In Other News... Making All Other Moms Look Bad

Recently, I came across this article about an amazing New York mom, who happens to be an incredible artist and, seriously, the coolest geek-chic lady around. She draws incredible things on her kids' lunch napkins, making the rest of us simpleton mothers look like the ham-handed non-artistic buffoons we are.  Enjoy. A-Maze-Ing. I feel like the scribbled "Love you, buddy" in my kids' lunches in the early years of elementary school are wholly inadequate by comparison. 

This mom? She's a Gold Medal Mom. Awesome. 

My favorite one of those shown on KSL: 

My Essay on Abortion

When I was in high school, and abortion was still a relatively newly public topic (Roe vs. Wade was in 1973 and only 15 years later I was in high school), we had to write an essay on something we felt strongly about. When I was just a little younger, I remember learning what abortion is and being shocked-- stunned, that anyone would want to end the life of a baby, regardless of the circumstances. To learn that this was perfectly legal, that the baby was being called only a "fetus" and "tissue" did nothing to assuage my horror. So, when I wrote my essay, my junior year, I wrote about what I consider to be an evil in our society: abortion.

Parenting Ideas: Don't Leave

Okay. This is pretty simple. Have kids? Stick around. Don't move away, don't abandon them, don't decide your life would be better without them. Kids can't choose to leave. Kids can't choose whether you're their parents or not.

So love them. 

from www.goodenoughmother.com

Stick around, and love them. Don't stick around and beat them or dominate them or manipulate them or use them to get attention. 

It's not all about you.

No, seriously. It's not even very much about you. Parenting is about your responsibilities, your joy in making your children laugh, your honoring the obligation to teach them about good behavior, manners, doing their part, owning their mistakes, and hard work. Parenting is about being there. 

This post comes from a very personal place, if you can't tell. My mother did not live up to her obligations. She chose selfishness; leaving her seven children with their dad (thank you, for that, though, as he is SUPERMAN). That's the very short version of the story, of course. But it should suffice.