i wanna be a dolphin

We're going through a tough phase with the kids right now; both of them seem to be asserting their independence at the same time and in very different ways, but the result is chaos in our house...especially in the evenings. A2 is seven now and, since starting Grade 1 has morphed into a full-on kid. When he was younger I was so smug about his calm demeanor, his relative "un-boy-ness" - as if I had anything to do with it. Now, I am literally swimming in boy detritus and seriously floundering as a parent wondering, how do I connect with this hyper, loud, destructive little boy? Whenever I lose the capacity to be calm with him I pull him close for a hug. I usually try to get a hand on his back, hoping that the skin-to-skin contact thing is still beneficial. I hold him tight for as long as he'll let me in the hopes that I can help to foster the empathy and grace that he is going to need to be a man in the decades to come. But then my brother had the balls to tell me the truth. My kids lack discipline. And I know he's right. I'm a wonderful parent in terms of introducing my kids to experiences and guiding through the human experience, but I suck at teaching them how to follow the rules. I hate rules and have constructed my life almost entirely outside of them...consequently I'm passing on these ideals to my children when this is not the natural way of things; you have to learn the rules before you can break them. And so, have started a new regime at my house...a regime of parental rule and no second chances. I have had to let the kids know that I have expectations and that is they are not met there are always consequences. I hate it, but I know it's the right thing to do.

I read an interesting article from the University of Helsinki brain research department tonight. It was a synopsis of four interesting facts about the human brain. The one that intrigued me was that researchers have discovered that some humans may have the ability to "sleep" one hemisphere of their brain while awake. This would explain why some people are able have little sleep yet still be functional and healthy. As I was reading the article I was thinking, "gawd, I hope my brain does that."