2008 August | Annie Fox's Blog

For Parents: You Can’t Unknow What You Know

August 11, 2008

I was really looking forward to tuning in to see if Michael Phelps would win his second Gold Medal of the 2008 Olympics as part of the 4×100 freestyle relay. I knew the race was today, but I’m working on a deadline and so we’ve got our TV recording it. (I shouldn’t even be blogging right now but I’m on a break. Honest!)

My plan was to block out any sports news so that later I could watch the race in blissful ignorance, pretending it was unfolding in real time, the same way we live our lives. But I’m a political junkie and I can’t stay offline for long. While I surfing for campaign news, I stumbled on this headline and suddenly I knew exactly what happened 6 hours ago in the Water Cube.

I’m still going to watch the race later on, but it won’t be same. Once you know something you know it. And unless it’s a fact like “where I last saw my glasses/keys/shoes” your chances of forgetting it aren’t all that good.

Now I’m thinking about what we parents have learned about our kids that we might have chosen not to know if anyone had given us the “selective amnesia” option. Like the fact that yes, your daughter is sexually active or no, the parents actually weren’t home during that party even though your son swore they were.

As a parent, what do you know about your son or daughter that you wish you didn’t know? When you found out, what changed? How have you adjusted emotionally? How does knowing change your view of your son/daughter? How has it changed your behavior as a parent? When does a tween or teen have the right to privacy?

Lots of questions! Love to hear your thoughts.

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“Middle School Confidential” – Book 1 is Here

August 1, 2008

Middle School Confidential, Book 1: Be Confident in Who You Are

Writing books is a quasi-surreal endeavor to begin with. Writing a five-book series is more than strange. Middle School Confidential started with an inspiration, followed by some concepts, chased by a bunch of ideas. Then I spent several intense months figuring out how to get what’s going on in my mind to connect with the life experience of my readers (5th-8th graders). (All that before I even began Book 1!)

Finally I finished the first draft of the first book and sent it to my editor. He sent it back with some notes in places that needed revisions. I completed the additional work and sent it off again, which earned me a big editorial thumbs up.

Then after a couple of weeks of mental vacation, I started Book 2. So the process repeated itself.

Now it’s the first of August. I spent most of today working on Book 3. (Zip zip) On a mid-afternoon fresh air break I tripped over a box left on my front step by the guy in the brown truck. Opening it, I found a blast from my creative past… AKA Book 1 had arrived! There it was… in my hands, an actual real world book with my name on the cover and my photo in the back (in case I needed proof). Like I said, surreal, and smile-inducing. If you want a copy. Just let me know. Only $9.95. A bargain at half the price. ;O)