SNL Skit: "You Can Do Anything" -- Hm....

Is it just me, or does it look like someone at Saturday Night Live has been reading this blog?:


Okay, okay. The disdain for the new generation of spoiled brats who've never heard the word "no" and really do think everything they do is perfect is a common feeling. But, man, did this give me a sense of deja vu. This is officially one of my favorite sketches of the current season. :D


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Alan Thicke is to Soothing Babies What Robin Thicke is to Making Them



Pop Culture Baby AKA the Happiest Baby on the Planet started teething a few weeks ago. As a result, she goes from giggling and grinning to screaming her head off in a matter of seconds. During one of these schizophrenic-baby bouts, I started pleading with her to start smiling again. Next thing I knew, my inner child-of-the-'80s kicked in, and I was full-on singing

♬Show me that smile again... 
Don't waste another minute on your crying...

It worked! She immediately started grinning and laughing. Now, whenever Pop Culture Baby gets cranky, I dust off a little Growing Pains. Okay, so even though actor-singer-composer Alan Thicke did not actually compose this little ditty, I will forever associate it with him. In my child-of-the-'80s mind, this song originated from Dr. Jason Seaver. Whoever the actual singer, I'm the one singing it now, and it is magic when it comes to putting a smile on my baby's face.




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Pop Culture Toddler is Now...

Pop Culture Preschooler.

Dang, I feel old.

Pop Culture Toddler turned three at the end of November. Almost immediately, I started getting newsletters calling her toddler/preschooler. So which is it? I asked the moms on my Nov 2008 mommy board. The consensus is that it can go either way, but if your three-year old is in fact in school, then you should go with "preschooler." So there you have it. My baby is a preschooler (in fact, she starts pre-primary this month), and I'm old old old. Old. Sigh.... At least I still have my baby!

Pop Culture Preschooler at her 3rd birthday party

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And This Is Why Old Wives' Tales Are Stupid

Every pregnant woman has experienced it. Before you find out your baby's gender (or before you give birth if you opt, as I did, to not find out your baby's gender), nearly every person with whom you have contact will try to guess whether you're having a boy or a girl. Some people just go on vibes and gut feelings. Some guess based on the genders of your other children, if any. But many, if not most, revert to old wives' tales. 

Using old wives' tales to guess gender can be fun, no doubt. But just like Inelligender, take it with a grain of salt. There is a 50/50 chance of them being right--the same odds as if you flip a coin. I have no problem with people having fun with a good guess. But the people who take these things seriously and insist on their correctness... yeah, those people made me stabby when I was pregnant. And for all those people, here's my nah-nah-ne-boo-boo to you--My handy dandy chart of how the old wives' tales meant nothing when it came to Pop Culture Preschooler and Pop Culture Baby:


Old Wives' Tale
Pop Culture Preschooler
Pop Culture Baby
Carrying: High (girl) vs Low (boy) High Low
Can you tell mom is pregnant from the back? (yes = girl) YES No
Girls steal mom's beauty Definitely. I was fug. Looking better than ever
Acne? Tons. What is this--high school?? My skin has never been more clear
Breast growth? Up two cup sizes in the first trimester (yes!!) Stayed practically the same until birth (boo)
Cravings? Salty and tart for boys. Sugary for girls ground beef, chili, pineapple, lemons, ice cream, cake pineapple, lemons, donuts, crawfish
Heart rate (>140 = girl) 130s 150s
Morning Sickness? (girls make you sick) None Tons... for nearly 20 weeks
Ring Swing: back and forth, girl. Circle, boy circle back and forth
Intelligender result N/A boy

I have two girls.

