Denise Schipani / 6 Comments / humor, summer /
When I begin, somewhere around this time of year, to clear my throat in preparation for my annual end-of-school-year, start-to-summer rant, my kids roll their eyes at best (“here she goes again!”) and, at worst, have brief moments of panic that I might cancel summer camp and enroll them in summer school instead. Because for […]
Denise Schipani / 0 Comments / humor, Monday Funny, school / end of school, Jen Hatmaker /
If you have been hiding from the Interwebs lately, maybe you are one of the few who have not read this post on Jen Hatmaker’s blog. She calls herself the “worst end-of-school-mom” ever, and I laughed through the whole dang thing. It starts like this: You know the Beginning of School Enthusiasm? When the pencils […]
Denise Schipani / 3 Comments / humor / Babble.com, Parenting.com, sippy cups, useless baby products /
I just saw, in a quick link to the Parenting.com website a story about useless parenting products, and I could barely click past this, the Thudgard baby helmet: I did do a bit of clicking, though, and as expected the rest of the slideshow was full of things that feel marginally clever but are really […]
Denise Schipani / 29 Comments / humor, in the news/media / Alex Williams, Apple Martin, Baby Name Wizard, baby-naming, Chris Martin, Gwyneth Paltrow, Name Voyager, New York Times /
I want to say something here like, “naming a baby has always been fraught,” but really, has it? These days, you can bet that superfluous “y” in some kids’ names it is. Just take a look at this recent piece in the New York Times. Now, bear in mind, this is one of those style/fashion/trend […]
Denise Schipani / 21 Comments / discipline, family life, humor / Book Revue, bookrevue.com, Mean Moms Rule /
My kids don’t think I’m mean! And yet, I am — at least, by my definition, which is that this whole long-haul-parenting gig is hard, in large part because it’s so darned repetitive. You don’t get to say things one time. If you believe it, you have to stick to it. Like exercise: Just once, […]
Denise Schipani / 12 Comments / humor, modern families, other parents, parenting controversies / Alec Baldwin, American Family Foundation, Ana Gasteyer, Ben & Jerry, ice cream, Molly Shannon, One Million Moms, Saturday Night Live, Schweddy Balls, SNL /
And now for something a little lighter: ice cream. Specifically, how a new flavor of ice cream is creating a bit of a firestorm among the sort of moms who would like to keep their (and, presumably, our) children’s worlds completely free of anything offensive (their definition of, I guess), immoral (ditto), scary (says who?) […]
Denise Schipani / 11 Comments / birthday parties, discipline, family life, humor, kids and food, school /
Well, the title says it, eh? I’m confessing: I’m horribly impatient. (Those of you who know me are, I realize, sitting there rolling your eyes, like, duh.) I want to be started with things, and then I want things done. When I wanted to become pregnant, I wanted it to happen pronto, and quickly […]
Denise Schipani / 21 Comments / family life, humor, kids and sports, modern families / extra-curricular activties for kids, piano lessons, soccer /
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 […]
Denise Schipani / 8 Comments / humor, mom bloggers / Christina Frank, Debbie Koenig, HGTV, Jen Singer, Jennifer Carsen, Jennifer Lawler, Lisa Bonchek Adams, Meagan Francis, Momma Tries /
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 […]
Denise Schipani / 9 Comments / bad parents in fiction, discipline, family life, humor, modern families / CBS TV, sitcoms, The Middle /
You know what’s funny? It’s not most sitcoms (ba-da-bum!). What’s funny is that after the last time I wrote about the CBS TV sitcom “The Middle,” my friend Sally wrote to agree with me, and also to wonder how it was that I even managed to sit down for an 8pm show. Sally and I […]