Canada Moms Blog

Is Multiculturalism Real?

I think I have ranted on this subject before.  My son doesn't get playdates.

We were wondering if it was him.  Was he so unliked by either peers or parents that they swore to never let their children play with him.  But he was getting invited to the odd birthday party and we noticed that some GIRLS were more than happy to come to our house after school or invite him to theirs.

But no boys.

The Changing Face of Media

Being what is labeled a 'mommy blogger' means I am part of the blogging world that gets all sorts of press...mostly negative from the the mainstream media and am also fully aware of any of the so called mommy wars that erupt from time to time all over the internet, from Twitter to Facebook to personal blogs.

I have also noticed that as my Page Rank slowly creeps up and people notice that I do indeed do the odd review and or giveaway, that I get more and more notice from Public Relations and Marketing types.

Twitter, I am sure has helped this along.   It does get you noticed.

You Are a What? What's a Blog?

I had a post about telephones ready to go, but then Twitter went all 'OH NO SHE DIDN'T' all over an article in The NY Times with the snarky title 'Honey, Don't Bother Mommy.  I'm Too Busy Building My Brand," and I had to stop and read all the furor and posts in response and so on.

I am not going to respond to the NY post, far better writers have done that...read Mom 101's response to the article or Kelby Carr's piece where she sums up nicely why the main stream media treats bloggers who happen to be mothers this way:

"We get marginalized for a few reasons, including:

• We are women who are, perhaps for one of the first times, far better at something than men in many cases and far better in an industry that is making a major impact. I should explain that I know many, many men who are talented, brilliant bloggers, but that isn’t surprising. For women to stand out in an industry that major corporations are clamoring to get involved with just sits wrong with some people.
• We are excelling in the media landscape, which doesn’t sit well with traditional media.
• We are turning our backs on the mold that has been created for us.
• We are threatening to traditional publishers, mostly old white men who couldn’t write a blog or use Twitter if you put a gun to their heads.
• Newspaper circulation keeps declining, while blog readership and authorship keeps growing.
• Writing snarky articles about mom bloggers encourages mom bloggers to share links and drive readers to the newspaper’s web site. (Here’s a hint, New York Times… we would share positive coverage just as much, if not more).

We are trying to make a living by creating content, and for that we get demeaned, criticized, talked down to, made fun of, and stereotyped as unethical money and swag grabbing whores.

I know of a few other organizations that make their money creating content. Namely, mainstream media."

Letting Go and Holding Back

 There is a chirpy woman I follow on Twitter and sometimes check in on her blog too.  She started out all over the whole trying to conceive thing and now that she has she is ALL OVER the prepping for baby stuff.

She has had contests for gender guessing, she has had every sort of give away on her blog and has asked every single question a soon to be parent might ask on all things baby.

It has been fun to chip in with my own ideas and suggestions, though sometimes it gets a tad overwhelming. 

I get that this is her blogging persona.  I get that this is what she is doing to be 'out there' in the blogosphere.  

I also get the excitement part.

Personal Vendettas

If anyone reads my Wet Coast Women site, I tend to use it as a bit of a platform for my..um..er..rants about the issues that really tick me off. These issues are usually local, Vancouver centric issues that I feel affect my family.

I have ranted about the Olympics a fair bit and the city is now really bracing for the impact.

To be honest I think the games will be great.  I think the big issues around the games will be what VANOC has been worried about in the first place..and that is getting around.   I also think they are MENTAL with making VISA the only credit card accepted at their venues, but not my decision AND since I am just a poor citizen of the city, I won't BE attending any of the events...too rich for my blood.

My other BIG rant is a personal one.  It is housing affordability.  Vancouver has just been listed as one of THE most unaffordable cities to live in.  Meaning the cost of housing vs. the median income is totally out of wack.

I am amazed if this is a surprise to ANYONE living and working in the Lower Mainland.  

Vancouver has no industry.  No big head offices.  No specialized economy.  Nothing draws people here except the weather and the scenery.   Except for real estate and the ease to avoid taxation etc.   Real Estate Development IS the economy of Vancouver.   Condos are bought up site unseen over and over by offshore buyers.

I was talking to our mortgage specialist at the bank the other day, and she says she has many clients who have never stepped one foot into Canada, yet own multiple properties.

This not only keeps the real estate prices high, but the rental rates too.  Vancouver has an almost zero percent vacancy rate and renters are constantly fighting to maintain FAIR rents.

