If you’ve been to many funerals you know that emotions are raw and grief can easily tip over into hysteria. That hysteria usually takes the form of tears but it can also take the form of laughter. Fortunately or unfortunately, I’ve never walked away from a funeral without a funny story. This probably says a lot more about me than it does about any of the funerals I’ve been to. For me, something has always happened that let me get some of the energy out through laughter. I don’t think this makes me a bad person and I really don’t care if someone else thinks it does. If they do, I’m going to bet their funeral to age ratio isn’t as high as mine, but whatever. Continue reading
bbqcornnuts
108 posts
I am going to write about crazy people who aren’t directly involved in parenting but first, I have to do this one particular topic. Anyone who read my recent article on mothering.com might have seen a brief discussion of Lotus Birth in the comments section. This article will expand on this practice that taught MattMcBoy an important lesson: Never play the “I dare you to Google this” game with BBQ. My own husband won’t play that game with me. Warning: If you Google Lotus Birth images, you have only yourself to blame. There is a reason there are no images in this article. Continue reading
We’ve talked about crazy parents in some recent posts and the general trend in society in which children have become less disciplined and more annoying. It occurred to me that people without children may not have been exposed to The Cult of Attachment Parenting. Continue reading
I’m bringing this feature back by popular demand (I got one email!). That’s all it takes. Today’s focus is Mothering Magazine which you can find online at www.mothering.com. You don’t have to be a parent or aspire to be a parent to appreciate the crazy on this website. Continue reading
Last week, my niece was in town with her newborn son. I spent several hours holding him because I have a long-standing weakness for infants. It was so nice to spend some quiet time with the newest member of our family. Since I was enjoying myself, several people asked if I wanted another baby. I have just enough time to squeeze one more in if I hurry.
The answer is “No”. The truth is that I am weary of monitoring small butts. Every baby is a minimum two year commitment to diapers. Honestly, it’s probably more like three years and that doesn’t include nighttime wetting. My daughter, who I will call Bean, is 2.5 and I am finally seeing the light at the end of the diaper tunnel. I can’t go back. I won’t go back. I can’t bear the thought of an endless pile of diapers on the horizon. Continue reading
I was wondering what would annoy me enough to rouse me out of my summer funk. And lo and behold, Karen Spears Zacharia, writing for CNN, managed to do it with by whining about the farcical parenting book Go The Fuck to Sleep. She, and some of the commenters at CNN, find no humor whatsoever in a book that makes light of a daily battle for parents of small children. Continue reading
When the 1980s ended, I, like most women, thought I’d said goodbye to permanent waves forever. I grew out my final perm in 1993 and switched to a more natural look. My friends and I experimented with straightening irons and laughed at our “big eighties hair” in old pictures.
Imagine my surprise when I saw an article about perm revival in the NY Times. “It’s got to be a joke,” I thought. I did a search on Google and found many other articles about permanents. I was in shock, much like my mother must have been when flared jeans came back in style. Continue reading
Pregnancy is bizarre. There is no getting around it. I found lots of information about what to expect, but I was still surprised by a whole bunch of stuff.
Here are ten things that I did not expect:
A parenting visionary, Adam Mansbach, has written a book that I will be buying the moment it’s released. I’m giving it as a gift to all the parents I know. Why?
The name of the book is “Go the F**k to Sleep.” Yes, you read that correctly. Continue reading
A few months ago, I had a brief lack of oxygen to the brain and began attending a Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) group. MOPS is a place for moms with really young children to gather and support one another. The children go to a care group while the moms socialize and meet. I started going because I need more mom friends (my childless friends can only tolerate me to a certain point). I was initially reluctant to attend one of these groups because they are held in churches and sometimes churches make me break out in a rash.
Initially, things went pretty well. There is a brunch at every meeting and some darned good coffee. The meeting is about 3 hours so that’s 3 hours of exclusively adult time every other week. I thought this might help me feel less like a hermit.