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 »

Year 2- Birthday Music Mix

As with last year, this year I made another music mix CD as my daughter’s birthday party favors. I post the set list to give other people ideas for “kids” music. Most of the songs, are not for kids only, but some are. I try to pick music that parents will be willing to listen to repeatedly. Here is the play list, in order:

Say Hey (I love you) – Spearhead with Michael Franti Read more »

Oh, Mexico! 2010

Bahia de Conception

We went to Mexico this winter, drove down hauling our ’62 Cardinal travel trailer.  Our 2 year old is now a road trip pro and we have figured out her limits, when to stop, when to nap, when to buy new toys. We mostly drove up the Baja peninsula. She had a fear of oceans in Cabo, so we found a quite beach locale without waves and called it an Ocean Lake. She seemed convinced and we spent the afternoons collecting shells. Read more »

Effin’ Bad Language

My two-year-old repeats everything I say. She has an excellent vocabulary and speaks in full, and often remarkable, sentences. I do not refrain from using “big” words with her. My theory is that the more she hears them, the more she will become familiar with them. However, I do refrain from little words, those little four letter words. 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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Festival Baby

I don’t remember going to music festivals as a kid. I do remember going to a Pete Seeger show and maybe an Oktoberfest, but not quite a festival. This year, I decided to take my little Vintage Clothing business The Style Revival on the road and with me, the whole family.

Crestone Music Festival ’09 in Crestone, Colorado. We were prepared because I had done flea markets so there wasn’t much prep work, but since I would be facepainting too, we needed grandma to come watch our daughter while we worked all day. We parked our little camper behind the booth so she could nap and kept lots of extra food nearby so as not to have to rely on festival food.

Thank goodness my mother-in-law was there. I don’t think we could have juggled it alone. We met the other vendors nearby and there families. We played with the hula hoops, danced to the reggae and bluegrass, ate pizza and just had an all around good time. Other than the late night freezes that weekend while camping, it went pretty smoothly.

I decided I want to do it again next year and maybe even try a couple more festivals. As my daughter gets older, she’ll be able to run off and play with the other festival kids without me having to worry about her. It is a temporary way for me to mimic a communal lifestyle for us and allow her to be exposed to music and culture while enjoying a family camping weekend together.

Love: Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves

Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves is a great book about parenting. The author, Naomi Aldort, stresses the need to validate your children’s feelings and let them work through them on their own,  instead of the more common method of trying to distract them from their feelings. She emphasizes that our children should not have to always act in accordance with our needs. If it is not unsafe or hurting anyone, why not let them climb those rocks and get filthy? Or even go so far as act out their power struggles on you. Additionally, she helps parents consider ways to give their children more autonomy. All of this felt really intuitive to me and I appreciated her advice.  However, there is a catch. Read more »

Mama Mentor

You might not realize it, but chances are you have a mama mentor. It may be your mom, but (no offense, mom) most likely your mom’s methods are a little outdated, if she remembers child rearing at all in the first place. I am thinking more of a friend, or a sister, someone whose initiation into motherhood came before yours. This person has introduced you to all methods, products and philosophies that you hold dear in parenting. My mama mentor is my old roommate and dear friend, Leanne.

Leanne’s youngest daughter is about a year older than my daughter, so when I was pregnant, Leanne was eager to help me out. She introduced me to baby legs, cloth diapers, EC and Ina May Gaskin. Once I had my daughter, Leanne sent me books on parenting that she found helpful. Since she is a buddhist, a life philosophy I wholly admire, I knew that her methods and my own would jive.  Now that she has daughter #2, her time is more constricted, but I still look forward to learning from her whenever I can. Thanks, Leanne.

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.”

I Want (Blank) Now.

My daughter’s new favorite words a la 22 month old is, “I want (fill in the blank) now.” She doesn’t say it in an obnoxious manner as you may imagine those words would come out. Instead it is very matter of fact twinged with a bit of sweetness, which of course is greatly emphasized by her cute little face. Regardless, the fact is, she wants something. It is as if she has begun her initiation into consumerism, the constant need to have something. It starts young. Read more »