can hear you, closing the door, and screaming at the top of your lungs until the urge to throttle your child passes, at least for the moment.
Copyright Katie Allison Granju -- 2004 -- All Rights Reserved
Wednesday
author attention deficit disorder
Although I am frankly frightened by the amount of psychotropic drugs now being taken by kids, I have to admit that I've become intrigued by the topic of ADD. I am researching the topic for an article I'm writing for a magazine.
As I read through the symptoms, I realized that I would unquestionably have been diagnosed with ADD if I were a kid now instead of a kid in the 70s and 80s. Except for discipline problems at home and in the classroom, I had just about every single symptom.
And in fact, I still do. I clearly fit the adult ADD profile, which is why writing and editing are a good job fit for me. I get to do new things every week or even every day, so I never have to stay with something beyond the limit of my very scattered attention span.
As I read through the symptoms, I realized that I would unquestionably have been diagnosed with ADD if I were a kid now instead of a kid in the 70s and 80s. Except for discipline problems at home and in the classroom, I had just about every single symptom.
And in fact, I still do. I clearly fit the adult ADD profile, which is why writing and editing are a good job fit for me. I get to do new things every week or even every day, so I never have to stay with something beyond the limit of my very scattered attention span.
Sunday
fiat & leo
This is my Jack Russell mix, Fiat. He has become very itchy and I am getting a lot of advice to stop feeding him any dogfood with corn in it. If it will help, I'll do it, but I'm skeptical. So if you have had good luck with helping an itchy dog by cutting corn out, let me know.
I have two dogs, Fiat and Leo, who is a 4 month old Great Pyrenees puppy. Leo already weighs over 50 pounds and is growing really fast. But Fiat, who only weighs 20 lbs and, because he is an has stubby little short legs, totally dominates Leo. He tells him when he can eat, how close he can get to the sofa when Fiat is sitting on it, which toys Leo is allowed to pick up... It's pretty funny, but I do wonder at what point Leo will realize that HE should be bossing runty Fiat around.
Having a Jack Russell and a Great Pyrenees (Leo is my second GP by the same name), demonstrates to me every day how much of dog behavior is genetic. Jack Russells are bre to ne speedy, super active, fast-thinking dogs with a high prey drive. GPs are very calm and dignified -- sometimes seeming aloof - and wouldn't think of chasing a cat or squirrel.
But neither breed is very good at following obedience commands. They are both stubborn as all get out.
I wonder what it says about me that these are my two favorite dog breeds... Maybe that I have some kind of personality disorder ;-)
I have two dogs, Fiat and Leo, who is a 4 month old Great Pyrenees puppy. Leo already weighs over 50 pounds and is growing really fast. But Fiat, who only weighs 20 lbs and, because he is an has stubby little short legs, totally dominates Leo. He tells him when he can eat, how close he can get to the sofa when Fiat is sitting on it, which toys Leo is allowed to pick up... It's pretty funny, but I do wonder at what point Leo will realize that HE should be bossing runty Fiat around.
Having a Jack Russell and a Great Pyrenees (Leo is my second GP by the same name), demonstrates to me every day how much of dog behavior is genetic. Jack Russells are bre to ne speedy, super active, fast-thinking dogs with a high prey drive. GPs are very calm and dignified -- sometimes seeming aloof - and wouldn't think of chasing a cat or squirrel.
But neither breed is very good at following obedience commands. They are both stubborn as all get out.
I wonder what it says about me that these are my two favorite dog breeds... Maybe that I have some kind of personality disorder ;-)
