Tag Archives: Mom

Bailey’s Birthday Minus Mom

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By Dana McIntyre      @DanaMcIntyre1

It’s so hard for me to believe, but my husband and I have been married now for almost three years. We don’t have any kids together but we both brought kids from our previous marriages into our new one.

Most parents will agree that one of the most difficult things about getting divorced is not having your children with you all of the time. (Although for some people, they consider that a vacation!) For me, the hardest part was missing important holidays and events in my child’s life. He would spend Thanksgiving at my house one year, the next at his dads. Splitting Christmas day right in the middle…half at mom’s, half at dad’s.

This year, my step-daughter, Bailey was with us on her 11th birthday. We planned the usual birthday festivities – cake, balloons, gifts, friends, grandparents, etc. But as a mother who has been there, I knew it would be difficult for her mom not to see her on that day.

We used StoryMark to document her special day with tons of pictures (even using Instagram to add effects), but we also were able to add the sounds of the party and the ear bleeding result of our family singing Happy Birthday to her off-key. Bailey e-mailed the StoryMarks directly to her mother, allowing her to share in the party festivities.

So the next time you can’t attend a birthday party or a school chorus recital, consider using StoryMark to include the other parent. Bridging the gap between divorced parents can be so beneficial to your kids, and can start with the most simple gesture .

So Happy Birthday, Bailey! Cha! Cha! Cha!

Baileys Birthday – YouTube.

So what about you?  Have you ever been away from your kids on a holiday or birthday due to a divorce?  How did you cope?

For more information on StoryMark, visit http://www.storymarklife.com or download for free on your iPhone or Android.

Why I Will Never Be An Art Critic

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By Dana McIntyre

When I was in high school, I did a lot of babysitting to make some quick and what I thought was relatively easy cash. I mean what was so hard about watching a couple of kids? (Answer: they weren’t mine.)

Anyway – after the parents left and the kids finished their platefuls of ketchup with a side of corn dogs, we decided to draw to pass the time until bedtime. We decided not to let each other see our pictures until we were all finished.

I was certain that upon revealing our drawings, the kids would oooh and ahhh and stroke my ego with compliments of my Renoir-like picture of a flower. But when the boy turned his picture around I was shocked and a little horrified to see this incredible drawing of what I assumed to be a very detailed sunflower. My bubble burst. My drawing started to look a little like a booger.

“Wow – ummm, that is a really good drawing”, I said. “Your sunflower is much better than my flower.” You could have heard a pin drop. I looked around. Had I accidentally broken his crayon?

“A SUNFLOWER?” he said sharply, sort of with a “duh” undertone. “It’s NOT a sunflower. It’s the High-Density Genotyping Array…” and he finished his sentence with several other really big words that I had never heard before..and had to Google just to write this post.

I felt like an idiot. He was looking at me like I had no brain. And did I mention that he was only six years old? Yes, you read that right. Six years old and schooling me on science. (Twenty years later, I would like to say he’s the guy working on my car but of course not. He’s a doctor.)

Which brings me back to the drawing. Has your child ever given you a drawing that they were so proud of but you couldn’t for the life of you figure out what it was? They were standing there beaming and you were trying to figure out what to say about it? That would be the perfect time to use the StoryMark app.

Take a picture of the drawing and have them explain to you what the picture is all about…then show them the StoryMark they just made. (Make it fun and they’ll want to do it every time!) The picture and audio are joined together and you can save both forever. (Plus, in case you don’t want to physically keep every drawing, you can save them on your iPhone or Android or save them to your photo library and then accidentally-on-purpose throw the original away.) And this way you can send copies of EVERYTHING to their grandparents!

So the next time you see a drawing where you don’t have a clue what it is of, just remember that Picasso probably got the same reaction from his mother….but unfortunately for her, they didn’t have StoryMark back then to save her the embarrassment of asking what the heck he was painting.

And, what I wouldn’t give to have a StoryMark of Matthew telling my parents what his “letter” to them says…

For more information on StoryMark, visit www.storymarklife.com, or download for free on your iPhone or Android.

Happy Father’s Day, Mr. Fancy Pants

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By Dana McIntyre  @danamcintyre1

Father’s Day is coming up and this year is more special to me than ever.  Six months ago we were not sure my Dad would even be around for Father’s Day.   He was diagnosed with a blood cancer and started chemo treatments immediately.   (He recently underwent a stem cell transplant, and I am blessed to say that it was successful!)

This year for Father’s Day I plan on doing something different for him.  I am going back through my old photos and finding the ones that make me laugh, the ones that make me remember and the ones that make me happy.  I want him to know how much those memories mean to me and how lucky I am to have the best dad in the world.

I want him to know that I remember seeing the thousands of jellyfish in the water on our beach trip to Panama City.  I remember camping in our 1970’s VolksWagon van and catching my first trout in the river up in the north Georgia mountains.  I remember going to the pool and being mesmerized by the tsunami that he created by doing a cannonball off the diving board.  I want him to know that I cherish every one of those memories!

And I plan on giving those memories back to him through StoryMark.

And as much as I love my dad, I will have to make fun of his short sleeved turtleneck shirt and plaid pants combo from 1974.  It’s classic.

 

 

Who’s Calling Now?

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(Written in February 2009)

When he was in 5th grade, Matthew desperately wanted a cell phone. I was torn between giving in and the principal of giving a phone to someone still in elementary school. I liked the idea of being able to call him and find out exactly where he was and what he was doing, but then again everyone else would be able to do that too. 

When I was a child, we had one phone line and we were never to mistake that it was my DAD’s phone. If we were on the phone chatting with our girl friends about who liked whom and who wore what to school, when he needed the phone he would pick up, clear his throat and hang up. That was our signal to get off the phone pronto. It was never a question. Dad needed the phone and that was it. I begged for my own phone line but in the 1980’s who had 2 phone lines in their house? What a waste of money.

So, for his 9th birthday I gave in and bought Matthew a cell phone. That morning I placed the phone next to his bed and called it so that it would wake him up. He was so excited about it. Freedom. It was like getting a drivers license! Little did I know what that would lead to.

My first phone bill came in. I went over it like a CSI agent. Although he stayed within range of his allotted cell phone minutes, I noticed that he had five numbers that were constantly calling.

“Ummm, Matthew, who are these different numbers for?”

“My girlfriends. They call all the time.”

My 9 year old son, the pimp. I was horrified! Who were these hussy’s and why were they calling my son? I was NEVER allowed to call a boy. Only cheap women would actually call a boy. Nice girls waited for them to call you. With my luck I would have been in the middle of a conversation and my dad would pick up…

“So….wasn’t Health class stupid today?”

“Yeah – but at least we got to learn about boobs.”

I’d hear THE throat clear and I know I’m in deep crap. My dad would most definitely pick up when the word boobs came out. Why not? It was like he had bad timing ESP.

And so now here my son is with five girls calling him. What did they talk about? Are they talking about boobs and God only knows what else? My mind raced like SeaBiscuit. He’s only NINE YEARS OLD!!! Finally I got up the nerve and I asked him.

“Soooooooooo, what are you and these ladies talking about? Homework? What’s on TV???” (Please God..)

“Well usually there’s just a lot of silence. They don’t really talk and I don’t know what to say. Usually we just watch Spongebob together on the phone. It’s kind of boring.”

Thank you God. My son is still a good boy.