Mean Moms
A friend posted a link on Facebook a couple of days ago about a group of mean moms that created a secret Facebook group where they steal pictures of other people’s kids (specifically toddlers) and make fun of them.
I was shocked to find that something such as this existed, though I’m not sure why I would be shocked. People, especially moms, can be really mean. Now I think I’d be shocked if this was the only such group in existence.
I particularly love these lines of the article:
Many of the mothers associated with it have disabled their pages, but others are defending their actions, posting on their Facebook pages that it’s their freedom of speech.
OK, seriously? Can we all just take a moment and think about this? Freedom of speech does not give you blanket permission to be an asshole. Picking on a bunch of toddlers!
You can say what you want about me. Call me fat, call me ugly, call me stupid. I really don’t care. But my kid? That is a line you DO NOT cross.
My daughter is 15 months old. She is beautiful, sweet, perfect in every way. If you don’t think so, that is your problem, not mine. Post it on the internet where someone can see it and it gets back to me? Then YOU are MY problem and there aren’t enough freedoms in the world to save you at that point.
These are probably a bunch of young moms who don’t think about how their actions affect others or how those actions can also come back to haunt them. In my advanced maternal age I’ve come to the conclusion that spreading love is better that sitting around sniping at others. I’ve got more important things to do than spread snark and hatefulness.
Happy November 1!
After an incredibly busy October wherein I was either sick or too darn busy to update, I’m happy to start off November with a post.
So what’s new in the land of Miss P? Well, a whole lot!
– She’s talking up a storm, adding these words to her vocabulary: apple, bike, frog.
– She has been enjoying the outdoors quite a bit with the cooler weather. I rarely look at her that she doesn’t have her cheeks stuffed with fallen acorns. I open my hand and she dutifully spits them out into it, then runs off to find more.
– She discovered an anthill. She was with my husband out in the backyard and wandered into an anthill. I heard him cry out and I ran out to find him holding her up and swatting her legs. He said only a few got on her and he got them off. I took her shoes and socks off to check and make sure none were lurking, then put them back on her. Later that day she had about 8 bites on her little legs and feet.
– Since her fall from the shopping cart in September she is longer a daredevil. I keep her strapped in the front of the cart, and she hasn’t tried to even stand up once.
– She has fallen in love with vanilla flavored milk. Every time we go to Target I buy her a little box of vanilla milk from Starbucks and she sucks it down. That was getting expensive at $1.95 a pop, so I found this recipe to make my own (I had to use real sugar instead of agave since I didn’t have any in the house) and she doesn’t know the difference. Although when we went to Target the other day and I was leaving without stopping in Starbucks she pointed at the store as we went past and made the sign for milk. Luckily she got over that pretty quick.
– She was Strawberry Shortcake for Halloween. Hated the hat, but she hates all hats. I tried for a hatless costume (Annie, Hermione, even Merida from Brave) but everything I wanted was sold out in stores AND online. Mental note: start looking for Halloween costumes in August next year).
– She’ll be 15 months old in just a few days!
I’m dealing with some serious mommy envy right now because of stupid, useless Facebook. I’ll write more about that later.
I’m happy to be back, and even happier to announce my association with the The Southern Girl Blog Community and That’s Fresh Friday. Hope to see you around here again soon!
Mommy Disappointment
social-butterfly (Photo credit: The Daring Librarian)
This week was shaping up to be a busy one:
Monday – doctor appointment for 6 month check up and shots (not excited about it, but it has to be done)
Tuesday – Mommy and baby exercise class kick-off at the local mall (A chance to get in shape, meet other mommies and socialize my baby – for free? Yes, please!)
Thursday – Baby story time at the library.
I’m not much of a social butterfly and often spend time by myself at home. This has been ok until the weather got bad and I realized I was talking to an infant, with no other human contact, for 10+ hours a day. Also, I might make a wonderful hermit but my daughter needs to be around other people.
This schedule was looking rather nice! We have gone to the library a couple of times before and enjoyed it, the exercise class looked like fun and I was excited to see how big my little munchkin has gotten at her pediatrician visit.
And then things started to go wrong.
First – the library advised that story time was cancelled this week due to a staff meeting.
Then – I asked my husband where our new insurance cards were, since we had not received them in the mail from what I could tell. He contacted his HR person who told him that there was coverage but cards needed to be “re-sent” so I should just go to the doctor as scheduled, have them contact Blue Cross and look up the coverage by my husband’s social security number. If there was a problem I should have them call HR (this is a new job for him and coverage for us was to start January 1). I felt uncomfortable with this, and on Friday after his office had closed he called Blue Cross who told him they had no record of coverage for him. I called the pediatrician and moved the appointment to the next available date, which is at the end of the month.
And finally, the local mall posted on Facebook on Monday afternoon that due to unforeseen events they would have to postpone the kick-off of the exercise classes until an undetermined later date. Bummer.
So I’m open to suggestions. What does one do with a 6 month old, for free, that helps socialize him or her and allows mom to be with other adults? Story time continues next week but we need more than that!
