As a recent contributor to Nerve.com’s new parenting blog Stroller Derby I’ve been charged with reporting on recent events and developments with a hip and clever twist. I’m as keen on swearing as the next gal, and I find jokes about the number of drinks required to survive a snow day quite amusing.
But oh me oh my, even I am growing weary of my own cynicism.
But oh me oh my, even I am growing weary of my own cynicism. It is not Babble’s fault that I’m running out of steam. Twice daily blogging is exhausting, even if it is good for one’s Google ranking.
My initial intent, when I started writing CrankMama less than a year ago, was to give voice to what I felt was an underrepresented segment of the mothering world: the unpretty, non-knitting, domestically challenged working babes who were not always fascinated by the travails of the family bed or the joys of teaching their children Spanish before age two.
But I’m afraid I’ve merely swapped one dogma for another. Being hip and trendy is just as limited and defining as any religion, or quilting bee, or PTA meeting ever was. And maybe moreso because those of us circling around in this group are often laboring under the isolation and cynicism of our choices.
And missing the lovely beauty of our sweet elves as they grab at our legs and beg us away from our computers.
What… You don’t like my comments?
No chicken for you.
Yeah, StrollerDerby’s all fine and good but…
Damn it, I want you to get back in front of the mic like Eva Peron and start spreading the truth old school CrankMama style. I miss that.
Whatchu talkin about willis? You better not be thinking of hanging up your stroller derby … because hip is the new gin. Embrace it.
i am getting as tired of the hip and cool crowd (well all of them - organic, slick yuppie, the nonprofit development crowd, whatever). starting to think i’m just tired of people!! scary at 30 huh?
Love your blog and also some by Sweet Juniper at Babble but there’s a too-cool-for-school element on that site that really grates (Flew in and out of 20 time zones last week - such an accessible perspective!!). Such overweening materialism/holier than though-ness. Good on you for giving them the odd skewering - e.g. mormon relatives comment.
actually just reread your post and I think I missed the point somewhat … oh well my two cents worth
That’s the funny thing about all this blogging — others find us and like to read us for a particular reason, and then we pigeon-holed. But parenting has so many sides — there are days when I’m snarky and days when I’m weepy because R. does still grab on to my leg and asks me not to leave her at school.
Hopefully we can be hip parents and be incorporate other kinds of parenting, as well!
I’m relatively new to your blog, but I love your voice and your perspective, which is much more well rounded than any pigeon hole (whatever a literal pigeon hole may be). I hope you are able to figure out the right fit when it comes to Stroller Derby.
I have to say, I agree: I think that “rebel” parenting has gotten to be its own stereotype, which is probably only natural. It’s even become its own marketing demographic–look at trends in diaper bags and strollers (think camouflage and orange, not pink and blue) not to mention baby clothes and everything else.