babble » blogs » Strollerderby
Strollerderby
Ew, her house is SO dirty! She must be a terrible mom!
Moms judging other moms is nothing new. We all do it. If you say you don’t, well, I just don’t believe you. I try not to but, inevitably, there is the mom who lets her toddler stand up in the shopping cart at the grocery store and I’m cringing as the kid comes THIS close to falling out… I walk away shaking my head in disbelief… But there it is – I’m judging this mom.
A new survey conducted by TODAY and Parenting.com finds that nearly 90 percent of us judge moms.
Check this out. According to the 26,000 moms questioned, one in 5 will judge you for not breastfeeding. But wait, there’s more! If you breastfeed for what some consider “too long” you’ll get judged by 43 percent of mothers. Can’t win, can you? Continue reading »
Babies Vs. Seniors
Riddle me this: for whom would you be more inclined to give up a seat on the bus? A stroller-less mom trying to juggle two children or a senior citizen?
A police incident out of Halifax describes how officers were called to settle a fight between six mothers and a bus driver who refused to drive after the moms wouldn’t collapse their strollers. They chose instead to stand with the strollers folding up the seats at the front of the bus reserved for seniors.
The moms ranged in age from 17 to 25 and had a total of four babies and several toddlers. 24-year-old Mandy Fitzgerald told the Halifax Chronicle-Herald newspaper the bus driver didn’t take kindly to the moms’ me-first attitude, telling the women, ”You can’t do what you want on my bus, this is my office.”
And get this… Four police cruisers AND transit officials surrounded the bus and created a big traffic mess for more than an hour while they dealt with the “standoff”. Continue reading »
Mom attacked while children watch in horror.
Moms are supposed to set a good example on the playground, right? We’re the ones who come running in when kids get to pushing or shoving or hogging the slide or whatever transgression kids commit while on the playground.
Not so for a group of moms in England who apparently jumped a mom holding her toddler son’s hand while on the playground. According to the Daily Mail students were walking back into their classrooms when the brawl broke out. “As five people set upon the 22-year-old mother… other parents waded in to try to stop the fight and drag the child to safety.” Continue reading »
While many of us were kicking back yesterday enjoying flowers, brunch and our kids’ homemade Mother’s Day crafts, there’s one thing moms could really use that we didn’t get for Mother’s Day: jobs.
The New York Times Economix blog makes the case that what many moms need more than anything is good public support programs that will help them get back to work. Single moms in particular are in desperate need of employment programs: they’re more likely to be without a job than their married counterparts, and they rely on their income more.
What should we do about it?
Teaching them young to do it themselves.
Advertisers have long realized that women make the majority of purchasing decisions. And we aren’t just talking groceries and clothes for the kids. Moms are often in charge of the spending when it comes to home improvement projects as well. From picking paint colors, to choosing new appliances, to remodeling the kitchen, we’re the boss.
But these days, home improvement stores are waking up to the fact that women aren’t just picking out the design for do-it-yourself projects, but are also doing much of the heavy lifting.
In response, stores like Lowes, Home Depot and other home improvement stores have begun catering to women, holding “Ladies Night” and “Do it Herself” workshops. What’s more, tool makers themselves are now creating products that are ergonomically designed specifically for the ladies.
One such company, Tomboy Tools, is on a mission to “build confidence and empower women through education, quality tools and an independent business opportunity.” Their tools aren’t just made for women, they are also sold by women through their Home Consultants program. Continue reading »
Some say cleanliess is overrated.
When your schedule revolves around a young child, finding time to take care of yourself can be a challenge. With all that feeding, changing, playing and cleaning, something usually has to give. And for many of us, that something is the daily shower.
But if bypassing the bath has you feeling like maybe you should keep your unwashed self at a distance from other adults, relax. You aren’t dirty and smelly. You are trendy!
According to the New York Times, dirty is the new clean. It seems that all kinds of people – not just busy moms – are resisting societal expectations regarding personal hygiene and just saying no to soap and deodorant. And not because they are too busy to bathe. Continue reading »
Shut out of your kid's sports obsession?
As one of those picked-last-for-kickball kids with no affinity for team sports, a longstanding aversion to gym teachers and a son who is a particularly avid baseball fan, I have the eerie feeling that Elana Sigall is describing me when she writes in the October issue of Parents:
I never liked sports growing up. My poor hand-eye coordination makes it a challenge to drive a car, let alone hit a ball with a bat. I don’t like watching sports on TV and I don’t even like sports metaphors. So I never imagined that I would have a kid who was so focused on baseball. It was alienating to watch my son drift farther away from me – toward anyone else he knew who could talk about plays and records and suicide squeezes. I was starting to feel a little desperate, reduced to begging for good-night kisses. I knew I had to find a path to baseball or I was going to lose out on a connection with Julian.
In the piece, Sigall (a writer-mom I now know socially after our sons bonded over their mutual baseball obsession) recounts how she found a way back into 6-year-old Julian’s world by baking him a baseball cake, learning about all his favorite players as she lovingly formed them out of fondant. Somewhere along the way, as she drew pinstripes on Yankees jerseys with a food-writer pen and carefully sculpted mitts and belts and shoes, she became a fan, invested in a game her son adored and able to speak with him about it.
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
8