Tag Archives: motherhood

How Not to Ski with Preschoolers

Growing up, my parents took my two siblings and me skiing most years. Being the youngest, I started early– at age three. It was no small feat since we lived in Illinois. We did it on the cheap—which involved my parents picking us up from school then driving 14 hours through the night. We would save money by not staying in a hotel and emerge from our powder blue mercury station wagon ready to ski when the slopes opened at 8 am. Oh, and we’d have meals of broccoli and summer sausage in the car to avoid stopping. The ride was fragrant.

I don’t know how my parents did it. After taking my 3-year-old skiing last January, I have a new reverence for them. Our experience went like this: Continue reading

The Mother Induced Gender Wage Gap

I was talking about the gender wage gap with one of the professors in my Masters of Social work program last week between classes. To be there, I had arranged childcare, driven 45 minutes, paid a lot of money in tuition, and felt entirely rushed to return to my 2 and 4-year-old as soon as possible. So, every second must be extremely productive.

I’m not a great person to be friends with since I’m only on campus for class and then I dart home to help with dinner, bedtime, or begin to tackle loads of homework.

Back to the conversation with this professor: I was informing him of some reading I did on the impact of pornography on the sexualization of girls and women in society and how some argue that sexualization/ objectification is partly to blame for the gender wage gap. If you think about how women are portrayed predominantly as sex objects in all forms of media, then it makes sense that women wouldn’t be taken seriously in big decisions or for leadership roles. Objectification takes away person-hood and makes a person an object for another person’s pleasure. And nobody would make an object the CEO. Continue reading

mom thoughts, the thought record of a mom for 1 hour as she tries to decide on a preschool

A Thought Record of a Mom for 1 Hour Trying to Decide on a Preschool

An attempt to record my words and thoughts for about an hour on a normal Wednesday morning.

“No you can’t eat that cereal when you’re sick it has too much sugar”. What should I do with the kids today, should I take them to that new soccer thing? But it’s kind of expensive. But I think it could be really good for my daughter to learn some soccer skills when she’s young because what she learns now will be so much more natural later. But will she even like soccer? I don’t think she likes it. Continue reading

mother of drool, motherhood, parenting tips, mom hacks, how to raise a child, baby tips, how to give a baby a bath

Tips and Tricks for Babies Part 1

All parents learn tricks to survive the years when their children are little… and it takes awhile to get to a place where you don’t feel like you’re in panic mode every second. Or is it that you just get used to panic mode? Regardless, tricks, and not the magic kind, do help. Continue reading

motherhood, moms, moms are heroes,

Are You Just a Mom?

The decision to stay home after having my first child was incredibly challenging. My job wasn’t family friendly and I don’t have family nearby to help. My daughter had colic, and she needed me. Still, I deliberated until the last-minute. And I questioned my decision almost daily during my first two years of motherhood.

When telling a friend (who is a VP at a fortune 100 company

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What do Stay at Home Moms do all Day?

what do stay at home moms do

I used to wonder “what do stay-at-home moms do all day?” I assumed they watched cartoons, talked on the phone, and did whatever they wanted while the kids played. Part of the reason it is so hard to know what a stay-at-home parent does is because every time someone asks this question the response is so full of small things that she doesn’t know how to answer it.  Because she is CONSTANTLY Continue reading

Mesmerized by You

mountain railway

Our family of four attended a birthday party at the lone restaurant on the top of Mt. Baldy a couple of weeks ago.  Riding a rickety old ski lift was the only way to get up the mountain.  My husband wore our two-year old in one carrier, and I wore our 6 month old in another.  They made us ride separately because you can only have two “people” per lift.  Since when did a 15 lb person count?  Just kidding.

So the party was crazy with two tiny people to keep track of in the midst of many full-sized people.  We did a little dance, sang a little song, and it was time to ride down the mountain in the dark.  Now, I live in a city where I often get honked at because I forget to turn my headlights on at night.  There are so many lights all around me that I don’t even notice.  But Mt. Baldy is in the wild wilderness compared to my home.

So here I am, isolated by darkness… riding on this rickety ski lift. Continue reading

Hygiene Confessions of a Mom

hat hair

Everyone knows that moms are crazy busy. So, we sometimes have to take a few shortcuts to make ends meet. Meaning, we need to give up taking a crap or giving a crap.

If a mom were to divulge all of her hygiene secrets they might sound something like this:

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Jobs you can get after being a Stay at Home Mom

If, like me, your stay-at-home mom you may have anxiety about what sort of job you would be qualified for after being out of the market for years.  My husband goes to work and learns how to manage people and complex projects while I’m at home cleaning up pee.  If only that would give me a résumé boost. Continue reading