The Parenting Post - Parenting.com

Gratitude

My Brown Baby — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:29:59 -0500

The Family CFO

Mighty Maggie — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:06:54 -0500

Becoming a Person

Daring Young Mom — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:10:54 -0500

It's weird to watch someone become a person a little bit at a time, day by day. She came to us a stranger in her own body. She could think and feel, cry and poop. The rest was a blank slate. She'd stare right through you, seemingly unable to tell people from lamp posts, all but blind and totally startled and amazed by the world around her.

Black Moms ARE Different, and That's OK

My Brown Baby — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:26:39 -0500

'You’re so vain, you probably think this [post] is about you.'

But it’s not.

It’s about me.

And a bunch of other African-American moms who are tired of being ignored. Stereotyped. Put in a box. Left to wonder what, exactly, they’re to do with the unique circumstances that come into play when they’re raising black children in a society that all but ignores them, until something horrible happens.

What’s got me all in a tizzy?

Another Round of Correspondence

Mighty Maggie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:54:00 -0500

Dear Swine Flu,
I am hauling my precious babies to the pediatrician's office tomorrow where they will be injected and sprayed with tiny bits of you, all to protect them from what the newspapers are leading me to believe is The Next Bubonic Plague. I am a little bit terrified, not least because I am taking two children to the pediatrician BY MYSELF, and I do hope you are going to behave yourself and leave them alone. Deal?
Respectfully,
Maggie Cheung

Little House of Indoctrination

Daring Young Mom — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:43:54 -0500

Dan and I are not good at Netflix. We put a bunch of stuff in our queue and forget about it until we’re ready to watch a movie. Then we open up the red envelope and find that we’ve gotten some lame, stupid movie that neither of us admits to actually adding to our queue. When I’m stressed or anxious, we always end up with something scary or action-packed. When we’re feeling romantic, we end up with a kids’ movie. We cannot plan it right to save our lives.

The Joys (and Pains!) of Kinky, Curly Black Girl Hair

My Brown Baby — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:46:21 -0500

The torture usually came on Saturday evenings, in the kitchen. I’d be sitting on a stack of thick yellow phone books and a pillow, squished between my mother’s knees; she’d be perched on the hard wooden kitchen chair, bent over and leaning in at some ungodly angle, trying hard to tame the kinky curls at the nape of my neck with gobs of thick grease and a scorching hot comb.

I have no idea. Do you?

Mighty Maggie — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:01:38 -0500

I'm not a very observant mom. Actually, a better way to put that is: I am not observant AT ALL. I'm rarely the first person to notice if one of my kids has a bump or a scratch, and when I'm in the throes of dealing with a whiny, unhappy kid, it hardly ever occurs to me that he might not be feeling well. I'm much more apt to assume he's just being a brat. I know, I know. That's, like, forty Mom Demerits.

A Note to the Halloween Witch

Daring Young Mom — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:19:46 -0500

For the last two years we’ve adopted the tradition of sacrificing our sugary goods to earn the good graces and fabulous gifts of the Halloween Witch. She flies through the night sky two days after Halloween, collecting all treats that have not yet been consumed by the children of the land to add to her sticky, sugary, tooth-destroying stash. In return for these leftover treats, she leaves a toy for each child who gives up his or her candy completely.

Forty Is Not the New Thirty. Thankfully!

Mommy Needs Coffee — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:03:18 -0500

First, let me thank you for all of your sweet words and concern for my daughter. She is not back to one hundred percent health yet, but they felt she was healing enough to avoid putting her through too many tests that may or may not find answers when they see her on the upswing. She is still fatigued and suffers from headaches but we are keeping a close eye on her. Thank you for the kindness you showed me after my last post. It means a lot to me!