The Dirty Mommy Club

We spent last year renovating our house.  Countless hours and dollars were spent to make our home just the way we wanted it.  A process I wasn't sure I'd survive, but the end result has been more than satisfying.  Turns out, the previous two sentences are applicable in more than one scenario.

I have hot Mama friends.  Seriously. These ladies are beautiful, confident, and inspiring.  Like any woman balancing her own life with that of her family's, they need to be reminded of these things.  Three women of this particular group did a little something extra for themselves this past year. One opted for rhinoplasty, one for Botox, and one had her breasts augmented.  

Now, I would have traded my body for anyone of theirs in a sleeping baby minute.  But rather than dreaming about self improvement, as seems to be my new favorite pastime, they did something about it. That's kick ass!  

As I wallow in baby-toddler body dissatisfaction, these ladies looked it square in the eye and said enough.  I admire that.  Grown women doing something to make themselves even more confident and happy.  Ain't nothin' better.  What I don't agree with is passing on the idea that this is the right choice for everyone, including our daughters.

Enter Sarah Burge.  Sarah is world famous for having over 100 procedures done, and spending an estimated one million dollars to make herself into the 'human Barbie'.  Sarah has her own reasons for doing what she has, but when you give your 7 year old daughter a gift certificate for liposuction and a boob job, well, that's something else entirely.

I understand that Sarah is a Mama, making choices she feels are right for her daughter.  No different than the rest of us.  But what are these gifts relaying to her daughter?  

I spend an inordinate amount of time teaching my eldest daughter that the definition of beauty starts with  kindness, intelligence, a smile, generosity, confidence, and somewhere down the line, prettiness.  During her 4 year old interview, I asked Ella what were 3 words to describe herself.  And she answered, in this order, 'smart, beautiful, and snuggly'.  That was a proud Mama moment for me.

So what do you think Dirties?  Harmful or helpful?  Would it matter if Poppy was 7 or 17?

Shake a leg (or a boob), and let me know your thoughts.

Cheers Dirties

As I near the end of my maternity leave, I have been working furiously on my morning routine.  Soon enough, I will have to have myself and three kids four and under up, dressed, clean, fed, and ready for the world each morning.  Throw in Dirty Daddy's shift work, and I have to fly solo everyday, half the time in stealth mode to let hubby sleep after work. A daunting task to say the least.

I am feeling pretty confident about it all at this point.  For the most part, I can do it in an hour.  Which lays to rest my fear of having to wake at 4 am each day, as this seems to be the time that I drift off for some zzzzz's.

The other morning I was getting each of the kids dressed and coiffed. Ella is always the last to do both as she likes to choose how she will wear her hair each day, thus taking the most amount of time.  Ella chose braids that morning (yet another task I'm working on perfecting).  After two attempts, I finished her hair.  It was probably my best braid to date. Feeling proud, I announced to Ella she was done and gave her a smack on the butt with the brush. Cue feeling not so proud.

Ella burst out into tears, crying that I hurt her butt.  I hugged her and told her I was so sorry.  That I didn't mean to hurt her, and that I had intended to be playful, not hurtful.  Ella continued to sob into my shoulder as I held her and then told me I needed to kiss it better.  'Your butt?' I asked.  'Yes' replied Ella.

So I got down and kissed my little girl's butt.  The tears instantly subsided, and off she skipped to pick which craft we were going to work on.  Just like that, the tears ended.  Which got me to thinking. Was she really skipping off because it didn't hurt anymore, or was it because she got her Mama to bend over and kiss her ass?

And this got me thinking a little more.  This probably won't be the last time I'll be kissing her ass, just to end up watching her walk away smiling.

Cheers Dirties

I had a great big post written about resolutions for 2012.  It was really good.  You would have liked it.  But, with both the blessing of technology and the curse of it, I lost it.  For good.  Which sucks.

Lucky for you I had written one for the Momcafe Network as well.  You lucky buggers.  Here you go.

Cheers Dirties.