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.
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 Original Mean Mommy: Why Being the Only Mother You Know How to Be is the Best Lesson My Mother Never Thought She Was Teaching Me
Confession time: The whole mean mommy thing? I stole the idea. Stole. It. But it’s okay, because I stole it from my mother, the Original Mean Mommy: I think I may have written this in my first-ever post on this blog, but it’s an anecdote that bears repeating. When I was newly married but not […]
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 […]
Parenting isn’t for Sissies. Or for Sisyphus.
I’m going to be honest here: I haven’t been having the greatest time lately, as a parent. As a friend of mine has said more than once (and she may have borrowed it from someone else): Parenting isn’t for sissies. My boys are going through tough stages. I don’t know what it is, exactly, but […]
Piano Lessons Plus Pizza Plus Soccer: Why Extracurricular Overload is a Bad Idea
My sons don’t do a lot. That is, they don’t do a lot of extra-curricular activities, at least not by today’s standards. Both boys play soccer (using the word “play” loosely here; James may end up being more instinctively athletic, but rest assured no one in this house is going to college on a sports […]
(Another) Mean-Mom Question Time: Are You and Your Partner on the Same Page About Discipline?
This morning, I got to talking to a woman at my gym. Normally, I don’t talk much at the gym (too focused on getting in, working out, and getting out!), but as it happens we were hanging around waiting for a Zumba instructor who never showed up! (Grrr… does she not know that I only […]
Mean Mom Question Time: What’s Bedtime Like at Your House?
I don’t think it’s a huge leap to say that sleep — from your newborn’s earliest days to your teen’s freakish ability to sleep for what seems like days — is a major parenting issue. Can I get an amen on that? Amen. Thanks. I’ve always been … let’s call it “a stickler” or “tough” […]
Got Clutter? A Guest Post From Author Leah Ingram
I hate clutter. I’m constantly weeding through boxes and bins of toys (not that we have many) and throwing out broken parts, mismatched bits, and goodie-bag swag. I keep our crap to a minimum (and I’m grateful that I have family, on both sides, who don’t overwhelm my boys with gifts). Usually when I have […]
It’s a Book! Announcing “Mean Mom, Good Mom”
So I know I’ve been ever so slightly M.I.A. lately. I beg your indulgence, but a couple of things are going on. Kids, for one — it’s mid-winter break right now, which means I’m even more pulled between my double existence of stay-at-home mom, and work-at-home mom. Sometimes, seriously, I wish I was one or […]
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 […]
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).
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