Dear Aniston... Part 11

Dear Aniston,

It's cold this morning in Idaho. So cold in fact that school got cancelled, and since I work for the school district, work is cancelled for me too. So instead of hustling around the house to prep for my day, I get to sit by the fire and watch Blue's Clue's with you this morning. And I wouldn't want to be doing anything else.

Yesterday at work I was teaching a Harry Potter class. Yes, your mother is a major nerd.. deal with it. During our Tri-Wizard tournament, one of the challenges was to put together a small puzzle in a frame and to see who could do it the fastest. My heart broke a little as I watched 4th graders put the corner pieces of the puzzle in the middle of the puzzle. These children did not even know how to put together a puzzle. When I was in 5th grade, I won the 5th grade super class award by putting together a puzzle together the fastest. This was before cell phones, before the ipad or ipod, before anything except regular and super Nintendo existed and even back then they were too expense for most people. It was before what you know now as TV and it was before most people even had computers! Basically it was before the distraction that is the mess of this younger generation. I want you to understand that as your mother I am probably going to tell you no once in a while. In fact I literally just told you no because you were throwing Apple Jacks at the TV. Why? I may limit your TV and computer time and force you to play outside. I may teach you things that you think are not important and I may bore you to death. But I'm doing these things to help you. I'm doing these things to help you become educated and smart and a valued member of society. I'm doing these things because I love you. There's more to life than technology and sometimes we just need to unplug once in a while. Get back to the basics and become more educated in the simpler things. 

I love you so much Aniston Kate, I want to teach you everything that I possibly can! I want you to know how to do puzzles, and I want you to play sports and be active. Yes, it's important and valuable to know about technology and how to use it, but that doesn't mean you need to spend 5 hours a day playing games on a computer or on Facebook (which let's be honest, may or may not even still be around by the time I let you get an account) or any social media for that manner. Your Mom loves social media, but it is a BAD BAD BAD thing. Social media can make you feel worthless or cause you to compare yourself to others when that's not okay. You are worth more than gold! You are so valuable and so loved no matter what you look like. You are talented and smart and beautiful and social media has a way of making you forget those things. That's just not okay. I don't want you to feel the way that I feel about myself. I want so much more for you! And that my child is why I might tell you no. I will do my best to set a good example for you, and currently I am trying to make changes in order to be the best mom that I can be for you. 

I love you so much Aniston and there is nothing that I want more for you than the world! And you are capable of that! I love you!!!

PS - Also don't hate me for doing your hair exactly like mine or making us wear the exact same clothes to be twins. Someday you will realize that this is awesome to the extreme!!!

Love- Your Mom