Strollerderby : Juno

Juno Goes to Washington? Congress' First Unwed Mom

JeanneSager — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:33:00 GMT

She'll be the eighth woman serving in Congress to give birth while in office, but Rep. Linda Sanchez is the first-ever "unwed mom" to serve her country. But the representative who's already made history books as part of the House's first sister act (serving alongside sister Loretta) isn't doing the walk of shame. The California Democrat told the Los Angeles Times this pregnancy was not only welcomed but planned.

Sanchez and boyfriend Jim Sullivan, a government affairs consultant are "unofficially engaged," and buying a house together. But she's made it clear there won't be any shotgun wedding just to please the populace. Both are from big families, and they'd like to have a grand affair with everyone involved. That, Sanchez said, will take significant planning for which she just doesn't have time. We'd imagine she's a little busy right now; perhaps with Congress getting ready to work with a new president and navigate an economic catastrophe?

Add a pregnancy to the mix, and her body will be working overtime from here on out. The divorced mom-to-be contemplated getting pregnant on her own last year, before she started dating "Sully." When she went for a recent OB/GYN exam, the doctors told the thirty-nine year old it was now or never. So she and Sullivan (a divorced father of three) started trying the old-fashioned way. She pulled out the basal thermometer, started keeping track of temperatures and times of the month and made sure the long-distance relationship - she's in Washington, after all, while Sullivan's from Connecticut - didn't control conception. She's due May 21.

So what does this mean for America? Are we looking at Juno storming Capitol Hill? Sanchez says she's prepared for what may come. "I'm not a high school kid, it wasn't an accident, I'm financially stable, in a committed relationship," she told the Washington Post. "All the reasons for worrying about bringing a child into the world don't exist here."

In other words, she's not Juno MacGuff, and she never will be. She's a career woman with a good head on her shoulders, a partner to help her every step of the way and an overwhelming desire to be a mom. She's got the same chance to being a good parent as most of us. Does it really matter what her job is?

Image: Washington Post

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Update: Wife of Mom Kicked Out of PTA for Prop 8 Stance Speaks Out

7 Awesome Halloween Costumes for Pregnant Chicks

Jen Chaney — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:29:00 GMT

So I was innocently clicking around the 'ol Interweb when I came across this gallery of Best Pregnant Halloween Costumes over at parents.com. I clicked on it and found picture after picture of bare, swollen bellies dolled up in costume. A couple of them (see photos 3 and 4) made me smile. The rest (see photos 2, 6, 9, 10 -- wow, seriously, 10 -- and several others) were vaguely disturbing. I thought, "Man, there must be some cool Halloween costumes that don't require women to walk around with American flags scrawled across their massive, naked stomachs."

So I thought some more. And I came up with seven costume ideas for the knocked-up set. That's okay. You can thank me later.

Go as Juno: Throw on a striped maternity shirt, a gray hooded sweatshirt, a skirt and a pair of jeans, then carry a slushie in your hand and -- voila! -- you are Juno MacGuff. If you can convince your significant other to don a track outfit and be Paulie Bleeker, all the better. Just don't forget to spend Halloween repeatedly saying, "Honest to blog."

Go as a Baby on Board sign: One of the photos in that parents.com gallery plays with this idea. But you can do the same thing without painting your belly yellow. Wear a black turtleneck and a pair of black pants, then make a diamond-shaped sandwich board that says "Baby on Board" and hang it over your shoulders. You're done. A friend of mine did this when I threw an '80s-themed Halloween party a few years ago, and it looked almost as awesome as the "99 Red Balloons" costume.

Go as Bristol Palin: This only works if you can convince a spouse, girlfriend, significant other or friend to accompany you in full-on Sarah Palin regalia. Otherwise, you'll just look like a pregnant pseudo-teen wearing a nice dress.

Go as an oven: This requires a bit of artsy-craftiness. Take a cardboard box and decorate it to look like an oven, one that fits around your middle. (Don't forget the arm and leg holes.) The window of the oven should center around your pregnant belly, to which you should tape a picture of a loaf of bread rising as it bakes. That's right: You've got a bun in the oven. Laugh it up, people, I'm here all week!

