IPhones are a Privilege, Not a Right (or, my ode to the mom who created an iPhone contract for her son)
Did you hear about the mom who, when she gave her 13-year-old son an iPhone for Christmas last year, followed up the gift with a 18-point contract that he had to sign in order to use his phone? It was aaaall over the Internet at the time, and the mom, a writer named Janell Burley Hofmann, was all over TV, along with her son. It was as though they were (the best kind of) circus attraction; so out of the ordinary as to draw oohing and ahhing crowds. So fascinating! How did she do that? My feeling at the time …Keep Reading
Gearing Up for Gift Giving: Do You “Owe” Your Kids a Holiday Bonanza?
As I was mulling over the subject of this post — do we owe it to our kids to give them A Great Holiday? Does your definition of A Great Holiday involve a certain number or type of distribution of gifts? A certain price point? An even-Steven stack for each child? — I read this excellent post by my friend Meagan Francis, over at The Happiest Mom. And wouldn’t you know it’s about the whole “owe” concept. Meagan’s talking here more broadly about ditching the idea that we “owe” our children things, if those things don’t fit in to our …Keep Reading
Guest Post: Single Mom Seeks Wealth (And Good Behavior From Her Kids!)
A big part of my Mean Mom approach is being married to a Mean Dad. My husband is old-school in the right ways (he’s tough and consistent) while eschewing some of the old-school-dad stuff like hiding his face behind a newspaper and leaving all the child-rearin’ to me. He’s out there (literally) kicking a soccer ball with our younger son and helping our older son with math homework. And while we have some minor disagreements about discipline (you might be surprised to find he’s tougher than I am in some instances!), we can discuss these differences rationally and work through …Keep Reading
Book Giveaway! Debbie Koenig’s “Parents Need to Eat, Too”
A few weeks ago, my friend Sally and I were emailing about dinner ideas; she’d invited us to her house for a causal family dinner, and wondered what might be good for her to make, and for me to bring to help out. She wanted to make pulled pork in her slow cooker, at which suggestion my mouth immediately commenced watering. But what about the kids? Between my two and her two, we have varying levels of picky/mercurial. Pulled pork? Would they go for it, in the absence of a fall-back serving of mac-and-cheese or plain pasta or hot dogs? …Keep Reading
Grading the Parents: How Much School Involvement is Enough (or Too Much)?
A long while ago, I wrote a post about how much more involved parents of my generation are in our kids’ schooling and schools than my parents — well meaning as they were — ever were in mine. As my kids have progressed through more school since then, it’s naturally remained on my mind. Just the other day, my third-grader brought home a book-report project with glowing reviews from the teacher. It was neat! It was comprehensive! It was clearly written! The accompanying diorama of the Titanic was fun and detailed! So where’s my grade? Admission time: I made …Keep Reading
Q&A With “The Happiest Mom” Author Meagan Francis. Win Her New Book Here!
I first “met” writer and mom Meagan Francis on an online forum for writers. She was awaiting the overdue delivery of her fourth son. Since then, we’ve become friends on- and off-board, and have met in person at more than one writer’s conference (which tend to include margaritas at some point in the weekend, which I bring up only to prove that, yes, she is a happy mom!). In that time, she’s produced a handful of books (not to mention a fifth child, a daughter) and many hundreds of magazine articles and blog posts on her very popular, very accessible …Keep Reading
On the Lighter Side of Parenting: Sharing the (Blog) Love
Yesterday, I got a lovely email from a fellow blogger I recently “met,” named Jennifer Carsen, who writes the blog Mommy Tries. She told me she’d given me a shout out in her blog, and in a sort of good-side-of-the-chain-letter way, I want to give back. Writing, mothering — both are, at many times, lonely pursuits. Knowing others are out there doing the same sort of things is an enormous help: the 2000s version of “mother’s little helper.” Plus I just love Jennifer’s blog’s tagline: “Bringing you good-enough parenting since 2010.” So, the deal is that another blogger of Jennifer’s …Keep Reading
On the Day After Mother’s Day: Trust Your Gut, Moms!
As readers can tell by perusing my last post, I’m not on board with junking up emotions surrounding motherhood with borrowed words or treacly sentiment. I’m all about the reality, kiddos. I’ve also never been, since becoming a mom, about abandoning my own hard-won instincts in order to follow any crowd into a place that leaves me wondering if I’m doing the right thing. I can (mostly) figure that out myself. Though I’ve posted about this before, few people I know address this topic better than the incomparable Jen Singer, mother, soccer coach, blogger, book author, and wearer of leopard …Keep Reading