Related articles
What a Wonderful World
Motherhood. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I like to think of myself as a pretty creative person. In the business world I was considered a creative problem solver, one of those people you could come to with a few scant pieces of information and I could usually come up with a way to help you out of a jam, or help you be more efficient.
Motherhood is going
to be a whole new ballgame for me. I’ve intimated before about my childhood: my mother was not the most motherly (still isn’t) and my dad, while awesome, was the provider, so he was always at work. I’ve seen friends have babies but they tend to do what mothers do, they way their mothers did.I look at the “usual” way of doing things, and it just doesn’t feel right to me. As I mentioned in another post, my husband and I are going with a mix of regular and hippie parenting when it comes to this little one.
I am so grateful for the internet! I have been using Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook to find resources that might help me think outside the box when it comes to raising my daughter, and I’ve found some wonderful blogs and websites that have given me a lot of great ideas.
I’m already a nontraditional parent. I’m going to be a trailblazer, too.
Related articles
- When Motherhood Comes Calling (alakananda.wordpress.com)
- Special Relationship: Mother/Daughter (heartfeltbalancehandmadelife.com)
- Four Simple Strategies for Positive Parenting (oneperfectdayblog.wordpress.com)
The Weepies
I’ve become somewhat addicted (ok, totally addicted) to Pinterest in the last few weeks. I started out not really “getting it”, much the same problem I had with Facebook and Twitter (both of which I can’t live without now). I pinned a few pretty pictures, but then I saw my friend posting recipes and tips and tricks and that is when it really came together for me.
I’m not usually so slow on the technology front when it comes to things on the internet, but when something isn’t obvious to me right away I might lose interest and get distracted by other projects. The other night I finally sat down with Pinterest and figured out how to look at things that were pinned by people who weren’t my friends, and that opened up a whole other world to me.
Several daisies (Asteroideae) top (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
One of my favorite pinboards is “For the Baby” where I started pinning things that I might like to have for the baby. This quickly evolved into baby mantras, baby sayings and baby related ideas and activities, all of which I love.
While discovering new pins, I ran across a pin that linked me to a blog called Diapers & Daisies. The blog post itself is called Rules for Mothers of Daughters, and I should have known when I clicked on it that it would make me cry. It’s a beautiful list of things to do with your daughter, and the reasons why. Some are general, some are specific, but all are designed to strengthen your relationship with your daughter.
This made me cry for a couple of reasons. Number one is that I have no relationship with my mother, and really haven’t ever. This list makes me realize what I missed out on having an absentee mother who didn’t cherish her daughter (or her sons).
Number two is the daughter growing inside me. I realize that I have the power to give her all the things I never had from my mother growing up: self-confidence, respect, love and admiration. Arms to catch her when she falls, and wings to help her fly.
I weep with sadness for the lost little girl who only wanted her mother’s love, and I weep with joy that my own daughter will never be that little girl.
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Diaper Prep
While we’re still lacking quite a few items for baby, we have the basics to get through the first few weeks:
1. Bassinet
2. Boobs
3. Basic clothing.
Diaper Central (Photo credit: girlonthewire)
The only thing truly missing is diapers. I say that, but it’s not 100% true.
I did pick up a package of newborn disposable diapers from Whole Foods the other day to minimize exposure to chemicals. I’m not interested in trying to clean meconium poo out of cloth diapers the first few days so I’m hoping that will hold us over. After that I think I will switch to flats until baby gets big enough to put in some other cloth diapers.
I have about 2 dozen flats that my grandmother gave me that I’m prepping today. She had these diapers in a big bag that had been opened, and to help out she washed them before she gave them to me, but she also used fabric softener on them so I’m currently boiling that out on the stove. I’ve got two large pots bubbling away as I type this.
I bought three diaper covers (rubber pants) at the local cloth diaper store, as well as an Econobum trial pack (one pink-edged cover and one prefold), some super soft cloth wipes and some Snappis diaper fasteners. A girlfriend gave me a bunch of baby stuff that included some flats and prefolds she used as burp cloths, so I am prepping those to use for diapers, too.
Yesterday I bought a bunch of all-in-ones (AIOs) and all-in-twos (AI2s) as a package from a website and those should be here in a week or two. I also purchased some bamboo soaker inserts and wet bags from a Facebook coop that should take a few weeks to get here as well.
All in all I think I’ve spent about $200 or so on a stash that should hopefully last me until she’s potty trained. That’s the plan, anyway.
I’ll probably buy a few more items, like some additional cloth wipes and a few Flips diaper covers to go over the flats. Then we should be all set!
Related articles
- Cloth Diapering – An opinion from a Non-Hippie Husband (franklingoose.typepad.com)
- Cloth Diapers Vs. Disposables: The 4-Month Mark (mint.com)
- Cloth or Plastic? (stophereiwannagetoff.wordpress.com)
The New Adventures of an Old (First Time) Mom 