All Blog Posts

11/11/06

When Judith Warner's book Perfect Madness reached the shelves a year or so back, it wasn't immediately clear that she'd become a forceful political advocate for mothers. Yes, the book did end with a slew of policy proposals. The majority of the pages offered cultural analysis, though, and more often than not, Warner seemed to tread perilously close to blaming mothers--affluent, over achieving, hyper-perfectionist mothers, the prime focus of the book--for the malaise upon us. The book's political ending was nice, but it felt tacked on. How, after all, would improved access to quality daycare really make life easier for the mom committed to hand painting paper plates for her child's birthday party? The blogosphere, especially, took aim. The lack of online word limits allowed an almost limitless analysis of Perfect Madness, and most bloggers were relentlessly critical of the book.

MomsRising Together

Miriam

11/08/06

"Yard sign! No punch backs!" is a common refrain yelled with joyful exuberance from my backseat these days. My two children, ages ten and seven, have taken politics to a new, uncharted level. They've picked their favorite political yard signs and made a variation on the "Slug Bug" game--the game where you pick a VW bug car of a certain color and whoever sees it first gets to softly punch the person next to them.

MomsRising Together

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

10/25/06

On Monday, Kiki delivered your 6,100-name petition all over Harrisburg; visited dozens of legislative offices; spread the word to anyone who would listen about SB 440 and HB 352; AND spoke at a conference of the Pennsylvania Women's Commission! Whew. Her report is so amazing, and awesome, I am sharing with you the whole, wonderful thing... Good Morning, I am still recovering from my trip to Harrisburg on Monday, October 23rd. Thus my delay in getting my report out to you. My dear friend and colleague Debbi accompanied me on this trip. She had never been involved in any political activity so this was quite an eye opening experience for her.

MomsRising Together

Cooper Munroe

Paid Family Leave

10/18/06

Hey all -- We're testing out turning on the ability for folks to comment directly on each blog post starting now. So here's the first test. Comment away! Got an idea you want to share? Test your comments here.

MomsRising Together

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

10/16/06

Crossposted from Playground Revolution and Everyday Mom Last night a friend sent me her proposal for a new book on dads and parenting. Like a good friend and writing comrade, I read quickly and sent her emailed chapter headings back with some thoughts and suggestions. After, I resolved to check in with my favorite dad blogs in the morning.

MomsRising Together

Miriam

10/13/06

Hello Everyone, I know there are many people (some I've met, most I haven't) working behind the scenes with MomsRising helping to get this legislation passed in Pennsylvania. I can't thank you all enough for your interest, help and support. You all probably know my story better than I do, but most importantly, it is not my story but the story of thousands and thousands of women and their children all over PA and this country who are financial prisoners to archaic legislation.

MomsRising Together

Kiki

10/11/06

If your ears are buzzing, it is because Joan Blades just wrapped up a presentation in New York, at the Women’s Media Center and she was talking about how wonderful all of you engaged mothers are. Emily McKhann, my business partner, and the ad hoc MomsRising on-the-ground reporter, was also there. Part of the discussion included Emily and Joan sharing with the group the Pennsylvania story and the progress that is being made there. Here are some of Emily’s “Treo” dispatches from the event:

MomsRising Together

Cooper Munroe

10/11/06

This morning Joan and Kiki were on the Lisa Birnbach radio program on Greenstone Media. A great description from Kiki: Lisa, the host of the show, was great, supportive and a single mom with three children. She spoke of her own experiences in the past being asked, during a job interview, if she planned to have more children. She asked me great questions, such as did I have high expectations about the outcome of the legislation and I told her I always did. Except for those times in the past that I put on my black mourning dress in November at

MomsRising Together

Cooper Munroe

10/09/06

The Huffington Post has a wonderful feature called "Becoming Fearless," edited by a very talented woman named Romi Lassally. To me, Kiki is the ideal representation of fearlesness, and right now, HuffPo is running a post that I wrote about Kiki and the remarkable campaign she has initiated in Pennsylvania, called, Fearless Kiki, so stop by!

MomsRising Together

Cooper Munroe

Paid Family Leave

10/09/06

Crossposted from Playground Revolution The New Republic last week published an essay about three books on motherhood with the inane title: "Mommies, Mommies, Mommies: Meow Mix." I'm not making this up. I couldn't make up a title with such a high cringe factor if my life depended on it. I won't link to it, because, a, you have to subscribe to TNR to get to it, and b, because if all of us smart annoyed moms start clicking their website, they win. Their hit numbers go up and yes, that's good for them. Mother snark has become a tried and true way for magazines and newspapers to ride our rage and rack up sales. We must resist. Glance at a copy on a newstand, then announce loudly to everyone in hearing range that this magazine is snarky and mean to mothers. But don't buy it. Sadly, I've already been in contact with an editor at TNR who seems to think it was a fine piece, and funny. She didn't respond to my charge that their standard for journalism on women's issues is astoundingly lower than their standard for covering other issues in the magazine. She sidestepped it. Snark is clearly okay when it comes to us gals, especially gals with kids at their side.

MomsRising Together

Miriam