Regardless of what the old wives' tales say each aspect should mean, the bottom line is my pregnancies couldn't have been more different (except, you know, lemons and pineapples; but I crave those even not pregnant). It doesn't end here. Name one aspect of pregnancy, I can tell you how nothing was the same from my first pregnancy to the second. The bottom line is, the old wives' tales mean nothing. There is no magic formula that's going to tell you what gender your baby is. The closest you can get to accuracy is an ultrasound, and, well, even those mess up sometimes. Sorry, ladies.
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A Teachable Moment Missed (Real Housewives of Atlanta)

Anyone who knows me or followed my old blog on What to Expect should know that I'm a wee bit of a lactivist. I fully support a woman exercising her right to breastfeed in public or private, her baby's right to eat, and companies making it easier for women to breastfeed and/or pump. I also know when to choose my battles. For example, as much as I loathe the idea of nursing in a sweaty locker room or bathroom, I sucked it up and did so voluntarily when at my in law's country club over the holidays. I also would not nurse sans cover in someone else's house without their permission.

I love breastfeeding. I think every mother should at least try it. But I understand why some don't or can't. This doesn't change the fact that it is what is best for baby. And it doesn't change the fact that, for some inexplicable reason, some people still don't understand the concept that breastfeeding has been around for centuries and that formula is a new construct. Yes, breast milk is the default. It has always been here. Yet for some reason, we still need to "normalize" breastfeeding.

This is why an episode of Real Housewives of Atlanta I recently watched disturbed me so much.

Okay. Let's be honest, many episodes of RHOA are disturbing for many reasons. MANY. (Um... Ridickulous, anyone? << WARNING: NSFW) But it's not often that I find on that show an actual opportunity for a teachable moment. It's sad that the one time I found it, I was let down. I guess that's what I get for actually having hopes and standards for anything that comes out of the Real Housewives franchise.

On this particular episode, a very pregnant Kim Zolciak is talking to her daughter Brielle about breastfeeding the new baby after he is born. Kim, a former L&D nurse, starts out really well by telling her daughter how she's going to feed the baby breast milk because that's what's best for babies. Then her daughter, a typical ignorant teenager who hasn't had to be exposed to babies and nursing, gives a pretty classic and expected response, "Ew, gross." Now this would have been the perfect time for Kim to explain to her daughter that there's nothing gross about breastfeeding at all. Instead, how does Kim react? "Yeah, I know. Right?". Kim does make a little bit of recovery by telling her daughter how she was breastfed and so was her little sister. However, I just can't get past the "Yeah, I know. Right?".

Kim talks to her daughter, Brielle, about breastfeeding


That is the wrong response by any person, let alone a former nurse, in relation to breastfeeding. There is nothing gross about it. It is simply feeding your child the way nature intended. Period. I have read ignorant comments before where people have associated breastfeeding with other natural bodily functions, such as defecating, or horrible things like child molestation. It is none of these things. In reference to the comparisons of breast milk and toilet functions, would you allow someone to put a Ziploc bag of urine or BM on your dinner table? Of course not. Yet, breast milk in a bottle sitting on your table is perfectly acceptable to everyone. This alone underscores (for those too stupid or dim to see it any other way) the difference between the two functions. With respect to the disgusting and idiotic child abuse allegations, breastfeeding is not child molestation any more than changing your baby's diaper is.

For those who have issues about nursing in public, those are truly their own issues. The primary function of breasts are to feed children. Yes, they have a secondary function related to sex; but guess what? So does your mouth. Until there's a big push for people covering up their mouths while eating in public, lest some man conjure up inappropriate images of the things a woman could do to him with her mouth, I don't want to hear any complaint about mothers breastfeeding in public. And until we revert to Victorian culture where women are covered up from the neck down, don't even try to feed me lines about breastfeeding women with their breasts "hanging out" [something, BTW, I have never seen].

The bottom line is, Kim messed up big time by missing this teachable moment. As a former L&D nurse and someone who knows the importance of breast milk enough to have nursed three children [and risk the lives of her two oldest trying to pump while driving], she was in a perfect position to teach her oldest daughter that breastfeeding is not in any way, shape or form, gross. Instead, she acted pretty much how I should expect a Real Housewife. Shame.
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