410th Friday Blog Roundup
This New Yorker article is, hands down, the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time. I say that even though I’m supposed to be offended… I think. At least, I’ve been told that I should be offended. It takes all the ridiculous of the Mommy Wars, the mother pandering, and mom-focused advertising and rolls it into one neat parody.
Are you a mom? No? Then you don’t need to read one more word. Go on, shoo! I’m not trying to be mean; it’s just that you probably won’t understand a lot of what I’m going to say. It’s a mom thing. If you’re a mom, you know what I’m talking about. Right, moms? Go, us!
I’m not saying that moms are better than other people, but there is, well, something different, something special about us.
That Jenny Allen is a funny lady. Part of me wants to print this out and tape it to the inside of the kitchen cabinets so I can crack myself up as I’m cooking. Thank you, Jenny — seriously, this made my day.
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Rosh HaShanah — the Jewish New Year — starts this weekend. It kicks off a string of big deal holidays — Yom Kippur, Succot, Shemini Atzeret, Simchat Torah — that pop up one after the other all the way between now and mid-October. I am hosting a family dinner on Sunday night where I am making a whole roasted chicken, mushroom stuffing, and green beans. But for dessert, I’m making Kveller’s Apple Pecan Galette with Salted Peanut Butter Caramel. Seriously.
On Rosh HaShanah (which translates to “head of the year”), we say “shanah tovah” which means “a good year” (שנה טובה) or the longer “shana tova umehtookah” which means “a good and sweet year” (שנה טובה ומתוקה). So shanah tovah, y’all.
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And now the blogs…
But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week as well as the week before. In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:
- “Enoughness” (Stirrup Queens) — thank you, Keiko!
- “Men and Infertility” (Too Many Fish to Fry)
- “The Grandmothers I Know” (Creating Motherhood)
- “Surrogacy in the News — Written by Me” (The Smartness)
- “No Woman Came Up to Me” (The Infertility Voice)
- “Imagine” (No Kidding in NZ)
- “Why Not Me?” (A Glimpse Inside)
Okay, now my choices this week.
From the week before (but I only read it this week, so I’m counting it), Searching for Our Silver Lining has a powerful post how part of you dies during the navigation of infertility, and how she is choosing to live at this time. She writes, “One of the cruelest things about infertility is that something begins to die as you go through the process. With each passing month, with each BFN, with each round of treatment, with each and every moment of worry and fear. All of it killing you slowly and leaving you in a corpse-like state. Some call this process the ‘deathless death,’ reflecting on all the pain and grief that comes from being a victim.” Please go over and read the whole thing: it’s amazing.
Also from last week (I got caught up with reading over the weekend), The Barreness has a post about a fight with a friend. I guess I loved this post because she takes you through the whole roller coaster, all the way through the end of the ride. The friend, frustrated that she has pulled away and judging her for how she deals with infertility, needs to hear how her judgment has affected the friendship. After the explosion, they are able to come to a new place together. I thought it was an important read for anyone struggling with a friendship.
I read a bunch of moving posts on September 11th, but Stupid Stork’s story of what happened that day stuck with me long after I stepped away from the screen.
Lastly, Mojo Working has a gorgeous post about what she believes in, which illustrates the similarities behind our differences. I especially love the final thought: “If we want a better world, a better future, we are going to have to stand up and create it ourselves.”
The roundup to the Roundup: Best parody of all time. Rosh HaShanah starts this weekend. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between September 7th and September 14th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week? Read the original open thread post here.
18 comments
http://www.notalldreamsarefree.com/2012/09/forgiveness.html?m=0
Love this post written by Ali. It is so heart filled and helped me realize that forgiveness is such an important part of healing.
I am not sure what’s supposed to be offensive about that article, unless you are Michelle or Anne. Then again, we do a lot of sarcastic humour around our house.
It’s probably wrong of me to name Serenity again but she’s had a few powerful posts recently as she gets into the 2ww and starts to head towards closure on family building, one way or another.
shana tovah to you too! may you and your family have a sweet new year.