Calling George Orwell (or Terry Gilliam will do)

Every time someone from VANOC security is on television, my images of what it's REALLY going to be like here during the 2010 Winter Olympics grows even more dystopian and bizarre.

Have you ever seen Gilliam's film Brazil?  It is one of my favorite movies with a fantastic cast.  In the movie, the future is not pretty.  But the government works very hard at making sure you never see or think that.

Highways and roadways views are blocked by huge high fences covered in billboards of happy people living in lovely happy clean and tidy places.   A far cry from the ugliness of the blasted and scarred industrial landscape that is the reality of sustaining the overcrowded cities.

The similarities grow ever more, between the CCTV cameras watching us from all over, the barriers going up everywhere, the streets being closed, the cheery Olympic blue covering up every spray painted expression of free public art, and the 'hiding' of the homeless.

Homeless!?  Here!!?? GASP!  Don't tell the tourists.

Even worse, HOMELESSNESS in WHISTLER!!!???  The worlds most hippest, coolest ski destination EVER!!??  We tend to forget that the homeless in Whistler are usually the folks washing dishes for you in the trendy restaurants.

Photographic Legacies

I have always liked photographs.  I have many albums and boxes of photos and negatives (old skool) stuffed under the bed.  My mom too.  She has slowly been sorting through a HUGE box of old photos and uses that as her basis for her genealogy research. 

Yes, I should be more crafty and scrap bookey and have it all organized....but I don't.  Well, I haven't for a long time.

The digital age made even more of a mess of my 'organizing of history.'  The birth and early life of Adam is on one hard drive (husbands) and Caitlyn's and Tara's are on mine. SOME photos are sorted by year, etc..others are not yet there.  And NONE are backed up.  YIPES.

The pattern in our family photography weaves a story all on its own. There are scads of photos of my mom when she was young. Before her mom came down with Tuberculosis. Before she was sent back to live in Scotland.  When she was surrounded by happy little family.

There are scads of photos of my mom and her friends in their teen years. They were all having fun. Living life and not really thinking about the "big picture" yet.

There are scads of photos of my mom and dad when they were dating. There are scads of photos of me as a baby.

There are not so many photos when I was a child.

Photography ground to a halt when things were sucking in my family. When my dad was drinking more and more.  When we lost our home. When we were homeless.

Not so many 'fun' occasions then to commemorate on paper.

When mom and I came to Canada, we took up the mantle of photography again.  Recording all and sundry fun and games.   

Both our photos embody the optimism we shared.  The hope for our new life in a new country.

Parenting: Yur Doin it Wrong

Time Online recently published a rather LONG article entitled 'The Backlash Against Overparenting.'  The article covers all aspects of our parenting mania and paranoia.  From our 'helicoptering' habits, to our fears about genetically faulty kids, to making sure their lives are tv free, lead free, BPA free, sugar free, etc, etc.

Seriously, it goes on and on and on.

This person had a LOT to say on the subject.

Which is a point in itself.  We do tend to go on and on.

This generation of kids has never been discussed more than any other.   Blogging seem to have started the ball rolling...especially with the development 'mommy blogging.'  We can't NOT stop talking about our kids!

Well, it is really our parenting we are talking about.  A lot.

Remembering

I could sit here and post about our angst driven calls to the Health Link nurse as we all figured out symptoms and if our son, then husband, then first daughter all came down with H1N1 like illnesses. I could write about us all hanging out here in quarantine and how to not go batshit crazy, etc etc.

But the one thing I was thinking about and that we will miss because of the plague is my kids school Remembrance Day Assembly.

This sucks on a personal note because Caity was going to stand up with her class and recite a poem about the poppy's.   

The school invites a Veteran of the Second World War to attend the assembly and speak and it is lovely and respectful. Each grade or group takes a turn singing a song or reciting a poem and the special guest tells us HIS stories of the war and why it is important to him to remember all those fallen.

Myself and the other moms in attendance last year found it very touching.   I was honestly impressed and surprised that the school would go to that much effort for the day.

Hello: My name is ___?

I have been given a label maker to review on my own site.   It is a cool little thing.  But it got me thinking.

Labels.  The internet is FULL of them.  When blogging, we categorize  things. We tag  them.  We give our posts a label.   An identity that means more than the titles themselves.

And yes, we do this all for very techie, SEOey reasons.  It tells the cyber world were to put that story.  What to call it, so the right kind of person, a person who want to read that type of story can find it.

The labels in cyberspace affiliate us with other posts, and other people out there.  They join us together.  Little clubs clustered around labels.

The parental genre online is full of labels and categories.