Go as Angelina Jolie, Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani or pretty much any well-known celebrity who is or has been pregnant. What, you honestly need my help with this? Nah, you can figure out these costumes for yourself. (Bonus points to anyone who goes as Jolie and brings a posse of children with her.)

Go as Murphy Brown: Remember when Candice Bergen's newswoman became a single, pregnant woman, sending shockwaves throughout conservative America? Why not revisit those halcyon days from the early '90s by becoming Murphy and, what the heck, talking your husband into dressing up as a shocked and appalled Dan Quayle?

Go as Barefoot and Pregnant: This is the ideal costume for the pregnant woman with absolutely no spare time. Show up at a Halloween party, slip off your shoes and you're all set. Hey, don't say I never saved you time.

Image: Fox Searchlight

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Would You Dress Your Kid as Ledger's Joker for Halloween?

Dress Up Your Kids - Win Big Prizes!

Teen Pregnancies on the Decline

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 19:44:00 GMT

With reports of a teen pregnancy pact in a Gloucester high school dominating the news, you may be surprised to learn that the teen pregnancy rate in the U.S. is the lowest it’s been in 30 years. The number of pregnancies among women aged 15-19 dropped to 72 per 1,000 teens in 2004, down from a high of 117 per 1,000 teens in 1990. The abortion rate has also declined in the last three decades.

But this positive trend may be reversing. In 2006, the number of live births among teen girls rose 3 percent—a sharp change from the downhill trend of previous years. It remains to be seen whether 2006 was just a particularly, uh, fertile year, or whether this is the sign of a larger problem. Some blame pop culture icons—such as Jamie Lyn Spears and Juno—for adding a “coolness” factor to teen pregnancy.

Despite the comparatively low teen pregnancy rate in the early part of the century, the U.S. still has the highest teen pregnancy rate of developed nations. And one thing is clear: abstinence-only sex education is not the solution. Several studies have found that those enrolled in abstinence-only programs are no more likely than those enrolled in comprehensive sex ed. to delay sex or use contraception. Hmm, any other ideas?

Photo: America's Promise

Two baby movies are number one

Brett Singer — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Two baby-themed flicks were number one this week in two different categories: Baby Mama in theaters, and Juno on DVD.

Here are the trailers from both films. I think Baby Mama looks funnier. (Haven't seen either one, however.)

So is this a trend? Are we headed for another baby boom, or just a baby-movie boom? Hollywood loves to follow the crowd, right?

More likely this is a result of the fact that Tiny Fey and Amy Poehler are funny and that Juno won an Oscar. Then again, who knows? Is there baby movie magic in the air?

images: imdb.com

Best of FameCrawler: Week of April 4

Whit Honea — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Kate Hudson Is a Strict Mom

Video of Celebrity Babies with Secret Super Nanny: The FameCrawler April Fools

Robin Williams and His New "Nanny"

Katie Holmes' New Haircut: Fug, Or Just Sorta Fug?

Courteney Cox Wants Another Child

Jamie Lynn Spears in Hustler!

Future Mother Of George Clooney's Children Skanks It Up

Piping Hot: Giada De Laurentiis Has a Baby Girl

Suri Sighting! Suri Sighting!

The Bonham-Carter-Burtons Talk a Walk With Baby

Strollerderby Playdate: Mommyblogging, Kicking Ass, and Taking Names

Amy Kuras — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 20:10:00 GMT

People who loooovvveee to bitch about "mommybloggers" tend to complain about the lack of substance in your average parenting blog; that any intelligence or insight about other matters goes right out along with the placenta and suddenly we only write about poop.

And while that certainly holds a grain of truth, the parent blogs I read capture the experience of parenting with such depth and beauty that I'm drawn to them again and again.

Then, there are those that use their parenting to inform their view of the world and are not shy about being outspoken about such. Motherhood sure didn’t stunt their brains, and they are all the more ready to take on the world because of it.

