Thursday, September 22, 2011

Today's mail

There is absolutely NOTHING that can make you feel more inadequate as a parent than an issue of "Working Mom" magazine. It came today, and always has stories like this:

"In this issue we feature Suzy Oveur-Cheever. Suzy spends time at home raising her 2 lovely daughters, is active on her school board, and helps deliver meals to poor families. In addition she's developed a new technique for DNA recombination that led to a breakthrough for cancer and is helping to excavate a 2000 year old shipwreck in the Red Sea. Last week she was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and will be taking her daughters to Oslo next year to pick up her Nobel Prize after solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In this issue she'll be sharing her recipe for brownies and showing us her homemade Halloween decorations."

26 comments:

OldSquid said...

Going home and hugging my son or getting a good belly laugh out of him is all I need.

Haven said...

There's way too much pressure to consider being a parent for me.

Silliyak said...

The secret's in the brownies.

Anonymous said...

Soon Suzy will have her downfall when photos from her Hustler spread (literally) appear all over the internet.

Anonymous said...

If I have learned anything in life from Martha Stewart, it is that you cannot be everything to everyone...there is always something that suffers. If you have ever seen/heard her daughter, you know that her family is what suffered.

Anonymous said...

you read this kind of magazine too?

hyperCRYPTICal said...

It is the brownies! Nothing else realy matters!

Anna :o]

Packer said...

There is absolutely NOTHING that can make you feel more inadequate as a parent than an issue of "Working Mom" magazine

Bull and it goes like this:

2AM, ring ring, Mr. Packer this is hometown Police Dept can you come down and pick up your 14 year old son....

Now don't go asking me how I know this can make you feel worse than any article.

Suzanne said...

And, sadly, Doc, it takes so much less than that . . . LOL.

I just grabbed a doll from my normally gentle, has-never-hit-anyone 4-year-old after she repeatedly struck my other child with it. In the school ground. As I spoke to other mothers, at least one of whom is on the Parent-Student Council. The stare, the polite smile and the looking away -- all done in a fraction of a second -- is enough to make you feel like the world's worst mother ;)

Anonymous said...

I feel exactly the same way when I browse through the Title 9 catalog.

The funny thing is, I am now less likely to buy their products because I don't want to flip through their catalog and see how incompetent I am compared to their triathlete/humanitarian/hipster/yogi/but-just-a-regular-gal models.

Anonymous said...

I quit reading most all magazines years ago. I got tired to being made to feel that I wasn't wearing the right clothes, didn't have the right job, didn't weigh the right amount, didn't cook the right meals, etc....Who needs that kind of stress from a stupid magazine. That's what my family is for!

Mike Looney said...

The Nobel Peace Prize is overrated.

Now if it was the Nobel Prize for Funny, Dr. Grumpy should be in the running.

Just Me said...

Sounds like my alumni newsletter.

Stail - what you feel like when you wonder how to work a car wash into your busy schedule.

Anonymous said...

Siggghhhh. That's why we love your website. You've got lovable, adorable normal children that we as parents/caregivers/relatives/ourselves/etc. can relate. Give Marie a pinch from me! And, those two rascals a hug when they don't deserve it.

RehabRN said...

Grumpy:

I agree. If you have your healthy kids + good brownies, you have everything.

Screw saving the world...I need brownies and my (and hubby and dog and friends) more!

SmartyTech said...

Somedays, its a "win" if my hair get brushed...show off.

Anonymous said...

haha so you are a woman
i always tought you are a guy

it gives me different perspective on this blog lol

Anonymous said...

To borrow from an old Saturday Night Live skit with Lilly Tomlin as the super women: nuclear physicist, mother, volunteer, prize winning journalist who also sorts folds and stores her paper bags in perfect order. "How does Diane do it? She's smart she takes speed. Speed the tiny blue diet pill you don't have to be overweight to need.

Andie said...

You know what else makes me feel like crap? My Facebook friends. Their kids are all geniuses and their vacations are awesome!

Anonymous said...

yeah, wth? Facebook is worse than any magazine article any day. I'm going to block all my friends so I don't have to listen to their perfect lives any more!

Anonymous said...

Yes, but what is she doing about the Pacific garbage patch? Of has she got that pencilled in for Sunday afternoon?

Anonymous said...

Personally, I think that magazines in that category are selling a fantasy, only they don't have the honesty to come out and say so.
For that matter, a lot of the mens' magazines, especially the fitness ones, do the same thing.
I am NEVER going to be as ripped as the guys on the cover of say, Muscle Mag are.
What matters to me is that my wife loves me, and the cats tolerate my presence. Most of the time...

Eileen said...

Strange - my contacts on FB (daughters and their friends rather than mine) almost all have kids but not one of them pretends everything in the garden is perfect. OTOH, I had a "friend" who did that permanently the old-fashioned way 30 years ago. It was something of a relief when I offended her by being unable to rush to babysit at her house 10 miles away because I was working. I offered to have them at my home as I was freelance but she'd have to bring them over. That wasn't good enough ;-)

haha, wv = conall - no comment needed methinks!

Christie Critters said...

I gave up two things many years ago. One was "Working Mother". The other was my college alumni magazine. I haven't contributed any money to them (the university) since then either.
They obviously skimped on my education because I'm not featured in their glossy pages - tacitly asking for money.

Ms. Donna said...

So Dr. G how did a Yak herder get hold of "WM?" I thought the American Journal of Neurology and Yak herding was enough reading for any mere mortal.

And yes, as a working mother now with grown children, (Am I still a working mother?) I know the "everything is beautiful" stories are fiction. There are times when work calls asking why you are not in when you are supposed to be off, daycare has fallen through through no fault of your own, the youngest has Cheerios in her hair, the house is a mess and SMELLS, and some VIP is coming to town and you have the greet the no-kids her in five minutes.
And you wonder why Dr. G writes scripts for Fukitol?
At the same time, I've gotten the biggerst laughs from my kids (yes, even the "special needs" one) the biggest joys and while at times difficult, I would not trade a moment (Well, maybe delivery ...)

Anonymous said...

Oh, they were featuring me this month, thanks for the shout-out!!

 
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