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Strollerderby
Photo Credit: Tom Clare
I know the whole “S*&t Whoever Says” thing is getting a wee bit played out, but this one was too funny not to share. The folks at Care.com produced it. If you’re a working mom, you probably already know about them. In a nutshell, they provide a ton of good information and resources, and they help parents find caregivers.
In any case, they know moms. Which is why I thought the video was so funny.
I should probably be ashamed to admit this, but I don’t think there’s a single thing in the video that I haven’t done. Including the sort of disgusting “Where’s that smell coming from?” scene. But that is what makes these videos appealing, right? There’s a formula: Pick a group of people with a common characteristic, find the funny and sort of obnoxious things that are universal about the group and then have someone say them all out loud. Continue reading »
Motherhood can be a lonely road. New moms often find themselves, once the fanfare of the baby’s arrival subsides, isolated at home with a very needy little person as their only companion for most of the day.
How do these moms keep from going mad? As my colleague Danielle writes, friendships keep us sane.
But new moms often have trouble making friends, especially with other busy, tired moms. Yet those are the very people new moms need to connect with: each other.
Increasingly, they’re turning to Facebook and Twitter for connection. In a recent British poll, almost a third of new moms said it wasn’t important to them to maintain face to face friendships. Nearly a quarter said they don’t know any other new parents in their area. These moms are finding friends on Twitter instead of at the playground.
The survey authors described this idea as “incredibly worrying” but I think it’s just a sign of the times.
If you had to do it over, would you have had your kids earlier?
Carole Hobson of Britain had a long and successful career as a barrister and social worker, but she still longed to be a mother. She was in a committed relationship but her partner did not want to have children at his age, so Hobson ended the 11 year relationship. Her yearning for children became so strong that she underwent 5 rounds of IVF using donated eggs from a 24-year-old Indian woman and sperm from a Scandinavian engineering graduate. In the process, she spent about 20,000 pounds and gave birth this past December to twins Matthew and Frieda to become Britain’s oldest single mother of twins at age 58.
While she doesn’t say she regrets having her babies, she does admit that motherhood is overwhelming and exhausting. Hobson had to undergo an emergency caesarean section. Her babies, Matthew and Frieda spent the first eight-and-a-half weeks of their life in the neo-natal unit. Doctors feared the worst when their condition deteriorated after birth. It has been a long battle filled with many health conditions for both babies and mom.
Is being a mom the most important thing about you?
A few days ago, I read with interest my colleague Monica’s take on a recent study that said parents exaggerate their happiness to validate their choice to have children. Like Monica, I agree that parenting certainly is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it also the greatest thing in my life. I’m not afraid to say it.
While I’m not the type that will talk incessantly about my kids or post daily Facebook pictures of everything we do, there is nothing in my life that even comes close to the joy (and fear) that I receive from being a mother. I feel nothing less than honored that I have these three people in my life, not to train, but to share life with and watch them as they blossom into young adults.
While many speculate on how difficult parenting is and the recent study suggests parents exaggerate their joy in parenting, I have encountered countless moms that downplay the joy they get from motherhood.
A naturally beautiful new mom.
Somewhere in a box in the attic, there’s a photo of me taken shortly after giving birth. My face is puffy and shiny with sweat, my eyes are tired and my hair is damp and stringy. Cradling my newborn baby girl in my arms, I look like I just ran a marathon in the Texas heat. While it is certainly not the most flattering photo ever taken of me, it is one of my favorites because it truly captures one of the most important moments of my life.
Now, I suppose that moment could have been captured just as well a few minutes later after I had given some attention to my appearance. I could have combed my hair, powdered my face and put a little color on my lips. But I gave birth before Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. Nobody outside my immediate family was ever going to see that picture and besides, I was really tired and couldn’t have cared less how I looked.
But times have changed. With the advent of the Internet and social networking sites, it’s not enough to come through labor and delivery with a weary smile on your face. These days, modern moms know they will be facing an Internet-ready camera immediately after giving birth and are arriving at the hospital prepared for their close-up. Continue reading »
Bottle feeders are tired too.
When my oldest was born, I tried very briefly to breastfeed. I probably would have succeeded had I stuck with it, but I was so exhausted and she was so hungry that I gave up within a few weeks.
Bear in mind that this was in 1982 and I was an overwhelmed 17-year-old. Breastfeeding didn’t enjoy the high profile that it does today and my desire to do it had nothing to do with the health benefits. I wanted to breastfeed because it was free.
But my need for sleep quickly overcame my financial concerns and I gave up. She got a bottle and I got more sleep. Or did I?
According to new research out of West Virginia University, the idea that bottle feeding moms get more sleep than breastfeeding moms is nothing more than a myth. In fact, not only are both getting the same amount of sleep, they are getting plenty of it. Continue reading »
Brain scans show new moms' brains grow
Moms really are the brains of the operation. New research shows that, far from losing grey matter when we become mothers, mamas’ brains actually grow.
In the months after giving birth, women develop more brain cells in the parts of the brain associated with reasoning, judgement and sensory perception. We really do know everything! At least, more than mere mortals who have not given birth.
What’s more, the more you love your baby, the more your brain develops:
Those moms who are particularly awestruck and gushy over their babies show more growth in the brain areas associated with motivation, reward and the regulation of emotion, the researchers said.
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