Great posts and I’m glad you included Cristy’s from last week as well.
Another kind of announcement:
http://alteredtype.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-big-announcement-and-its-not-what.html
On judgement around pursuing more treatments:
http://stillstandingmag.com/2012/09/enough-with-the-double-standard-already/
Happy holidays, Mel… a good and sweet year to you! Thanks for everything you do.
Shana tovah!
I thought that article was funny too. If you’re oversensitive enough to take offense at that article, where is your outrage on behalf of the women without children who were subjected to the Mom-heavy speeches from the wives of the candidates? Yoyo Mama did a nice compare/contrast analysis on this…
http://knockuout.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/my-brain-is-a-nice-place-to-visit-but-i-wouldnt-want-to-live-there/
I have to be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the New Yorker piece. I saw it as satire, & some of it did give me a chuckle — but you just KNOW that some people actually believe & say some of the things she wrote about both moms & non moms (or pretty darned close to it). 🙁
Loribeth —
They do, and I think she was mocking them (the people who hold those thoughts) as much as the ideas themselves.
WOAH. Ms Mel, I am honored. A shana tovah smoooooch to you.
This week I really loved this post –
http://theadventuresofaninfertilemyrtle.blogspot.com/2012/09/infertility-makes-me-dot-dot-dot.html
It’s about the prompt “infertility makes me –” and how that changes from day to day.
Oh! And this one had my fur up long after I was done reading:
https://www.stirrup-queens.com/2012/09/when-romney-said-your-adopted-daughter/
Bwahahahaha! That article is hilarious. Thanks for that 🙂
“It’s a mom thing. If you’re a mom, you know what I’m talking about. Right, moms? Go, us!”
If only I knew how to insert a GIF of Arsenio Hall giving the side-eye right here.
One that really hit home today was a post from Nicole at All Grown Up, where she gives us some insight into what reconciling open adoption means for her, her daughter and her daughter’s birth family. Very touching.
http://allgrownuptoo.blogspot.ca/2012/09/post-adoption-blues.html
So many great posts in the last day or so.
First, I think we should all be reading Nuts in May, ALL THE TIME, but for now, this post will have to be a good primer: http://nutsinmay.wordpress.com/2012/09/15/if-you-fool-with-the-snark-you-will-end-up-in-full-tirade/
And this just shows, yet again, how Elizabeth from Snips and Snails is the most amazing, resilient woman I know:
http://snips-snails-puppydogtales.blogspot.com/2012/09/everythings-changed-yet-nothings-changed.html
And finally I just really loved this post by Luna at Life from here:
http://lifefromhere.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/reliving-it/
Thanks for putting these together for all of us.
I know the New Yorker article is supposed to be funny. But for some of us, it is just way too close to home. It’s not that humorous if that’s what we live with. I mean, jokes about women keeping their place aren’t exactly funny to women who are keeping their place or have been told to keep their place, even if the intention of the joke is to throw up the ridiculousness of the statement. (Insert racist/sexist/disabled etc in place of women or childless). I know her intentions were in the right place. I just couldn’t laugh at it.
Anyway, that said, I wanted to say the Nuts in May post Esperanza recommended above was brilliant. I wouldn’t have seen it but for the Round-up and its second helpings, so thanks!
This is the most interesting thing about the Allen piece. I was told by parenting bloggers that I should be offended but the piece rubbed raw people who weren’t being roasted too. One humour piece and so many reactions to it.
I meant to credit Pamela’s post here – http://blog.silentsorority.com/2012/09/13/lets-play-diagnose-that-mom-neurosis.aspx – on the same article you highlighted. Worth reading for a different perspective.
I loved this post by Tami interpreting the EmHart photo challenge prompt of “blue,” especially the analogy at the end comparing the emotions of a once-outdoor-, now-indoor-only kitty to her own feelings:
http://submerged.blogspot.ch/2012/09/cycle-19-cd-13.html
I appreciated the snark because I’m like that – I like well written snark.
What bothered me is that we still can’t have a real discussion about the relative worth of women apart from their uterine production.