All Blog Posts

02/28/07

We want to hear your stories about the sick days you receive at work--or about your lack of sick days. What's happening in your life with this important issue? Do you have enough sick days? What happens at your work when people get sick? *To share your story, just click the blog title above, or the "Read full post" link below. Then scroll down to the end of the comments/blog text to "Post a Comment."

MomsRising Together

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

Paid Family Leave

02/28/07

If you have time to read just one article this week, then check out the cover story in The Nation, "The Care Crisis," by Ruth Rosen at: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070312/rosen It's a timely, articulate argument about why, "Working mothers can't pamper their stress away--their balancing act needs a political fix." Read it, then act!

MomsRising Together

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

02/23/07

When I first read about momsrising.org and learned that they’d produced a film version of their book, The Motherhood Manifesto, I knew I wanted to write a column about the documentary. What better movie, after all, for a mama at the movies , than one expressly focused on the situation of mothers in this country today? I ordered the film via momsrising.org and drafted my column. But something was missing. This is a consciousness-raising movie, an organizing tool. Watching it by myself, I was missing a critical component of the film’s intent.

MomsRising Together

Caroline Grant

02/22/07

MomsRising.org received fantastic coverage today in The New York Times. The feature focused on MomsRising house parties to watch the DVD, a topic that is near and dear to my heart, as I will be encouraging all of my MojoMom.com readers host a party to watch The Motherhood Manifesto documentary in the near future. Let's work together to give this coverage "legs"--attention and longevity. If you are already a registered New York Times website user it is easy to do so. If you visit the article's web page, you will see the option to email it to friends through the Times' website. We should all send it to as many people as possible, both because it's a great story, and if it gets emailed enough, it will show up on the Times' home page in the list of Most Emailed Stories. As I am writing this, the article has just cracked the top 10 list! This will get even more people to read it. Read my full post for more thoughts on why I think MomsRising is such a valuable asset to the motherhood movement at large....

MomsRising Together

Mojo Mom -- Amy Tiemann

02/21/07

My new fave bloggers are Amy and Marc from Equally Shared Parenting , described as"a cyber-home for fathers and mothers who have made (or wish to make) a conscious decision to share equally in the raising of their children, household chores, breadwinning, and time for recreation." I've written about them several times at Everyday Mom: click here and here , the second being Amy's response to my nosy questions.

MomsRising Together

Miriam

02/21/07

Click over to LiteraryMama.com where movie critic and San Franciscan Caroline Grant writes about viewing "The Motherhood Manifesto" at a house party, one of many happening throughout the country. Her report's worth reading in full, so follow the link. Instead, here's a taste from one of the comments.

MomsRising Together

Miriam

02/20/07

This morning I was writing a post "Little Princesses and Disillusioned Moms" on my Mojo Mom blog, commenting on a new Alternet article, "The Big Corporate Motherhood Conspiracy" by Janina Stajic. One of my points was to trace a line connecting the earliest princess fantasies we sell our daughters, to the marriage fantasies and motherhood fantasies we are sold every day as adult women. As I was writing this piece, I received an email from The Right Start marketing their "Think Pink Shop" with 70 pink products--"gifts to pamper your little princess." Just in case I needed a reminder about the powerful marketing machines that churn around us--gender stereoptying is alive and well and most definitely starts before birth!

MomsRising Together

Mojo Mom -- Amy Tiemann

02/11/07

Crossposted at Everyday Mom In The Truth Behind the Mommy Wars I wrote about how the US is one of five nations world-wide that do not supply paid family leave to parents of new babies. We're in the doghouse, it turns out, with Leshotho, Liberia, Swaziland and Papua New Guinea. Here's a nice link to a recent article in USA Today . It's based on a recent Harvard report, and has a link to the report itself.

MomsRising Together

Miriam

MomsRising

02/05/07

Below you'll find the MomsRising e-Exchange. But before jumping in, we want to ask: Does your organization have plans to celebrate or organize for International Women’s Day on March 8th? Or for Mother's Day in May? Do share! Send us 3 – 4 sentences about the plans you are hatching and we’ll compile...

MomsRising Together

Mary Olivella

02/03/07

Two days after Christmas, my neighbor Jill* called me, crying. Her husband had threatened her. She said verbal abuse had been going on for awhile, but now the threats had escalated. Jill had talked to a counselor and was planning to go to the shelter where they’d help her move out of state and go into hiding. She asked me to take her child for the day so she could pack before her husband got home from a business trip. Truth is, I hardly know Jill. Our children have had one playdate together and that’s it. I knew nothing about her family or her marital crisis. Jill apologized for “dumping” this on me, explaining that she didn’t have friends or family in the area, and that the only other person she called for help wasn’t home. Not wanting to walk into the middle of a dangerous domestic situation, I first made sure her husband was out of town and wouldn’t return until the next day. Then I agreed to come over and take her child until the evening. I brought the child back to my house, made breakfast and let the kids play. Later we went to the mall and I made them a picnic which we ate in the park. It was an ordinary, even boring day, which Jill’s kid loved. There was a normalcy about it which the child seemed to crave. When Jill came to pick her child up, the kid didn’t want to leave. I get it. I wouldn’t want to go back into that situation either. I gave Jill a hug and told her to keep herself and her child safe and I wished her the best of luck on her journey.

MomsRising Together