Why I planned my career around a yet-to-be-conceived child.
I determined that I wanted to be a writer when I was 5. At about the same time, I decided that I would also be a mother. 22 years later, I still wanted to be a writer... and a mother. And more than anything else, I wanted to be home to raise my children. So my husband and I sat down and hashed out how we could keep me at home full-time without going bankrupt, going into foreclosure, becoming homeless and perhaps resorting to cannibalism.
How one woman's upgrade to minivan affects her sense of self.
Six weeks ago, I was cruising through my happily-ever-after in a mid-size SUV. I had one foot planted in soccer mom territory, the other firmly in "I’m still the cool chick I was before I had kids" land. My vehicle reflected this. But five weeks and three days ago came the news that the stork had us on his spring delivery schedule. This is when my husband suggested the mini-van.
I'm a Democrat. He's a Republican. Our child is in utero and we are already worried.
I recognize that parenthood is a journey filled with responsibility and challenges far greater than political quibbling. I also realize, that in the end, the political choices of our child are not up to us, but up to that squirming little fetus, who is currently making me puke and want to eat jars and jars of caramel ice cream topping. And yet, I am worried about what we will teach our child about conflict and resolution though our political wranglings. Will our child grow up to be polarized? Afraid of confrontation? Apathetic? Or will our child learn to build consensus and disagree with respect and love?
Writing about my husband is one thing; where do I draw the line with my kids?
Famed mommy blogger Heather Armstrong—better known as Dooce—recently wrote about the reasons behind the dwindling coverage of her older daughter on her blog. She mentioned that her daughter had been squeamish lately about getting her photo taken, and also wrote that she now asks for her daughter's permission before mentioning her on the blog. It brings to mind questions that have been swirling around the blogosphere for awhile now: Do parenting bloggers compromise their chidren's safety by revealing so much online? Is this type of blogging exploitative? How much is too much, and where should we draw the line?
Remember when your mom said she knows best? Well, she was right.
How do you react when your mother gives you advice about your relationship? Kate Reardon set up TopTips.com TopTips.com so that we could all benefit from mothers' advice, even if those mothers are not our actual relations. The second book of tips from the site is called Your Mother Was Right: All The Great Advice You Tried To Forget, here are a few Reardon's favorite relationship tips:
How did your mom's marriage influence your own and is your marriage wildly different from hers?
We recently wrote about a study in which researchers found that divorce may run in the family. This study focused on the influence of siblings rather than parents, but that's probably because the parent-child connection is already so obvious. Of course children will model the relationships they've seen growing up. Relationship expert Andrea Syrtash, author of He's Just Not Your Type and That's a Good Thing, is writing a book about marriage, and this is one of the many areas she's doing research on. If you'd like to weigh in and be quoted in her latest book, tell us below: How is your marriage different from your mother's? And is that a good or a bad thing?
I didn't daydream about weddings or marriage when I was growing up. Instead, I looked at my mother and thought: That's what I want to do. I want to be a mom. Now that I'm married, I wonder, will he really be a good father? And by the way, am I gonna suck, too?
Follow these tweeps for the lowdown on (surviving) parenthood.
Our sister blog—Love Buzz—previously ran a number of Twitter Top 10 lists. Those lists told you who to follow for sex advice, dating advice and more. They cut out the riffraff and presented you with the awesome. Well. We thought it was about time that, here at LoveMom, we shared the goods on the coolest moms and dads on Twitter. Because—when it comes to parenting—we could all use someone to reach out to every once in awhile, even if it's only virtually.
10 lessons about life, and herself, that one woman picked up from her mom.
My mom didn’t just help prepare me for school; she prepared me for life — and in a big way. After the jump, the ten best things my mom, the teacher, taught me.
