Three for Thursday

I know, I’ve been remiss in blogging over the past few days. I blame my overstuffed burrito of a schedule which, this week, has included: Kids’ soccer practices, baseball/T-ball practices and games, writing assignments, an unexpectedly unwieldy family heritage homework assignment for my second graders that requires that we exhume our ancestors in order to ask them what their favorite foods and traditions were and whether they ever sang “Yankee Doodle Dandy” while eating American cheese, an unexpected dinner with a family member from Philly, “24” (curses those evil-doers!), correcting students’ papers, the Red Sox, Mother’s Day, door-to-door solicitors that won’t take no for an answer, global warming and Sheryl “Spare a Square” Crow.

Plus I’m out of coffee. I’d venture down to my neighborhood Dunkin’ Donuts for my fix, but then I might run into that Sox fan who taunted my 5-year-old a few weeks ago because my son was wearing a Yankees hat. (Remember that guy who, a few commenters and e-mailers suggested that if I were a good parent I would’ve hunted down in the parking lot and threatened with a plastic coffee stirrer a la Jack Bauer?)

Aaannywaay . . . here are three for Thursday:

Item #1: Rotten Kids on the Playground

In honor of my foul mood today, I thought I’d mention this darkly sarcastic blog entry from Motherhood Uncensored: A mom kvetches about parents who don’t reprimand their offspring when they are ill-behaved or hurt other children while on the playground. Warning, this site has some, er, interesting artwork on its banner (i.e. – condoms) so make sure no supervisors (that includes the pediatric kind) are around when you read the entry.

Item #2: Motherhood Manifesto on a PBS Station Near You (If You’re Lucky)

I wrote about a new documentary “The Motherhood Manifesto” — which examines the status of American mothers and families when it comes to public policies, childcare and employment — for Mommy Track’d a few weeks ago, when the only way to watch it was to buy the DVD through the advocacy group Moms Rising. But now many PBS stations have signed on to air the documentary in honor of Mother’s Day. Click here to find out when and if the documentary is airing on your local PBS affiliate.

Item #3: Mother’s Day Stinks

Okay, maybe I’m still reeling from my lack of caffeine . . . no, wait a second. It’s not the lack of caffeine that’s prompting me to write those un-American words, “Mother’s Day Stinks” (I wanted to use stronger language, but I’m trying, mostly in vain, to be at least somewhat classy.) I’ve long hated Mother’s Day because of the enormous pressure it puts on the mothers, who are actively being moms to little heathen-like creatures, to treat the veteran moms like royalty. We already honor our mothers and grandmothers on their birthdays and their wedding anniversaries and work hard to pick out perfect gifts for Christmas/Hanukkah . . .

I have a column in The Book (*shameless self-promotion ahead*), “A Suburban Mom: Notes from the Asylum”) entitled, “Mother’s Day for Those Who Need It” where I gripe that the moms who need the day off the most — the ones with wee little children and who aren’t getting any sleep — are the same ones who are, right now, racing around town trying to find the right present for their mothers, mothers-in-law and grandmothers, PLUS making sure that there’s some sort of celebratory meal planned.

A friend of mine – who shall remain nameless because she fears getting excommunicated by her mother-in-law – said to me today: “Let’s call it what it is. It’s a day for People Who Used to Mother.”

That being said, of course I’ll be thrilled to see YOU Mom, at the book signing on Saturday (in Westborough, MA at Tatnuck Books). But don’t expect my house to be clean when we go back there after the event. I’ll try to have some eats available that won’t send you to the ER with food poisoning. But one thing’s for certain. There will be coffee, and, if you’re on your best behavior at the book store, perhaps a cocktail.

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