Guest Post by Avital Norman Nathman This: …is not reality. It’s an edited for entertainment version of what teen parenting might look like. But the magazine covers? The sensationalizing and “shockers” they’re trying to sell as the teen parenting narrative? That’s not reality. Between the sensationalism that accompanies most “reality” TV and the stigmatization of many [...]
July 12, 2012
I pulled my back out on my date with the A-Hole from Bridesmaids. You know, the Jon Hamm character? A perfect storm of vanity and self-consciousness converged on a bench, when I tried to make my bare legs (100 percent humidity had me in shorts) look their best. I alternated between crossing them (bad for [...]
June 3, 2012
Here’s the question: Which came first, estrangement from our dad, or our stepmother? I have a complex guess. But instead of guessing I’m going to stay with the facts. Distance and a sense that we were interrupting a mid-life love affair, were problems. We, my sister and I, had a hard time finding a way [...]
April 5, 2012
There are plenty of topics I could spend my time writing about: health care, abortion rights or Santorum and Romney and the dismal race? How can I write such drivel when the world is boiling over with troubles? Trayvon, Korean school shooting or Iraqi’s itchy fingered bomb mongers. But when I sit down whatever is lurking [...]
February 24, 2012
I’ve been looking at pictures of baskets. Baskets for organizing the life of the disorganized? In catalog after catalog, there are efficient looking desks and cabinets and closets filled with items that are designated for said baskets. I’ve gone through flurries of organization. I organized our entire linen closet — two shelves jammed [...]
November 21, 2011
My ex got the kids for Thanksgiving. They were metaphorically placed between us on an overly-polished, black mahogany conference table that was the length of a football field. I saw our children inside the shine, their faces on Thanksgiving, their plates full of food and their tired overstuffed moans by the end of the evening. Inside [...]
November 2, 2011
Miri already told us that no matter what you hoped, co-parenting is an unfortunate myth. That you are perpetually divorcing. What about the actual aspect of divorcing? Is there such a thing as a good divorce? In a surprisingly cheery article, the New York Times tries to convince us that this is so in Susan [...]
October 28, 2011
In Internet Dating Gone Wrong Part 1, I had Chinese food and “intimacy.” Now, I’m hooking up with Jews from New Hampshire via JDate. First, a story. We’re in Israel. We’re in the Old City. There are teenagers (Israeli soldiers) with assault riffles slung over their shoulders and cell phones pressed to their ears and cigarettes [...]
September 21, 2011
Here at Femamom, we’ve discussed polyamory, infidelity, monogamy, marriage and now, I’m back to divorce. Divorce being a possible outcome of the aforementioned topic favs. You are never divorced if children are involved. You are perpetually divorcing. If the spoils amount to a cat and a Kitchen Aid bought with hoarded 20 percent discount cards from [...]
June 23, 2011
Two o’clock in the morning. This is not gonna last. Hurry up sleep come on. And make it sooner than later. At least he has finally closed his eyes. Wonder what makes my precocious son want to stay up past a normal bedtime. Is it the thought that he might be missing something? It is [...]
"A thoughtful, provocative look at the not-so-pretty and the sometimes-out-there sides of parenthood."--Kristen Kemp, Baristakids.com
September 13, 2012
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