My Jenn-eration

So it’s almost Mother’s Day. This is always a time of year that fills me with so many jumbled up emotions. I am struck by this complete humbling and deep well of gratitude for the two amazing children I’ve been blessed to be a mom to, and a silent selfish longing to get the chance, even one more time to be a kid and celebrate the day with my own mom. But it’s not to be – at least not the last part. She passed away about four years ago now. That seems so hard to believe. In the time she’s been gone I’ve become a mother and had to put into practice every lesson she ever tried to teach me and strive to do it, if I’m lucky, maybe half as good as she did it. Mom was like the Ginger Rogers of Motherhood, doing it all backwards and in high heels with an unmatched grace and elegance. I miss her a lot but still want to stay focused on the positives of the day – the wonderful mom I had, the kids I’ve got, and the other mothers I’ve been blessed to have in my life. I’m sad to say that for year...

My children have watched television for most of this day. Based on current pediatric literature and thinking, I'm assuming they will now grow up to be mute serial killers. The whole day I obsessively calculated the total amount of hours watched and by how much it exceeded the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation of two hours or less. I stopped counting somewhere around four hours. It wasn’t continuous and was broken up over what felt like a very long and busy morning but still—it was a lot. I think and obsess a lot about this particular guideline issued to parents—about how or whether or not the more I let them watch, the less likely they’ll be able to communicate, grow fat, violent—and ultimately become all around horrible people. Honestly, in fairness that Ruby from Max and Ruby really is a bitch. They’re not learning anything from her. I know I’m using it as an “electronic babysitter.” I know that’s wrong and that frankly nothing about Yo Gabba G...