Infrequent musings of a meandering mind

Christmas took on a new meaning when my daughter was born in October 2015. Aside from rediscovering the magic of Christmas through the overwhelming love poured out for my Eliana, being on maternity leave and having the time available, I decided to do something to commemorate our first Christmas as a family of three. We opted to buy biggish baubles, some ribbon, paint and glitter glue and made personalised Christmas baubles, with El's one bearing the imprint of her tiny foot. When Christmas rolled around again the next year, I just happened to see a post for making an ornament that doubled as a craft and keep sake and so El's hand- and footprints were again used to create something festive. This year when the Christmas spirit started stirring inside, I opted to look for toddler friendly crafts so that my little one could participate a little more actively. The results from the first year of this tradition I searched through a few ideas and eventually settled on Tin Fo

You make posts on your own page like a normal person. Then when the subject pertains to parenting, you become an opinionated, ready-to-fight-over-anything sanctimommy... In my experience, Mommy Groups seem to bring out some rather extreme characters. To be fair, I suppose the same could be said for other types of Facebook groups. But either way, it almost seems like normal rules of conduct and courtesy cease to apply for many users. When browsing through the discussion threads on a mommy group, the things you read might not seem too odd. Until you start to think about how similar types of posts and comments would look out of the safe haven of the mommy realm and posted out in the open for all to see.  So here are a few examples of common issues and observations from the mommy group realm, but related to more everyday things. Take from this what you will; whether it is a knowing chuckle (or face palm), the horror that accompanies the realisation of your own poor or outlandish

Note: this is not a real post... at least, that's what I hope!  "OMG! Some people just should not be allowed to have children! Just saw this mom walking with her child (who was on a leash!) on the road, the child wasn't steady on her feet, the mother wasn't even paying attention to the kid, was looking at her cell phone! When we tried to drive past them, the child fell down! What if we'd been closer when we passed and she'd been hurt?! SMH. Makes me so mad! 😠😠😠" Imagine that you read this as a post on Facebook. What would you think of the parent being described? Would you join in the head shaking (and fist raising)? Would you share another incident you had witnessed of a parent falling short of your expectations to the thread? How much judgement and condemnation can one post describing a few witnessed seconds of another person's life garner? If the manner in which I often see social media used, particularly by "perfect beings" is an

The working mom gig can be an exercise in disappointment. The disappointment apparent when your 18 month old cries when you leave for work in the morning. The disappointment when you hear that your angel reached yet another milestone that you were not present for. The added disappointment when she refuses to show you her new trick(s). Add to that being a part time student and life becomes a whole lot more stressful. But I accepted this path and I might as well enjoy taking my steps forward, my steps backward, and dance my cha cha as best I can. I generally try to make the most out of my time with my daughter. I avoid doing other tasks when I have time with her. Unfortunately that is not always possible because there are only so many hours in a day and there are always chores that need doing. Eliana forcibly pushing me away from the kitchen sink when I try to do the dishes instead of playing the goofball with her is another factor to stop me from diverting my attention too far away. B

As if being a parent were not already fraught with enough pressure and judgement, the social media element just adds to the expectations which are already placed on the reproducing populace. I recall seeing the sanctimommy posts and various [insert random commentary on parenting] articles before I even fell pregnant. Since the expecting stage and now more than a year into the parenting stage, I encounter more and more parenting related posts on my social media newsfeed. This is in part due to the fact that I am involved in more parenting groups and have more friends that are parents, but I obviously also have those super smart analytic algorithms to thank for the fact that my internet page visits and searches get fed into Facebook to allow them to tailor content according to my interests.  Source So as opposed to just trying to be the best parent you can be for your child, you are now subjected to an unending list of standards to obtain (and maintain) and boxes to check in o