Blog Posts by Mommyish

Every once in a while, not nearly as often as I would like, I treat myself to a pedicure. For $30, I get to sit back and relax as someone else does all the dirty work of making my feet a little less ucky. To be fair, I should say that I really dislike feet, even my own, so I spend most of the time feeling embarrassed about making someone else touch my feet. But I sit through it so that when I wear sandals or peep toes or take off my shoes at home, I don't look like a cave woman.

'Dance Moms' Is The New 'Toddlers And Tiaras'

Through all of that embarrassment, I still find the whole process to be relaxing. I look forward to my roughly bi-monthly visits to the nail salon. Sometimes, I don't even bring in my cell phone, so that no one can bug me while I'll sit there reading a random magazine and trying not to kick my technician in the face when she tickles my feet.

So this weekend, I left my husband and daughter at home and went for a little Mommy time. I plopped down in my

When I was 12 weeks pregnant with my first, I reluctantly signed up for an eight-week prenatal class. Thanks to my Ob-Gyn - one of the best in the city - I already knew the basics: avoid alcohol, load up on fruits and veggies, get enough calcium. Coffee? Not a problem, she told me, so long as it's in moderation. Alcohol? Steer clear. Folic acid? Consume religiously.

Being an information junkie, I also went online to research everything from epidurals to organic crib sheets. I bought the obvious books but was disheartened to read such old-school advice as, "Get your husband to cook dinner one night if you're feeling extra tired," or, "Go ahead, pamper yourself with a pedicure - you deserve it!" (Perhaps I would have appreciated the tips had it been oh, I don't know, 1962?!)

In Defense Of The Epidural

On day one of prenatal class, I was looking forward to meeting the other moms-to-be - cool chicks with careers and aspirations and strong feelings about impending motherhood.

When I met my husband several years ago at a renowned Toronto design firm, neither of us was looking to fall in love with a person of a different race. My background is Jamaican/Nigerian, courtesy of a mother and father, respectively, who themselves are also multi-racial. My mother is mixed with Cherokee Indian - a fact I discovered one summer when I took note of the interesting shade of burnt red her skin seemed to turn under the hot Toronto sun - and my father is a fair-skinned African man with visible freckles. My husband is Singaporean Chinese and affectionately refers to himself as "Tropical Chinese." His mother "looks" traditional Chinese and, interestingly, his father does not.

In the beginning, my then boyfriend and I never really discussed race (go figure!). You might call us naive, but neither did we discuss the "implications" of bringing multi-racial children into the world. He made some mention of us both belonging to "great civilizations" but that was the extent of

Imagine a world where every person had a therapist. A really good therapist. Would such a thing eventually render the therapist obsolete? We'd all be walking around so well-adjusted and self-aware that the idea of someone obtaining the knowledge and training to help us become well-adjusted and self-aware would seem silly. Ah, yes, a therapy-enthusiast can dream, can't she? Until that utopia is achieved, I say this: Get thee to thine therapist, and do it with your significant other. Especially if you have kids.

My husband and I have seen two different therapists, both for the same instigating reason. The first one was terrific and helpful and then we moved out of Brooklyn so it was time to find someone new. Our current therapist is a genius. We've been meeting with her on a weekly basis for a few months and the positive effects have been far-reaching. In general, I can say that setting aside time each week for the sole purpose of working on your relationship, or on a specific

You've only been a mother for about five minutes, but already you'll find yourself going up against expectations for your baby to excel and be perfect. The Apgar test is a 10-point scale that has been used to test the health of newborns immediately after birth. The test assesses a baby's heart rate, breathing, muscle tone, skin color and reflex irritability each on a two-point scale. According to msnbc, a Swedish study revealed that children score below a seven on the test "had roughly double the odds of attending a special school because of cognitive deficits or other difficulties." Way to instill worry in a newly elated post-birthing mother.

Spending Too Much On Education Can Be A Moral Failure

The findings of this Swedish report are a little tenuous, as not all children who score below a seven come to have learning disabilities. Msnbc reports:

"Telemedicine" abortions, a procedure that allows physicians to remotely supervise administration of the pregnancy-ending drug RU-486, have been deemed safe by an Iowa study. How this particular abortion procedure works is that women come in for an ultrasound before virtually receiving counseling from a doctor who then gives her the medication; there is no surgery necessary.

In the Iowa study, the participating women responded very well to the procedure with a whopping 94% saying that they felt "very satisfied" - more so than women who received face-to-face counseling. Women who opted for the telemedicine abortion were found to have had no more complications than those who had office visits in-person. However, 25% of telemedicine patients said that in retrospect, they would have preferred to have been in the same room with their doctor.

New Website Condemns Girl Scouts For 'Pro-Abortion Mindset'

While the procedure is being praised for upholding

In these modern times, marriage is becoming less and less of a prerequisite to having children. We're seeing more and more couples that choose paths that are more suited to individual relationships rather than tradition; many couples are opting for marriage post-baby, domestic partnerships, or neither at all. But regardless of what your own insistence is, some new research out of England has revealed that simply being married doesn't necessarily mean that a child will develop any better. Rather, the study highlights more nuanced factors that married couples often possess that generally are more conducive to childrearing. Nevertheless, these same factors are not exclusive to married people.

Want A Happier Marriage? Get A Job

The Guardian reports that a couple's education has proved to be a lot more influential on a child's development while a mere marriage certificate does not:

Lots of people complain about misbehaving children in public. When people think of those out-of-control, obnoxious kids running around, I'm pretty sure they are referring to toddlers. From about eighteen months to five years old (Lord, I'm hoping it ends then), children are simply unpredictable. One day, they're adorable little angels. The next day, they're dancing with the devil. Toddlers are prone to emotional outbursts and incessant energy. Really, they are not made to sit still and quiet for hours at a time.

Yet every once in a while, we try to ask them to. Sometimes, they surprise you with their control. And others they surprise you with the level of their insanity. This weekend, we had a wedding to attend out of town. My husband had to work, so I was the only parent. We were in a different state, so I couldn't really get a babysitter. And the wedding was for two people who I care about very deeply, so I didn't want to miss it. There was just no way around it. I had to play