Do you want to feel better as a Mama? Sure, we all do!
Not only did I immediately begin obsessing on the pan this woman uses to cook lunch (a takoyaki pan), I also knew my friend Paige would notice it as well; we shared a few DMs over it yesterday.
Now: “giant ants with top-hats dancing around” – this is very funny, but also NSFW (language, sexuality). I like the whole clip, but the minutes after 6:20 are dear to my heart:
On a more serious note, I just finished Rachel Simmons’ new book, The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence. I highly reccommend it – especially for parents of girls, especially for Mamas, and especially for women. Although it doesn’t escape me that the many, many men who are (and choose to remain) clueless regarding the myth of female perfectionism are part of the very problem that plauges American women and girls today. Women who choose to act outside this trope and speak out about their real feelings can help educate the men in their life.
This week I also finished Lenore Skenazy’s work, Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry. This is an easy, fun read, and precisely relevant to my family and so many families I know. Her website a wonderful place to spend time if one is ready to give up the default paranoia / parental perfection trip we mid- to upper-class Americans have tied ourselves in knots over. My children have experienced a higher quality of life in direct relation to the Free-Range Kids movement (which isn’t so much “new” as the way things used to be – but not in my lifetime).
Finally, I also spent a late night flipping through, looking at the pictures in, and reading Sheila Kitzinger’s Homebirth. Even though my baby-birthing days are behind me, I beileve birth is so very important and we have an opportunity to experience far more healthy births (and healthy deaths – but that’s the subject of a different post). Remember if we are lucky we will one day help our children usher our grandchildren into this world. Keep birth in your heart.
It is now my goal to find an electric takoyaki pan (since we do not have a gas range). Living near Vancouver means it ought to be pretty easy – a search has already given me a few places to try). Andrew and I both commented on the pan immediately after watching the video – great for little lunches for little bellies.
Loved Kitzinger – while I had all 3 of my babies at hospitals, her worldview informed how I approached my pregnancies and the caregivers I chose. And of course I love Lenore Skenazy!!!!
Thank you, ladies, for your comments!
Kate, I am not ready to buy ANY new kitchen stuff until I have a house, but that pan will be in the back of my mind.
Leah, I also love Kitzinger – her books feel wonderful to read.