Morning News: Public Schools? Hannah Montana? Michelle O’s Big Decisions
Michelle Obama should really rethink the dog. Like millions of other moms, she’ll be the one that has to take care of it. And where’s she going to find the time for that? She’s got to find a school for the girls, get to know the new hometown, Washington, D.C., say good-bye to Chicago and move.
Not only that, she has to figure out how to let them appear on Hannah Montana while also keeping them grounded. And weigh the pros and cons of sending the girls to public — yes, we said public! — schools in D.C.
Let’s take this one at a time:
Lafayette Elementary School in Northwest Washington, D.C., got a very interesting phone call a couple of days ago. The unidentified caller wanted to know whether her two children could attend even if they lived outside the school boundaries. The caller gave 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. as the home address. Was this Michelle? Are they seriously thinking public? Or is this another one of those “Sarkozy here on the line” calls?
Michelle’s decision will no doubt be difficult, but we highly doubt the girls will be wait-listed. There’s a bit of a scramble to land the president-elect’s kids.
Our unsolicited advice to Michelle: do not accept Billy Ray Cyrus’ invitation for Sasha and Malia to appear on “Hannah Montana.” We know, we know, it’s Malia’s fave! Keep them in the bubble as long as you can!
Feel like you’ve lost touch with “That One”/”The One” ever since election results came in. Fear not. The first Internet elected president now has a website. Sign up for alerts and frequent updates. Watch weekly YouTube fireside-ish chats. You’ll even get to comment on pending legislation!
Onto the president-elect: Barack Obama is coaxing Patti Solis Doyle to take a cabinet secretary post. Recall, Solis Doyle was the campaign manager for Hillary Clinton who pretty much took the fall for the candidates faltering campaign and resigned mid-primary season. Mom note: she’s worried about being away from her two young children (take the job, Patti, take the job!).
Parenting crutch of millions, Starbucks, saw it’s 4Q profits plunge a whopping 97 percent (is that not astounding?).
A British study concludes that women with a history of mental illness are more at risk for having stillborn babies. Like mentally ill women and/or women who had stillbirths need that shit?
Something that should appeal to the hidden germophobe in all of us parents: grocery stores are trying out a new way to keep you from feeling disgusted when your child starts chewing on the cart. They’re sending each one through a disinfecting wash. Seriously, how did any of us survive childhood?
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I wouldn’t be surprised if the public school thing were for real, considering that Obama is a big supporter of public schools (though the girls go to private school in Chicago!). This would be a way to make good with the teachers’ unions. And, assuming that the school is good, an easy thing to point to and say, “I practice what I preach” without sacrificing his girls’ education.
When I read such things as the cart disinfectant, i can never decide if I should feel holier-than-thou since I ignore that sort of thing (I made it out of childhood fine!), or guilty, since I’m one of those moms who walks right by the disinfectant wipes that the grocery store actually provides with which to wipe the cart. (I also let my older son sit in the big basket of the cart, which has pictures clearly warning me NOT TO DO!).
Oh good, now the grocery carts will only have super bugs resistant to antibiotics.
A British study concludes that women with a history of mental illness are more at risk for having stillborn babies. Like mentally ill women and/or women who had stillbirths need that shit?
Isn’t this only an issue because we live in a country where we falsely believe that if you eat the right magic foods and do the right magic things, you’ll be HEALTHY FOREVER – and that, therefore, all people with an illness are to be blamed? I hate all the pathologizing of illness in this country – sick people are more and more treated as being at fault instead of being just, you know, sick, and needing help.
To me, nothing is wrong with – and, in fact it’s good to have – science where we find out things like this (if it does indeed hold up, which I doubt) – because if you are at higher risk for stillbirth or complications, it’s good for your doctor to know, right? Because then he or she can help you avoid those things, or perhaps make a different decision about how you come to be a parent (adoption, surrogacy) – whatever makes the most sense to you.
We need to stop blaming people for their illnesses. It’s hard enough to deal with a f-ing chronic disease (I’ve got two) without being hit over the head all the time that you’re somehow to blame for it. Illnesses that affect the brain are no different.
Major mistake to subject them to the Cyrus machine. Billy Ray doesn’t know the meaning of overexposure.
A grocery cart disinfectant wash? Next thing you know they’re going to tell me that I shouldn’t have ridden my bike behind the town’s mosquito fogger on boring summer days.