Canada Moms Blog

There's Such a Thing as TMI - Too Much Information

There's such a thing as too much information (TMI). Don't get me wrong, I'm NOT talking about sex or bodily functions -- things people usually associate with TMI -- because I've certainly been known to talk about my kid's poop and my bra size with random moms in the drugstore aisle. I mean, isn't that one of the beauties of being a mom? Within five minutes of meeting another mom, you could be talking about things like how necessary it is, since having a baby, to pee before you workout. TMI? NO PROBLEM. Loves it.

The problem is INFORMATION. The kind you get when you open your laptop, you wait restlessly for your wireless to load and, finally, wildly hit that search button. Enter: H1N1. Enter: Formula Feeding. Enter: Breastfeeding. Enter: (I don't know) Stomach Cramps; Global Warming; Economy; Pesticides; Poodles; Chocolate. No matter what, as my doctor likes to tell me, "You google it? You're going to find 'cancer,' 'death,' all doom and gloom." Information on the internet is endless, often unreliably sourced, often motivated by one side of an issue or another, by money. Even if you do manage to find a reliable source of information, you'll find at least one link in the sidebar, or in the footnotes, to MORE information -- information that will keep you up at night.

The Mailman hates me.

Or mail lady. Mailperson? Whatever. That poor schmuck has a massive hate on for me.  They must. Have to. Because as a maternity-leave home-bound mom to an almost 5 month old, I spend a lot of time shopping. Online. And oh, do their aching backs delivering all my packages know it.

This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper: A Silicon Valley Moms Group Book Club

For many of us, we find ourselves in the middle position, taking care of our kids and taking care of our aging parents. What happens when the unthinkable, and inevitable, happens - when one of our parents die? And what happens if your own life is pretty messed up when that happens? For October's Silicon Valley Moms Group bloggers' monthly book club, we are reading and discussing a book that chronicles a slightly dysfunctional family as they spend time together following their father's death. 

Join in as Silicon Valley Moms Group bloggers discuss book  This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper.

• New York City Moms Blog's Helen P leads us off
• Chefdruck from Chefdruck Musings relates "Mom called. The dog died."
• Gayle from Everyday I Write the Book reviews This is Where I Leave You
• Sophia from Moody Mommy thinks about brother estrangement
• Julie from Just Precious asks what else is there to do with 168 hours?
• Wife and Mommy from Wife and Mommy imagines A WHOLE WEEK with her ENTIRE family
• Alma from Marketing Mommy is brought back in time with the line "Dad's dead"
• Heidi from Coast 2 Coast Mom thinks about how not having children changes everything
• Amy from Le ShallowGal relates some shivas she sat and one she didn't
• Melanie from Tales from the Crib makes a confession
• Cindy from We All Fall Down says this is where I take you to the movies
• Jessica from It's My Life puts the functional in dysfunctional
• Nicole from Not Just a Working Mom puts the fun in dysfunctional
• Ana from Finding BonggaMom is thinking about babies
  
• Fabulous Miss S from Fabulous Miss S thinks her husband could relate to Barry and his BlackBerry
  

More posts will be put up throughout the day on our writer's personal sites, so be sure to check back to follow along.

New York City Moms Blog is hosting the book club discussion this month. Please go here to leave a comment and join in the discussion.

Read about the book This is Where I Leave You here.

Past Silicon Valley Moms Group Book Clubs have included:

• Do One Nice Thing by Debbie Tenzer
• Birth Day by Mark Sloan, M.D.
• What Happened to the Girl I Married? by Michael Miller
• Testimony by Anita Shreve
• Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs
• Much to Your Chagrin by Suzanne Guilette
  
• It Started with Pop-Tarts by Lori Hanson
• Who By Fire by Diana Spechler
• The White Trash Moms Handbook by Michelle Lamar
• Writing Motherhood by Lisa Garrigues
• The Vaccine Book by Dr. Robert W. Sears
• The Other Mother by Gwendolen Gross

If you are an author or a publisher and have a book that you would like to submit for consideration for a future Silicon Valley Moms Group book club, please contact us at info (at) svmoms dot com.

What Happened to the Girl I Married? by Michael Miller: A Silicon Valley Moms Group Book Club

Silicon Valley Moms Group bloggers' monthly book club is tackling a subject today that can become heated. What DO stay-at-home-moms do all day?? We are a diverse group here on Silicon Valley Moms Group - we are SAHMs, working moms, WAHMs, moms somewhere in between. We ALL have different perspectives and we're sharing them today as we discuss what this guy, this dad, a Silicon Valley executive, learned when he walked a year in his SAHM wife's shoes. 

Join in as Silicon Valley Moms Group bloggers discuss the book What Happened to the Girl I Married? by Michael Miller.

