Blog Posts by Mommy Tracked

by Kristy Campbell (Saving One Teen at a Time)

My girlfriend sent me a message on Facebook: "I can't believe you let Katie get a tattoo!" My friend has small kids all under the age of 10, so I understood her shock. My reply was simple: I didn't let her. I didn't even approve…but I did support her. Rules change when your kids turn 18.

My daughter has wanted a tattoo for her 18th birthday for years. She used to talk about what she would get, where she would put it, and I always ignored her. I don't like tattoos. From my midlife perspective, I don't see the need for ink. And if anything, I've heard too many stories of job applicants losing jobs or teachers with tramp stamps peeking out of their clothing at back-to-school nights, and the overall image that tattoos send to me isn't a positive one.

As my daughter's 18th birthday month approached and the tattoo talk gained steam, we sat down to discuss it. Much like when she wanted her belly button pierced, we had a conversation

by Leslie Morgan Steiner (Two Cents on Working Motherhood)

Most of us have heard educators' maxim that kids lose one to three months of academic learning during summer vacation. But in contrast to this "summer learning loss," moms know another dirty little secret about summer: kids pick up a whole different education during summer, gleaned from new friends at camp, older cousins, those nights around the campfire during your cross country RV trip. Witness the August 23 "Mad Men" episode when Don and Betty Draper's 10-year-old daughter Sally gets caught masturbating at a girls' slumber party. The hot topics are as timeless as s'mores: sex, drugs, divorce, alcohol, and what did Tiger Woods do with all those women anyway?

So today's topic: how do you answer the tough questions kids come home with at summer's end?

New York psychologist Dr. Debbie Magids gave smart, no-nonsense advice recently:

+ Be honest

+ Answer with brief, age-appropriate, accurate information

+

by Stefanie Wilder-Taylor (Make Mine a Double)

My sister-in-law just had a baby and she had four hours of labor, pushed for one hour (with seven minutes between contractions so she could rest) while talking to her doctor and holding her husband's hand, and her beautiful baby boy slid out like a tiny miracle.

Everything was perfect.

I've had two c-sections.

Until the other day, I didn't think I was missing out on anything. But to hear her talk about what an amazing experience it was left me wondering if I'd gotten the short end of the child birth stick.

"It was the most natural experience of my entire life," my sister-in-law gushed when I entered her hospital room. She was flying high, by the way, and her mood wasn't due to morphine like mine was when I was wheeled out of recovery trailing my catheter tubes behind me.

"It's like, now I understand what our bodies are made for. It all makes perfect sense," she said tearing up at the realization.

It's not like I

by Vicki Larson

About once a week or so, a coworker and I walk the loop near our office at lunch hour. We chat about the usual things - our kids, our partners, what we're reading - as we make our way past the wild turkeys and deer, and munching on sun-kissed blackberries when they're in season. But sometimes we talk about work.

As many conversations go about work, it's not always pretty.

In a world that considers gossip as entertainment - maybe even news - our observations on the personalities and quirks of our bosses and co-workers, and company shenanigans are rather tame. Nothing is ever TMZ- or Perez Hilton-worthy, but we can dish with the best of them.

Is that wrong?

Some recent studies coming out of Indiana University - which may be having a little gossip issue of its own - suggest it might be.

For two years, sociologists from the university followed the conversations of a Midwest middle school's teachers after there was a change in administrators. Not

by Leslie Morgan Steiner (Two Cents on Working Motherhood)
My children are 13, 11 and 8. In other words, practically grown-ups. Finding daycare, nannies, and babysitters is a distant memory. Actually, more like a nightmare. Wait lists, reference checks, interviews, worries about missing pick-up or a nanny calling in sick on the day of an important business trip, these stresses all lodge blessedly in my parenting past.

Hiring and managing childcare providers was one of the only aspects of parenting young children that I truly, consistently despised. It was an important factor in deciding not to have a fourth child. It was a source of near-constant marital friction.

And not because childcare is so expensive - although it is. National childcare finder Care.com estimates that over 15% of families' household budgets are spent on daycare and babysitters; and 50% of the total childcare expense comes in summer, when school is out and it's harder to find consistent, temporary childcare.

by Meredith O'Brien (Moms in Pop Culture & Politics)

During the same week when U.S. women celebrated the 90th anniversary of their right to vote, my daughter turned 12. While I looked at her, I wondered, "Where do American women stand as she herself stands on the precipice of her teenage years?"

According to American University's Women & Politics Institute, things aren't so grand in the political realm. The Institute reported that that American women rank 85th "in percentage of women serving in the national legislature." Also: "When the 111th Congress convened in January 2009, 83 percent of its members were men. Three-quarters of statewide elected officials and state legislators are men. Men occupy the governor's mansion in 44 of the 50 states, and they run City Hall in 89 of the 100 largest cities across the country." Currently, Rutgers' Center for American Women and Politics says that women comprise only 16.8 percent of Congressional seats.

These numbers, frankly, depress

by Stefanie Wilder-Taylor (Make Mine a Double)

When I quit drinking I swore I wasn't going to become one of those people who accuse everyone who ever has a sip of wine of being an alcoholic. First off, there are plenty of people who drink a lot -even daily -multiple servings -but don't have a drinking problem; my husband for one. He enjoys a beer or glass of sake or two almost every night but never more than that and he doesn't "accidentally" get drunk like some other people used to do (me). In fact, I've only seen him drunk once. It was many years ago at a gay bar in NYC where we were hanging out with friends and didn't have to drive. Drunk Jon was actually pretty adorable -just sort of silly and slightly slurry but nothing crazy or unpleasant. And he didn't hit on anybody. Let's just say he was no Ronnie from Jersey Shore.

I think this sort of lack of alcoholic tendency is one of the main reasons that my husband will never have his own reality show because from what I've seen,

by Risa Green (Tales from the Mommy Track)

My new book, The Secret Society of the Pink Crystal Ball, comes out this week (yay!), and I've been spending every free second I have (which has totaled about seven over the course of the last month) trying to promote it. But it's a tricky thing, trying to promote a book that's aimed at twelve and thirteen year-old girls. So, early in the summer, I sat down with a few of them and tried to pick their mysterious tween brains to figure out how best to market it. I asked them, so how do you find out about books? School, they said. School how, I asked. Teachers. Friends. Hmmm, I thought. That's so very helpful. (Not). What about Facebook? I wanted to know. Not on it, they told me. What about websites? I asked. Not so much, they explained. What about bookstores? Sometimes, they offered. But then one of them broke the 'I'm sworn to giving one-word answers' oath that the tween fairy must make them all take the day that they turn eleven. (Repeat