Elisabeth Badinter: Nutty French Grandma

Does she look like she's a chain smoker or what?

Elisabeth Badinter’s new book, Le Conflit, La Femme et La Mère (The Conflict, The Woman and The Mother), is an argument against the resurgence of earth mother domesticity including cloth diapers, homemade baby purees and breastfeeding. Check out this article about her in UK Times. Instead, she advocates smoking and drinking, formula and boarding schools. What makes me angry about her is that she has three children who she raised in the 60′s and 70′s, before we knew smoking was bad or knew about global warming or environmental toxins. It was a different world. Also, if having children is such a burden, why have one? And once you have one and realize the extent of the burden, why have two more? Read more »

Super Nanny: Super Crazy

Coo Coo!

I never realized how absolutely crazy Super Nanny was until I watched an episode tonight. I haven’t watched this since my daughter was young and prior to reading all the parenting books I have now read. I think I secretly indulged in watching the terrible parents make me feel better about myself. Yet, tonight after watching, I have realized that this woman is an egomaniac, power freak with a grandiose personality disorder.

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Otty Sanchez: Mom Eats Her Baby

Have you heard about this? It happened a month ago, but has only just now come to my attention. In honesty, I wish it hadn’t.  Otty Sanchez, a schizophrenic, post-partum depressed mother off her meds, hears the devil tell her to kill her 3 1/2 week old baby after breaking up with her boyfriend, the father. She decapitaties it and begins to eat parts of its brain and its toes. When she awakens from her psychotic state and realizes what she has done, she tries to kill herself. Read more »

What’s Behind that Organic Label?

When I became a mom, I became a bit more fanatical about buying organic foods, especially dairy. We all know about hormones and antibiotics in dairy. There is always the debate in the food aisle about whether to buy local or buy organic. Generally, I choose organic. Local is great for the environment, but I am thinking of the more immediate effects on my family. Our local co-op does a great job of stocking shelves with local goods that are organic, but not certified organic. That way, I know what I am getting. However, sometimes, in larger stores, we don’t have that extra service and have to choose based solely on labels. In this case, I choose the lesser of the expensive organic. But not today.

After reading this article on alternet, I had to rethink my purchase. Organic is the conscious choice and already a lot more expensive than non-organic. But when I realized that buying the cheaper organic milk, such as Horizon, was actually contributing to larger, less socially responsible, big corporations, those I try to avoid when they are in my face, I chose Organic Valley instead. It cost 70 cents more, but it is a cooperative, not a corporation. That explained the higher price tag. So, now, I am paying even more for organic.

What is truly irritating about this, money aside, is that I spend so much time reading labels on everything from shampoo to juice, and now I have to read even closer to see what corporation I am giving my money too. Even worse, most of the time the product doesn’t even tell you, for fear of losing customers.

Sometimes, we don’t have a choice between organics because there is only one, or sometimes we don’t even have organic at all, but when we do have the choice, we should make it count. This brings us back to buying local as much as possible and supporting small businesses.

Excerpt from article: “What’s important to keep in mind is that these big corporations are getting into organics not because they have doubts about their prior business practices or doubts about chemical, industrial agriculture,” said Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association. “They’re getting in because they want to make a lot of money — they want to make it fast.” He said the companies couldn’t care less about “family farmers making the transition to organic farms.”

BPA Found in GLASS Baby Jars

You stopped buying plastic toys and all your plastic water bottles are BPA free. You finally feel like you have gotten a grip on that nasty estrogen-mimicking chemical when this study comes out of Canada saying that traces of BPA have been found in baby food in glass jars. Apparently, the plastic lining on the lids leaks bisphenol-A. Sorry mamas, but toxins are lurking everywhere. Stop buying baby food in jars. Invest in a food processor and take advantage of summer’s farmers markets. Good luck!

Free Range Kids

I just read a great excerpt from the book Free Range Kids by Lenore Skenazy, a New York mom infamous for letting her nine-year-old ride the subway alone. What I found most fascinating was all the hupla surrounding this scenerio. Does it matter whether the kid was nine or eighteen? As the saying goes, age is just a number. It is the maturity of the child that is most important. In this case, her son, Izzy, was asking to be allowed to ride the subway alone and only after much deliberation and precautions taken did they allow him to.

This enters into a whole discussion about today’s standards of safety as Skenazy goes into in her book. Read more »

Co-sleeping: Safe or Dangerous?

Our Co-sleeping Set-up

According to the BBC World News, the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID) just released a study that says co-sleeping or bed sharing with your child, has been implicated in about half of SIDS cases. According to this study, the risk is greatest if either parent smokes, has been drinking, has taken sedatives or is “very tired,” and that small babies, such as preemies are particularly at risk.

According to Dr. Sears, attachment parenting guru who has written two books on the topic and done extensive research on the risks of SIDS when co-sleeping, there is nothing to worry about. In fact, he believes that co-sleeping can actually reduce the risk of SIDS.

The best advice is to do as you would with all things parenting and follow your instincts. As for my husband and I, we knew we wanted to co-sleep, but did not think we would be comfortable with a baby in bed with us. Read more »

Madlyn Primoff: Kicking her Kids to the Curb

Primoff Mug Shot

First of all, I would like to know, what’s the big deal? Child endagerment? They were in White Plains for goodness sake. What were her kids in danger of, honing their luxury vehicle identification skills, getting their toes stuck in freshly aerated lawns? The answer, apparently, is that they were in danger of being treated to ice cream by a friendly neighbor. And, worst of all, seeing their mom handcuffed and thrown into jail. Read more »

Toxic Toys Suck!

I’m not a completely neurotic mother. I let my daughter climb, unassisted, the cement steps to the wood bridge over our acequia which she walks back and forth on before descending the same cement steps. Sometimes, I let her walk around while nibbling on a bagel or apple. I even let her outside without a hat on, but rarely. I’m crazy, I know. Yet, what really scares me, are her toys. Yes, the seemingly innocent play items that fill her day with joy. It seems like everyday, another one is being recalled for choking hazards or lead content. Not to mention, the one’s that are not being recalled, those that the Government Consumer Product Safety Commission only “suggests” might be unsafe, such as BPA, PVC, phthalates, and other big words. Read more »

The Public Boob

Double the Fun

A bill just passed in Washington state protecting mothers, breastfeeding in public, from discrimination charges. It seems odd that women should have to be protected from doing the most fundamentally instinctive act of survival, feeding their child. Some people want moms to hide in bathroom stalls as if you would want to eat your lunch in the bathroom. I imagine that the desire to avoid seeing a woman breastfeed is a leftover from Puritan pilgrims, but we live in a society where girls wear hoochie shorts and belly tops, where half naked women are all over the covers of magazines, and I won’t even mention what you can find on the Internet. My solution is for all people who are bothered by seeing a woman breastfeed to do the opposite; get an eyeful of breastfeeding women, look at photos, watch them on buses, seek them out and dive right in (not literally). This is the only way that you’ll get over it. Read more »