Big Fat Flaky Snow

I love the sight of snow. They look so pretty coming down. Don't like being outside when it snows, though. Really wet and cold. I've got 5 layers of clothing on, and yet, I'm shivering when the wind blows. The boys, on the other hand, are warm blooded creatures that I have to nag at them to zip up their coats! They still go for cross country running (nj) in their shorts and t shirts in this sub zero temperature. Me, the only running that I do is my nose when it's too cold.
I figure that shivering constitutes exercise.
I was coaching the kids with some mummy produced homework over the weekend. nj is learning, each day, a new type of grammar e.g. nouns, verbs, tenses etc. I suddenly remembered how I and many others used to get one fundamental bit wrong. You know how the used to ask the students to fill in the blanks e.g. c_t goes miaow. We were always told to fill in the correct alphabet. Why? The alphabet is the whole thing from a to z . Pick any of them out of that list , they are called letters and letters can be divided into consonants and vowels. They still insist on using the term alphabet for everything. Hubby used to laugh at me. Now I laugh at everyone else. Hee Hee!
Phonics is the other new thing that I had to wing when nj started school. Thank Goodness for the Internet. There are things about phonics that I don't know and nj will "educate" me, making me feel like I'm 65years old. In order to restore some order in the who is smarter that who in the house, I use the "do it because I told you to" to make myself feel better.
Maybe that's why parents couldn't relate anymore to their kids. Curriculum changes every year, children come back with jargon that we don't understand, and after a while, no one tries anymore. That's just me trying to be the psychologist. I want to know why things can happen so that I can hopefully prevent it from happening to me and the kids.
It's hard to know when to be cool and when to be mum. Apparently, there aren't such things as a cool mum. No, I lie. Their own mum can't be cool. Other mums can. Advice is try, but not too hard. Give up when they threaten to disown you. Never ever compromise about getting the kiss at the playground before they go and stand in line. As their mum, with all the hours of pregnancy and labour, I'm entitled to embarrass them,