Mean Moms Rule: The Blog
Observations on parenting in the tween and teen years.
This blog was born in 2009 as Confessions of a Mean Mommy, and gave rise to the book you see over on the right. Since I began blogging, my sons morphed from 5- and 7-year olds who looked to me for just about everything, to 11- and 13-year olds who have perfected their eye rolls and have one foot out the door. This parenting thing just got real.
Yes, I Have ‘Resting B*#ch Face’ And So Does My Kid. What’s It To You?
Oh, here we go. The New York Times Style section has identified yet another trend-you-love-to-hate, and it’s the so-called “resting bitch face,” or the way some of us (in the case of the article, surprise! it’s women) have faces that naturally, at rest, appear to be not so friendly! The piece is titled I’m Not […]
Do You Have a Tribe?
Do you have a tribe? Back in October of last year, I got a group email that read: You know the one time of year that I am remotely sappy, is Zoe’s birthday. I decided to write her a letter this year. I wanted to share it with you. Because you, as you will read […]
Why Jennifer Garner Shows Up On My Christmas List
James, my 10-year-old, wrote my off-the-cuff list with some creative spelling and a lot of laughter. Here’s my Christmas problem. I love it, never fear that I’m about to be curmudgeonly about the hoopla and the food and the family. I like creating and sending cards, and I send a lot through the mail, regardless […]
My Kids Don’t Have Much Homework. But Even That Much is Too Much
Remember when everyone was talking about the over-scheduled child? I remember thinking: I wasn’t going to have those kind of kids, no way. I wasn’t going to be one of those moms, with a “Mom’sTaxi” key chain and knowledge of all the drive-thrus in my area. We were going to have family time. My kids […]
Dinner Isn’t “Tyranny.” It’s Just Dinner
Dinner is served! Both of my grandmothers were good cooks. Neither ever got to anything like a gourmet level, of course, but they had a whole lot of family-pleasing dishes down cold, particularly my father’s mom — who once gave my sister an afternoon-long tutorial on how to make chicken soup, starting with the bones […]
Get ‘Em Outside… But How?
Who’s out there anymore? We talk a very good game, don’t we, about how our kids need to be outside and moving, rather than indoors and glued to their screens. But how easy is it to say, “go outside!” Actually, it is pretty easy. To say. And I say it, all the time — particularly […]
Why I’m Sorry Summer’s Ending, For the First Time in a Long Time.
READERS! Hi there. It’s me, Denise. Been a while, right? I’d say let me ‘splain, but to quote Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, “no, is too much. Let me sum up”: I’ve been stuck in a cycle of working and worrying and working on not worrying so much and worrying that I’m not working […]
Are We Ready to Ditch Rules for Recess?
Are we willing to ditch rules for school playgrounds? During his school recess, back when he was in the third grade, my older son invented a game in which he was the proprietor of a store, prompted by the presence of the little take-out-style window that was part of the playground equipment at his school. […]
Suburban Mom Seeks Friends. For Her Kid.
My little cowboy: Who wouldn’t want to be his friend? We moved from the city to our suburban home 11 years ago this October. Our son Daniel was about to turn one. My husband had just started a new job and, as luck would have it, he needed to fly to Arizona for a week […]
A Conversation with an Exceptional Mother About Her Exceptional Daughter
Well, I’ve had a fun couple of weeks! I was about to publish the post here, until my website decided to misbehave, which you may have noticed if you tried to check in recently and got one of those chipper “service not available!” messages. That’s when the wonderful Elizabeth Kricfalusi of Tech for Luddites (and […]