Mommage

What Is A Parent To Do?

We are trying to do the best we can by our kids.  You want them to enjoy their childhood, but you also want to protect them from all the bad things in the world.  You do not want them to get fat mostly for health reasons, but also for social reasons, we do not want our children to endure ridicule, because children are just so cruel sometimes.

So you do your best, you try to buy "healthy" products for your kids, but they are kids if they get wind of the fact that it may be healthy for them they do not even want to try it.  Some companies have been marketing directly to children and giving the impression that their food is good for them while also being tasty.  I found a very interesting article in Time Magazine, that basically tells me that I am not alone in this challenge. 

In a way I guess I am lucky.  My kids absolutely love for me to slice up a cucumber and serve it with their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  They also love bananas, grapes, apples, tomatoes, carrots and celery, so I serve them any chance I get.  As parents we struggle here, we want our children to eat nutritious well balanced meals, but most of us are going a million miles an hour all the time and eating right is not always possible.  According to the article we may have been tricked into believing that we were feeding our children nutritiously good food on the go by the manufacturers of these foods.  I guess this just shows that we still have to do our due diligence, we cannot just rely or trust the manufacturers on these issues.

--Contributed by Renee

As Usual, Let's Pile on the Parent

Katie recently wrote a letter to the home improvement retail giant IKEA via Planetfeedback. Unfortunately, her shopping trip ended in what could have been a horrible tragedy because she did what I, and other parents, have a tendency to do with our infants in their car seats: putting them on the front seat of the shopping cart.

The Mystery of Men

As I was trying to come up with a topic for today's post, I decided to go through the list of Mommage categories hoping it would spark an idea.  That's when it hit me...
I Just Want to SCREAM!!!  Perfect!.. 
That's exactly how I feel.  Here's why.

When my kids were little, I never hesitated to ask them for their opinion or to help me find a solution to a problem.  It just seemed natural, and I never gave it a second thought until one day a friend said to me, "I can't believe you're asking your kids".  Well, why wouldn't I?  If I have a question, and they have the answer, what's wrong with learning something from your children? 

I realize now that some men have the same attitude about woman as my friend had about children.  Maybe you can help me figure out why.

Observations From A Mom

I have 2 children ages 8 years and  4 years (yes my life is very full) and my patience is tested daily.  I often stop and look around for the hidden camera that is surely hidden somewhere just waiting to catch my reactions to my childrens antics.

Why is it that Children cannot tie shoes properly (ever)?

Why is it that Children cannot get their shoes on the right feet?  And how can they not FEEL that their shoes are on the wrong feet, I mean seriously it hurts?  Also all those socks are still missing.

Why is it physically impossible for a child to stay still for even 30 seconds?

Why do they get "bored" in record time?

Why can't they all just get along?

Wonder what the co-pay will be for the anti-anxiety medication that I will surely need before the summer is over?

Why when we go outside to play must they bring out every toy they own and then expect Mommy to put them away when it is time to go in?

Why if they make the majority of the mess in the house, am I the one cleaning it?

When does school start again?

--Contributed by Renee

Babies Having Babies

I didn't realize how much controversy my post on the pregnancy pact in Massachusetts would cause.  Nor, frankly, was I prepared for the comments that insisted that the media and everyone else was blowing things out of proportion and that LOADS of teens make good moms.

Some said I was overly harsh, judgmental and that I wanted Jamie Lynn Spears to fail.  The truth is, she doesn't need my rooting against her ~ had she and her sister had decent role models they might not be the train wrecks they've become.  I'm just watching for JLS to follow in her sister's footprints.

As has become my trademark, let's take a look at  recent event in the news this week that underscore just how good some of these teen moms are.  /sarcasm.

Way To Go, Jamie Lynn Spears

I had just finished and posted today's Mommage post when I saw a teaser for it on the Today Show.

An unknown number of teenage girls in Gloucester, Massachusetts formed a "pregnancy pact" and seventeen thus far have gotten pregnant.  They got pregnant on purpose and have pledged to raise their children together.  When informed of being pregnant, they responded with high-fives and tears of joy.

One of the teenagers got pregnant by a 24-year old homeless man. 

My Beautiful Mommy

I won't look different -- just prettier!  That's the message in a new book writen by Dr. Michael Salzhauer, a Florida plastic surgeon, aimed at the age 4-7 market.  It's titled "My Beautiful Mommy" and it delves into how to explain your plastic surgery to your child.

The imagery in the book is certainly one most youngens can understand.  "Mommy" is in a cocoon and only emerges into a beautiful butterfly after she's had a tummy tuck, nose job and breast enhancement.

That's right Moms... you're just a nasty old caterpillar unless you have an artificially narrow waistline and your boobs defy gravity. 

Sticks and Stones

Kindergarten is supposed to be one of the least stress-related times in a child's school life. Unfortunately for five-year-old Alex Barton, it will be remembered as one of the most.

This is by no means a new story. As many of you probably know, in April of this year, Wendy Portillo, a kindergarten teacher in Port St. Lucie Florida decided to punish Alex Barton for behavioral issues by having him stand in front of the class while his classmates systematically told him what they don't like about him (one called him "disgusting") then voted him out of the class "Survivor"-style by a 14-2 margin. The one friend Alex had made in the class was also forced to participate. What may be even worse is that Portillo apparently knew Alex Barton was undergoing testing for Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism.

Lights, Camera...Sleep? Revisited

Mommage Mom Dawn did a great job yesterday in discussing a certain PlanetFeedback letter written by Tera who took her two children to a late movie.  In typical Dawn fashion, she eloquently and kindly analyzed the letter and offered thoughtful insights into why this Mom did what she did.

So why am I revisiting this topic?  Because I have a bone to pick with many of the comments on this letter.  And I am not nearly as nice and rational about it as Dawn was.

I think my fangs look great in the half-light of the morning.  I just sharpened them.

A Tragic End For Megan

Teenager Megan Meier committed suicide after being rejected on MySpace by a boy  named Josh Evans.

Except there was no boy.  Lori Drew, a mother herself, created a profile on the social networking page posing and posting as the 16 year old boy to woo Megan and then ultimately dump her.   After dozens of cruel messages, the final one to Megan (sent apparently by someone other than Drew), told Megan that the world would be a better place without her.  Megan (who was only 13) was devastated and hanged herself in her bedroom.  Now Drew is charged with federal crimes of conspiracy and accessing protected computers to obtain information to inflict emotion distress.  In short, cyberbullying.

Introducing the newest type of helicopter parents.