So this week my Dream Playdate is Uppercase Woman (formerly known among we infertile bloggers as Wasted Birth Control). Cecily's smart, funny, loud, liberal, and not afraid to stir shit up. This week alone she's written about the Barbie/princess dilemma with her toddler daughter as well as midseason TV and, in post that drew a whopping 67 knock-down drag-out comments, the lighthearted treatment of adoption in "Juno." The current post is about Cecily's experience with pre-eclampsia, which took the lives of her twin sons and nearly killed her as well.

I might not always agree with her, but if you enjoy chat about deeper topics than teething and diaper rash during a playdate, this one's worth a read.

Why Are Abortion Rates at their Lowest in 30 Years?

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:56:00 GMT

You can't shake a stick these days without hitting a movie about the trials, travails, and sweet happy endings of unplanned pregnancy (Juno and Waitress, anyone?). Or perhaps, as theorized over at Scanner, the celebrity baby boom is having an impact on the rest of the country?

By unwittingly romancing the impact of unplanned pregnancy, are we lowering the likelihood that a woman will exercise her right to choose?

According to the study, authored by Guttmacher Institute, the abortion rate for 2005 was 19.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 compared to 21.3 abortions per 1,000 women in 2000.

While many folks herald these findings as indicative of the power of pro-life advocacy, it is arguably equally the result of more restrictive parental consent laws and fewer places for women to get abortions.

Whatever the case, it is quite interesting that the cultural celebration of unplanned pregnancy appears to be at an all-time high. What that means for our daughters remains to be seen...

Everything I Need to Know About Pregnancy, I Learned from the Movies

editors — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:00:00 GMT

A pregnancy test is not an etch-a-sketch. This is one doodle that can't be un-did, homeskillet. See: Juno

Pregnancy instantly propels the father-to-be into a mid-life crisis. Luckily, women never panic about being pregnant. Women love babies! See: She’s Having a Baby, Nine Months

During your pregnancy, dreams are unusually vivid and strange. Especially when the father is a giant mutated insect. See: David Cronenberg’s The Fly

If you’re not sure who the father is, tell everyone you’ve ever slept with it’s theirs. Babysitters for life! See: Three Men and a Baby

Be sure to get adequate prenatal care, on the off-chance you’re carrying the spawn of Satan. See: Rosemary’s Baby, Village of the Damned, It’s Alive

There's more — read the rest of The Hollywood Guide to Pregnancy over at The Screengrab! — Gwynne Watkins

Pregnancy Movies Make a Larger Point

Amy Kuras — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:35:00 GMT

I didn’t realize it until I saw this Dallas Morning News article by Chris Vognar, but the recently released Juno is the third in a trifecta of wide-release movies about women who face an unplanned pregnancy and choose to carry the pregnancy to term – and in the case of the adult women, raise the baby, while the teen featured in Juno places her child for adoption.

The only one I saw of the three was Knocked Up – the other one is Waitress – which was a big swollen bellyful of disappointing. I've got a pretty low bar for crude humor (I wanted to see Knocked Up in the first place because The 40 Year-Old Virgin makes me laugh like an idiot every time) but this was just too much crude and not enough witty.I'm looking forward to seeing Juno, though, since I'm a sucker for anything about smart, snarky, goofy teenage girls.

But I thought the point Vognar made was interesting – that while no one would call any of these "family movies" in the traditional, treacly sense, they are all life-affirming, in all life's messy, imperfect glory. And that's not to say they follow some pro-life political script. The "family values" crowd would likely find all three of these movies horrendously offensive for their irreverence.

But they do celebrate the kinds of weird families we form when we find ourselves in a tough spot and need help finding our way out, and the ways in which becoming parents changes us. A man-child grows up, a woman leaves a crappy husband, and a young girl through an act of courage and generosity gives a couple the baby they long for. These movies all feature people trying to make the best of a tough situation and find some meaning, and that I can’t argue with.