Chicago Moms Blog

Why the BlogHer Conference Sucks

... cross posted from our sister site, NJ Moms Blog.
Because I'm not going to BlogHer, that's why! My head will explode if I have to read how awesome it will be - ONE. MORE. TIME. It seems every time I fire up Feedly I'm reading about shopping for BlogHer, road trips to BlogHer, parties at BlogHer, or the sessions at BlogHer. I just may vomit. Of course if I were going it would be a completely different story (I would be rockin' a new pair of shoes for sure), but I'm not going. I can't go. I have two kids, and one of them is breastfeeding. I barely get to leave the house alone to grocery shop, let alone jump in a plane (or a hybrid car) to go to the other coast for a few days and hob-nob with women I've only read about. Instead, I will be sitting at home, attending BlogHer in Second Life, hoping like hell the stream hold up, and drinking wine, all while in my mismatched pajamas. No after-parties, no female bonding, no blogging enlightenment. Nothing.

Click HERE to continue reading at NJ Moms Blog.

Working Mom Burnout

... cross posted from our sister site, NJ Moms Blog.

Being a working mom is an extremely brutal job and I am sure I am not alone when I say this. This is not to say staying home at home with your children is easy. I only know from my personal experience, which is that of a working mom, and the only way to describe it is brutal.

Every day as I leave for work, I dream of crawling back in bed for a little extra sleep, playing with my kids all day at the park, taking them to the library, picking them up from the school bus, being able to be room mother for all their class events, hanging out at the shore, or lounging by the pool watching them splash with glee. I remember worrying about what I was going to do with all the time when I was on maternity leave and believe me we filled it easily. Moreover, add in a little mommy guilt for leaving my children in daycare, exhaustion from staying up late, and stress from getting everything we need to do in a single day. I have only been at this working mom thing for five years, however, it seems like my entire lifetime, and I have forgotten life outside of being a mom. Truly, it is amazing that working mothers do not just spontaneously combust from it all.

Click HERE to continue reading at NJ Moms Blog.

I Saved Date Night

....cross posted from our sister site, New Jersey Moms Blog.

Date night is not a regular thing around here. What can I say? We’ve tried, but it is hit or miss. