Mommage

Nerd Girls Have it All!

Some women may prefer to keep the sex of their unborn child unknown until that final push in the delivery room.  But when the moment of truth arrives, if the doctor announces "It's a Girl!", what's the first thing that goes through a mother's mind?.. Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice?  While there's nothing wrong with wanting girls to be girlish, maybe we should follow the lead of Nerd Girls, a hot and sexy group of women trying to shatter stereotypes by attracting girls to careers in technology.  The Nerd Girls are living proof that a woman can be both beautiful and brainy.

If you ask a child to draw a picture of what they think an engineer looks like, what do you suppose they will draw?  According to Karen Panetta, a belly-dancing professor of engineering at Tufts University and founder of Nerd Girls, almost invariably the pictures are of males wearing glasses.  Furthermore, Panetta describes how people in her profession are viewed, and it goes something like this:

TV or Not TV?

We're in the midst of a typical July heatwave here in the northeast, and the last thing on anyone's mind is cooking or spending time outside.  Thinking she had a perfect way to escape the heat where she lives in Michigan, Planetfeedback user Andrea took her family to McDonald's so they could enjoy a meal, and the kids could have fun in the air-conditioned PlayPlace.

When Andrea's seven year old son took a break from playing and joined his parents in the dining room, imagine their surprise when they found out what their son was doing in the PlayPlace.

Guilt By The Ton

-They hauled in guilt by the ton, those blue and orange vans out there on Walton Avenue.  But the poor bastards behind the wire mesh barely deserved the term "criminal", if by criminal you had in mind the romantic notion of someone who has a goal and seeks to achieve it through some desperate way outside the law.  No, they were simple-minded incompetents, most of them, and they did unbelievably stupid, vile things.-

That's one of my favorite paragraphs from Tom Wolfe's masterpiece “The Bonfire Of The Vanities”.  And it perfectly describes this case; that which has graced the front pages of our local papers for the past few days.  As did the mug of the thug responsible who, at last report, finally turned himself in this afternoon.

The story is simple...a 60 year old man was watering plants on a roundabout and placed cones along the side so car would drive around him.  Some young women drove up and took exception to the cones and demanded he move them.  He didnt.  An argument ensued and a few minutes later, another car drove up and a simple minded incompetent got out, walked over to the man and, in the words of the police, suckerpunched him in the jaw, knocking him backwards.  Mr. Incompetent got back in his car and drove away.  In the meantime, the 60 year old man had fallen backward, cracking his skull on the pavement.  He eventually died from his injuries.

And why is this fodder for a Mommage post?

Now You Know Why I'm Always Tired

It's summertime, and this season more than any other I am reminded of how much my life has changed since having my son. It has been this season more than any other that my husband and I have had to pick and choose our activities. For example, we enjoy going to festivals but taking the boy is not always feasible. I'm hesitant to keep him in the sun and heat for long periods of time, so an afternoon jaunt is sometimes out of the question. I also don't like to keep him up too late or fight the crowds with a big stroller (not to mention voracious mosquitos), so nighttime doesn't always work either. My husband and I also hate abusing family babysitters, so we don't like to ask unless it's really necessary. In many cases, we opt to just stay home.

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.

Mommy v. Daddy

As an attorney, I didn't practice domestic relations law.  Even now that I'm working as a legal assistant, I breathe a huge sigh of relief that my attorney doesn't practice it either.  There's so much emotion involved in these type of cases when it comes to divorce.  I would have to take out a membership to Costco or Sams just to keep me in Tums and tissues.  Plus this type of law really seems to bring out the worst in people

Case in point.  Yesterday, one of the attorneys at my firm was deposing the husband in a divorce case.  It was a little hostile.  At the end, the husband used our bathroom before he departed.  Instead of lifting the seat, he lowered the lid and purposefully urinated all over the toilet and floor.  Just like a pet would announce his displeasure.

Yes, people are not at their best in divorce situations.

House Hunters

The time has come: we need to buy a house.

This is huge. My husband has lived in our two-bedroom condo for over ten years, long before I came into the picture. It has taken A LOT to get him on my side in making changes. (He's a territorial creature.) He nearly fainted when I suggested we paint the kitchen. He turned white when I cleaned out the linen closet. And when I attempted to toss his pre-college, scratched, and nearly unusable plasticware, he acted like I threatened to throw out his mother's heirloom china.

The Best of Both Worlds

If you're a Mommage reader, chances are you have at least one child.  Everyone always says they don't care if it's a boy or a girl as long as it's healthy, but when I was pregnant the first time, I secretly wished for a girl.  When I was growing up, I helped raise my nephews and always wanted a little boy of my own.  But when my time came, I realized I wanted a daughter.  I think the reason was because I thought I'd relate better to someone of the same sex. 

My wish came true.  My daughter was everything a mother could ever want, and more.  When I became pregnant again, I just assumed it would be another girl, and the thought of having a boy never entered my mind. Imagine my surprise when I found out my second child was a BOY!  After I got over the shock, I realized how lucky I was.  It would be wonderful for every mother to have a girl, but raising a boy opened up a whole new world to me.

It's A Cat-astrophe!

If you're a Mom, I am sure you've heard of Mommy guilt.  You blame one kid for eating the last of the ice cream and it turns out that the OTHER one ate it.   How did that baseball get through the window?  Whooops... it's not that kid you thought it was.  Or maybe you forgot to take her to soccer practice or ballet because you thought it was Tuesday instead of Monday.

It happens to all of us.  You do something and then look back with perfect 20/20 hindsight, shaking your head. It happened to Mommage Mom Dawn just yesterday.  So it does indeed happen to the best of us.

But what happens when it's your little furry baby to whom you owe the apology?

Summertime...and Safety is Easy!

A letter was recently posted on Planetfeedback that brought to mind the many hazards facing parents and their children in the warm weather of the summer months.  What should be a time to kick back and relax can quickly turn into heartache and disaster if parents aren't on their toes.  No need to fret... with some preparation, caution and knowledge, a splendid time is guaranteed for all!

There are so many potential dangers, I didn't know where to begin, so I enlisted the aid of the American Academy of Pediatrics to provide a helping hand with its Summer Safety Tips.  If you take some time to review Part 1 and Part 2 of the tip list, not only will you be prepared for whatever comes your way, but you might even be able to avoid some of these scenarios.  With Fourth of July festivities already underway, it's also a good idea to be aware of the dangers of fireworks. 

I learned something last summer that was so unbelievable, I thought it was worth posting again.