Mommy Blog Lines: Tal(k)ing Care

By Adam Christianson I’ve been watching a lot of Netflix lately. They just put up all ten seasons of Friends, so my every waking minute not dedicated to school, I’ve been reacquainting myself with one of my all-time favorite sitcoms. Remember that episode of friends with “the list”? Ross learns that Rachel is in love with him so he makes a chart with the guys comparing Rachel’s flaws to those of his current girlfriend, Julie. Remember when she found the list and read over all the flaws? It just devastated her. “Imagine the worst things you think about yourself. Now, how would you feel if the one person that you trusted the most in the world not only thinks them too, but actually uses them as reasons not to be with you.” I thought a lot about this clip when I was reading a 2008 babble post by Keri Fisher where she discusses how parents often have and in fact blog about their favourite child(ren). What happens when you blog about your favourite child? What happens when you blog abo...

The controversial “dead kid bowl” ad played during this year’s Super Bowl raises some controversies about parents and anxiety for their children’s safety and well-being. Becoming a parent you dawn the mantle of having to make good choices, within reason, to ensure that children are safe and even happy. But accidents can happen on a dime. Media images that warn parents what can happen and that define accidents as preventable situations are probably not much help to anyone. Uninvolved parents will ignore the images or ads, whereas parents who are already prone to worry will hone in on the details, as if the worst case scenarios confirm their worst fears. Hovering parents will simply hover more, and probably cause agitation rather than a sense of security in their kids. I’m a parent prone to over worrying and keeping my children on a short leash with a story. When my girls were young, and the youngest only 3 years old, we went to a pool party lunch at my friend’s house. My youngest da...