Strollerderby : Suburban Turmoil

Strollerderby Playdate: Unfortunate Meetings

Jessica Ashley (Sassafrass) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 10:54:00 GMT

And so it goes. You're having a perfectly pleasant afternoon at the park, passing just enough time until husband/wife/partner/babysitter/grandma/landlord comes home and officially takes over sticky granola bar scraping duty, happy that your child's not the one with the snot-gushing nose/sand-throwing problem/scab obsession for once, delighted that you're both refreshed after a real nap/lunch/marathon Dragon Tales session, with enough silence and shade to glance down occasionally at your latest semi-trashy mommy lit/somewhat kinky Cookie magazine/devilishly dirty Ikea catalog, when it happens. Annoying Dad and Clingy Kid slope in through the gate and slide right up next to you in the sand pit. They don't have their own toys/juice boxes/self-contained conversations. One accidental moment of eye contact and you're their new park buddies.

You can choose to evacuate nevermore to return to this particular park, possibly neighborhood/suck it up, put down the guilty pleasure reading and play nice/pretend you can't hear him over the roar of your kid's dump truck sounds. Whatever you do, you're doomed by this interruption, this collision in the midst of Zen parenting. At least you're not alone/kooky/being mocked by other mommies hiding behind trees in the park to avoid Annoying Dad. Here are some other unfortunate meetings that have recently upset the balance of goodness in the universe. Introduce yourselves:

iPhone, meet eau de toilette. And not the fancy smelling kind.

Writer, meet talent consultant, meet Martina, meet more toilette.

Kids, meet more craplastic.

Boobs, meet Facebook.

Strollerderby Playdate: Doodle Wars

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 11:31:00 GMT

The mamas of the blogosphere have returned from BlogHer a little bit funnier than usual. Something about mamas being gone has inspired children across the nation to take to their Magnadoodles, papers and crayons in a bid for anatomical independence.

Mom 101's daughter drew some serious male anatomy
Motherhood Uncensored's kid rendered a cylindrical man part (pictured right)
Suburban Turmoil's sweetie apparently wouldn't be outdone by either of her mommy's blogging friends.

If you don't want your child expressing him or herself, hide those doodle-pros away. Otherwise, heaven knows what they'll come up with next!

The Many Faces of Step-Families: Blogosphere Representin'

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 22:04:00 GMT

Poor Snow White and Cinderella suffered at the hands of wicked step-mothers, and blended family mythology has never quite recovered. But leave it to the blogosphere to fill in the gaps with the real experiences of the divorced, remarried, and step-familied. It turns out that the wicked stepmother isn't merely a character in the Brothers Grimm.

Suburban Turmoil describes the agony of withstanding the nasty first wives club, while Stepblog talks about what she learned in StepMom school. Mamacita discusses the trials and tribulations of second marriages and the likelihood of their failure especially when children are involved and Momish is concerned that her swearing may rub off on her step-daughters.

Lisa Stone, co-founder of Blogher, describes divorce and remarriage when kids are involved as having emotional "stretchmarks" and she's right. Those of us who attempt to keep our families together as they disintegrate and then reform, face a universal parenting / step-parenting challenge. Do you have any favorite blended family blogs that should be on this list?