The Children of NB Need Your Help!

Government crying for people to stay in NB??

I work for a private company funded by the Department of Education to provide Applied Behavioural Analysis based intervention to preschoolers in New Brunswick who have been diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorders. These services provide a chance for preschool-aged children with these developmental disorders to have the opportunity to have intense intervention prior to going to school in order to prepare them for a smooth transition to school.

Only two short weeks ago the Department of Education notified all 6 New Brunswick Centers providing these services that the funding would be cut as of June 1st, 2014. We no longer have funding for any staff training nor do we receive funding when a client cancels. This means, our staff will be expected to have ZERO paid sick days, they need to be ok with having ZERO job stability as clients could cancel at a moments notice and they will no longer be paid during this time. They are also expected, with no training at all, to conduct programming and follow the principles of ABA. 

With this being said I believe that staff in this field will no longer be able to sustain their job, in turn they will have to find consistent employment elsewhere and we will no longer have qualified staff to offer these services and will not have the funds to train any new staff to replace them. As a result we are doing an injustice to ALL children in New Brunswick who have a Pervasive Development Disorders, we are taking away their chance to augment their skills and bring them to their age appropriate developmental level. We are taking away their opportunity to have qualified staff who know them well present during their school transition. And finally, we are losing educated passionate people who in turn will have to move elsewhere, taking away from New Brunswick’s already diminishing population and giving other provinces our wonderful Autism Support Workers, Lead Therapists and Clinical Supervisors. 

We must be heard, we must have a voice for those who do not.

 “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.” ― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

Please call and urge Diane Lutes, director of early childhood services and Jeff den Otter, to change these new guidelines.   506-325-4421.

Thanks for reading ~ Michelle

I LOVE Women!

I love being a woman. I love knee-high boots and I love cleavage-revealing tops.  I love jewellery and I love flirting.  I love working my feminine wiles.  I love lingerie... I could go on and on.  There is not one little thing about being a woman that I don't love.

Well, maybe one thing...

But as much as I love being a woman, I don't typically enjoy hanging out with women. I've known this for a while and it saddens me.  Let me tell you why.

A lot of women in North America are obsessed with how they look.  It's not unique to our culture, but the media throws it in our face in such an extreme way here!  The extent to which we hate our bodies and bask in self-loathing, in my opinion, is abnormal and unnatural...and I can't stand it.  It's for this reason that I usually don't enjoy the company of most women, especially those my age or younger.  The moment they start to complain about their external appearance is the moment I feel the urge to flee.

Guys, do you know what I'm talking about?

I'm sure you do.

Women are innately gorgeous.  They're beautiful simply because they are women!  Women are goddesses, they're angels... they are your mother, your sister, your aunt, your daughter, your friend, your wife, your partner.  Us girls are amazing, and we can do anything you guys can do and more. But women around here get really caught up on the externals.  They get really caught up on being pretty and being fashionable and looking like the girl in the magazines... that seems to be the ideal that they want to live up to.  This ridiculous, unrealistic ideal causes so many problems: plastic surgery that women can possibly die having (and they do all the time), anorexia, bulimia...  So many women end up with permanent problems with their teeth or their throat or stomach or bowels due to eating disorders, just to look good and feel pretty.  It's horrible! It's absolutely horrible, and I'm sad to report that I see it all the time.

I could probably spend months, even years of my life just dedicated to talking to these women trying to convince them that they're beautiful just the way they are.  But it's exhausting.  They've been convinced, programmed even, for so long that the task is never-ending.  There's only so much that one person can do.

So, if you could do me a big favor today... and maybe every day for the next week or month or so, please find a woman in your life that you love and tell her that she's beautiful on the inside and the outside.  Please do me that one favor, because I'm tuckered out.

Thank you.  Let's change things.  Together, we can make small changes to help women in our society.  Are you ready to take action?

My next suggestion is this:  When you go grocery shopping next time, grab some extra rice packets... or something adequately flat and tall.  Then, if you could kindly do this:

Just block out that noise with some fast & fancy rice!  That's so much easier on the eyes, don't you think?

I'd love to hear some other ideas!  Feel free to post comments or pictures of other things that we all can do to interrupt some of this garbage!!!!  And here's some more exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks in advance. :-)

~Much Love~ Michelle