The Lost Art of Letter Writing...

I ended up in a conversation on my son's page on Facebook yesterday--this is how it started, with my son's initial post:

"Why do people get all mad when people don't reply to a text? When people don't hear back from others when writing letters, they don't act the same way because they understand that it's a piece of paper traveling a distance and people are busy with life and whatnot. If i don't text you back it's because it's text. It's at my control to reply as I please. No alterior motives, no ignoring.. Cell phones have telephone functionality for a reason."

This prompted my reply:

"The art of letter writing is lost...I'm thinking of starting it up again."

I figured I'd catch some flack from my son about posting in one of his conversations and his friends would just virtually roll their eyes at me and move on. But there were some intriguing comments that were posted afterwards amongst other observations and commentary...

Collin: Mom, it never should have gotten lost.

Nancy (my sister): Jane, in our local school system, they have dropped cursive writing altogether. I understand that the world uses keyboards, etc. now, but this just seems unbelievable to me.

MacyShay: I can't remember how to write in cursive but I did take a coligraphy class (I think that's how its spelled) and it was so much fun but killed my hand! But I wish I knew cursive=(

Hearing these comments actually made me kind of sad. My son actually admitted to me that he didn't really remember cursive either. I had no idea! I guess I hadn't even thought of this consequence of an almost all computer generation. I thought back to when my son was in high school a couple of years ago and realized that most of the essays, reports and whatnot that he turned in to his teachers were always typed up on the computer and printed out.

So I have now made it my mission to start writing more letters. Not emailing...not typing on my computer & printing out...but actually putting pen to paper & thoughtfully writing out what I want to say. No "lol", "omg" or "wtf". It's time take back this lost art. 

So friends & family, watch out! You may have a hand-written correspondence coming to a mailbox near you.

Sincerely yours,
Jane 

Under Construction....

My blog is currently under construction....or maybe it would be re-construction.  Anyway, I'm sorting through some things and will start up again fresh soon.  Or depending on my mood, I may just start a whole new blog.  If that happens, I'll be sure to post a link so all of my readers (all two of you) can find me. :-)

"Wait Here Honey, Mommy Has To Pee...."

When I was out this evening with my husband at our local JC Penney, I ducked into the restroom for a moment and was immediately perplexed by something I saw....

I'm glad no one else was there because I must have looked like an idiot, standing there staring at this little seat attached to the wall.  It's positioned right next to (and below) the Koala baby changing station.

Okay, obviously it's for a very small child.  It even has instructions for the "proper use":

But what I want to know is....why?  Are you supposed to strap your kid onto the wall to keep your hands free so you can go pee?  Is this in case you have twins, so you can strap one kid down while you're changing the other one and then switch?  

My son is turning 18 next month so it's been quite a while since I had to worry about such things as where to put my child while I'm using a public restroom.  (Insert some ridiculous statement here like, "Back in my day we just strapped our kid to our back and carried him around everywhere--shopping, working, gardening...We didn't have all of these fancy new-fangled gadgets to help lessen the load.")  So someone help me out here....what is this for?  Am I missing the obvious?  Am I just not up-to-date on all of the latest child rearing practices?  Please....enlighten me....