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.
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 […]
Vassar College Makes Huge Acceptance-Letter Screw-Up, Hurts Students’ Feelings. But Should Their Parents Try to Fix It?
A long time ago (let’s call it 1984 for sake of argument, because that’s when it was), when high school students received college acceptances or rejections in the mail (you know, with envelopes and stuff) exclusively, I got an acceptance to the school I really, really wanted to attend. When I’d first applied, I hadn’t […]
The Best $80,000 I Ever Spent. (On Childcare)
I was just talking over the weekend to an acquaintance, a childhood friend of one of my cousin’s, who’s started her own in-home childcare business. After years as a pediatric nurse, she shifted gears, and good for her! As we talked, I fell into a host of sweet memories of Kozy Korner and Harbor Kids, […]
Le Mean Maman: Are French Moms Meaner (And Are Their Kids Better Behaved as a Result)?
Mon dieu! Some news (well, okay, not news so much as opinion) from across the pond: French moms are not just thinner than their American counterparts; they’re meaner, too. (And Amy Chua thought she had cornered the market on tough.) A friend just sent me this link, to a 2007 article in an U.K. […]
Guest Post: This is Your Brain on Motherhood
A slightly belated Happy New Year, everyone! As the next month or two progress, I’ll be hard at work preparing for the publication of MEAN MOMS RULE, WHY DOING THE HARD STUFF NOW CREATES GOOD KIDS LATER. I’m so excited about the possibilities for this fresh, new year, and I hope you are, too. But […]
Holiday TV Special Redux: Why “Rudolph” Would Never Be Made Today
Just this morning, I was reading an excellent op-ed in Newsday, the Long Island, New York newspaper. A writer friend of mine, Claudia Copquin, wrote about Rudolph. I’ll put the link here for those of you who may be Newsday subscribers or Optimum Online customers (which you have to be, dang it, to get access), […]
The Power of No
Who’s afraid of saying “no” to their children? Just this morning, literally five minutes after watching me pack his and his brother’s lunchboxes for school, my seven-year-old asked me, “Can I buy lunch today?” Now, I could have looked at him, and realized in that split second that saying “No, honey, not today, Mommy already […]
Santa Claus, the Silly Season, and Saving our Sanity
I thought Black Friday (a day during which I resolutely remain home with wallet firmly shut; crowds scare me and the dangling of so-called bargains in front of my face does the opposite of enticing me) might be an opportune time to share this little piece I wrote for DailyWorth.com, an excellent website about finances […]
Why Isn’t Paid Maternity Leave a Right? Family Values, My @#$%
So, here’s a quick quiz: What does the United States have in common with Swaziland, Liberia, and Papua New Guinea? I’ll wait. And no, it’s not because those nations’ governments have just named pizza a vegetable, as the U.S. Congress just has. Got an answer? If you were thinking that the U.S.’s maternity […]
It’s a Book! Countdown to “Mean Moms Rule” Publication Date
Ironic, ain’t it, that the very thing that spurred me to think about writing a book — this blog — has been languishing with fewer updates lately thanks to… the book. But the home stretch is stretching out. The book has been written, and edited, and re-edited, and designed, and has a publication date — […]
My name is Denise, and I’m a Mean Mom.
That’s the very first line of my book, Mean Moms Rule. Let me explain the “mean” for you, in case you were under the impression that I never hug my boys (I possibly do this too much, as evidenced by the fact that they routinely try to wiggle away from my embraces and especially my sloppy kisses, the urchins), or that I advocate for children to work in coal mines (it’s illegal! Plus, no coal mines in my area!). I say “mean” because my approach often bucks the prevailing parenting trend, which you could call helicopter-y or indulgent (I prefer my own technical term, “squishy”). It’s mean because it’s not easy. Because it’s focused on the end game, not the here-and-now (and anyone who has kids’ll tell you, they are all about the here and now).
Grab a copy from your favorite bookseller:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound Read the press for Mean Moms Rule
________________________________