CurrentMom

I Am Woman...

Therapy Tuesday
Photo By: Horia Varlan

What makes a woman? This is a question that has been asked over time, and with each generation, the answer changes. Even within a generation. So what makes a woman unique these days?

Different people would have different answers. If we look at popular media, the answers range greatly. There is a great hailstorm of anti-woman sentiment. This is evidenced by recent legislation proposed in a variety of states that in effect, allow women to be second class citizens in the area of reproductive freedom. While these potential laws are spurned by the Religious Right, in essence, they put a potential person's life ahead of an existing person's life. These fights are around birth control (who should and should not provide it); what a physician can share with a patient (also dubbed as "wrongful birth"); and of course, abortion. Additionally, the TSA is selective in its training, as a recent agent made a nursing woman who wanted to bring her breast-pump with her on a flight, fill her empty breast-milk storage bottles prior to boarding. As if the baby with her wasn't sufficient proof. 

Across time, one thing that makes a woman special is the fact that she can carry a baby. In the 20th century in the United States, it was determined that she has the right to decide NOT to as well. What bothers me is how many female legislators are supporting these anti-women laws. Laws that might end up detrimental to their daughters, sisters, nieces, or granddaughters.

What do I do with my anger? I get active. I'll be marching with woman on April 28th in Washington to support a woman's right...to do what SHE wants to do, and not what some lawmaker deems OK. The right for her to choose based upon advice from her own medical professional, rather than a bureaucrat who has never seen the inside of a medical school or a human body.

Who's with me?

Easy, Versatile Cookies: Hamentashen Recipe

Meal Monday

 

My kids are home on vacation, but I am working this week. In between seeing their friends and enjoying our unseasonably warm and beautiful weather, they are, of course, looking to be entertained.  And who better to entertain them than Mom? Sigh. It's not easy.

Baking with little kids counts as an activity, but with an 11-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl, making cookies just doesn't cut it as something cool to do. Especially with Mom.  

However, kids of all ages still like to eat cookies and mine particularly enjoy dictating what type I should make. They do make themselves scarce once the work needs to start, though. But since I like to make cookies, I decided to go ahead without any help. And this Hamentashen recipe is so easy, I really can't complain.

Nook Books, and Other Travails of Modern Life

Truth Thursday

It took me quite a while to even consider taking the plunge into purchasing an e-reader. I spent at least a year allowing the very term to wrangle its way into my brain, pondering the world-shattering question of whether I would consider using one, so traitorous it seemed. It took an impending long work trip, and several months leading up to that flight to actually sit down and contemplate which reader I might want and when I should purchase it. 

After weighing the relative benefits of the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet (giving also great consideration to the iPad), I wound up purchasing a Nook for my trip. The reasons for this particular choice were clear – while I do love my Apple products, and the iPad looks like a fun gadget to add to my arsenal, it seemed a little large and unwieldy to substitute for a book on a plane. 

Plus, I wanted to be able to say “Nook book.”

And there you have it.

I bought my Nook at a bricks and mortar Barnes & Noble, thinking that there was some noble merit in patronizing a real life store. Perhaps it would allow B&N to stay viable for a little longer. I brought it home and really enjoyed its feel and the novelty of it. I decided that I would wait for my trip to dig into a book, but I spent several weeks deciding which books I would download and bring on my trip.

The downloading was where it began to lose me.

Working Moms Have Come Far . . . At Least In Public Opinion

Work Wednesday

Right around March every year, my inbox is inundated with announcements for Women's History Month presentations, discussions, and exhibitions featuring the stories of ordinary and extraordinary women who overcame legalized discrimination, entrenched social attitudes and lack of educational and professional opportunities to succeed at their jobs and careers. Because of my work and family obligations, I don't get to go to a lot of them, but when I do, I'm always amazed by how much has changed for women, and how much hasn't. Call me a working women's history geek.

So, I was thrilled when journalist and CurrentMom founder Katherine Lewis Reynolds tipped me off to an online symposium - "Is the Gender Revolution Over?" - that I could read on my laptop during my post-work, post-kids' bedtime blogging block. The virtual symposium, sponsored by the Council on Contemporary Families(CCF), features contesting papers by well-known researchers and advocates that provide a nuanced look at the evolution of gender roles inside the workplace and out. (You can read Katherine's coverage of the CCF symposium here and here.) 

While the CCF symposium covered a wide range of topics, as a working mom (and a working mom blogger), I was struck most by the attitudinal shifts towards working moms and family roles. Interestingly, while the CCF papers show how women may be losing ground in some ways (for example, in declining rates of labor force participation and stalled representation in management positions), society, as a whole, seems to be more accepting of working mothers and  egalitarian family and parenting arrangements than in the past.

I Love You, too. Now Please Go Away.

Tech Tuesday

Like so many other parents, I had all sorts of plans before my daughter was born. I got a Pack-N-Play for her to lie in while I worked on the computer. A sling to carry her around in so I had my hands free. 

You know what happened, don't you. None of it!

When she was born, her personality started showing just about the time they pullled her out and announced "it's a girl". It wasn't what I planned for, but I was grateful to have a daughter who had her own mind and wasn't afraid to stand up for what she thought. At the age of three we determined she was going to be a lawyer.