• Silicon Valley Moms Blog's Jessica leads us off with a confession
• Julie from Just Precious toasts another 111 years of understanding, love, trust and family
• Sophia from Moody Mommy says she's NOT the girl he married
• Cynthia from Cynthia718 announces that the woman you married has left the building
• Bonnie from Just Peachy Baby loved the payback!
• Stacy from The Fabulous Miss S wants her husband to take another dude's word for it
• Erica from wellthoughtoutspot thinks about a parent's identity: segmentation or fragmentation?
• Nicole from Not Just a Working Mom and her husband don't really fit into a parenting category
• Silicon Valley Diva from Blog on the Wall turns the tables and asks what happened to the (french) guy she married?
• Melanie from Tales from the Crib thinks her husband will be getting a crash course on staying home with kids when she heads to BlogHer next week
• Bonggamom from Finding Bonggamom will also be leaving her husband next week to live her life...sort of...while she's at BlogHer
• Jennifer from Connect with your Teens asks: did marriage and kids change you?
• Amy from Le ShallowGal took the Seal/Heidi Klum angle on this book
• Rox from Rox and Roll muses on adaptability
• Chefdruck from Chefdruck Musings re-establishes a balance of power
• Laughing at Chaos from Never a Dull Moment says "OH, I'll tell ya what happened to the girl he married"
• Musings from Me from Musings from Me bristled at Mr. Fix It
• Linsey from Me Too You has never-ever-ending laundry
• Heidi from Coast 2 Coast Mom advises you to man-up and find yourself already
• Teresa from Elebelly thinks she may be at the point where she is ready to take care of herself, so she can take care of others
• Robin from My Life As It Is says I'm right here, you're right here
  
• Lori Landau declared The Girl You Married is a Woman 

More posts will be put up throughout the day on our writer's personal sites, so be sure to check back to follow along.

.... and if you have a post up on YOUR personal site on this topic, please leave a comment here and we will add your link!

About the book - read a description here.

Past Silicon Valley Moms Group Book Clubs have included:

• Testimony by Anita Shreve
  
• Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs
• Much to Your Chagrin by Suzanne Guilette
  
• It Started with Pop-Tarts by Lori Hanson
• Who By Fire by Diana Spechler
• The White Trash Moms Handbook by Michelle Lamar
• Writing Motherhood by Lisa Garrigues
• The Vaccine Book by Dr. Robert W. Sears
• The Other Mother by Gwendolen Gross

Telling them Poppa died

A few weeks ago, I read When Grandparents Are Sick (a fabulous post by Mary on DC Metro Moms) and bookmarked it, thinking I certainly understood. After all, my soldiering-on-but-beginning-to-fail Father-In-Law was reaching the point where...well, the point where it looked like things were going to change for him.

And then things did change. He died.

Last week was a kaleidoscope of emotions and things to do - going through grief with your spouse is hard enough, but explaining death to seven and four year olds? Not great, either. And tricky. We talked a lot about how people can be so broken that even doctors can't fix them, and how Poppa had been sick for so long that things like walking and breathing were very difficult.

Poetry for Children

We're nearing the end of National Poetry Month both here in Canada and the United States. I'm sure you all have been busy attending poetry readings, composing your own sonnets, and giving impromptu recitals over dinner.

[Cue sound of howling wind. A tumbleweed rolls across the screen.]

Not so much? Don't worry you're not alone. I don't have the stats (are there even stats on poetry?), but most people don't regularly read poetry. As a poet (full-disclosure!), I'm not as upset by this as I probably should be. I know it's not our fault. I truly believe that we all have an innate love of poetry, at least until a parade of high school English teachers trample, ruin, and then kill it. 

What's happening to Scholastic?

When I was a kid (a long time ago, or so it feels these days), one of my favorite things at school was when we would get the latest Scholastic books order form. I loved reading as a child and still do to this day. Let's put it this way. My OTHER favorite thing at school was "I Love to Read Week". Perhaps the only thing that got me as hyper as reading was when we got an assignment to write a creative story. Ah, if only I had been smart enough to go on to study English Lit in college, my youth was full of signs as to what my major should have been. Alas. 

Anyway, naturally I was looking forward to getting Scholastic forms when my oldest daughter started school too. We've created a reading monster, my husband and I, and she loves books as much as we do so she's always eager to order a few books. Honestly, if we let her, she'd probably order every single book they have.

But Not The GivingTree

I love children’s literature in all its various shapes and sizes. I read high and low and magical and humorous. Kid's books are near and dear to me as a reader, a bibliophile, and as a parent who reads passionately to my child. From early, almost wordless board books, to Winnie The Pooh and Winnie The Witch, on to Roald Dahl and straight through to Harry Potter, there are very few exceptions. The Giving Tree is one.

The book jacket from the HarperCollins imprint calls The Giving Tree a “tender story, touched by sadness, aglow with consolation.” This book offers me not one scrap of consolation. I have yet to read through its pages without a palpable sense of outrage. I have never read The Giving Tree to my child and I never will.

I know there are children and adults alike who love this book. Please, if The Giving Tree  holds a precious place on your bookshelf, stop reading now.  Or, if you feel up to it, read on and then tell me where oh where is the goodness in this tale of giving? Where, HarperCollins Book Jacket People, is the tenderness of which you speak?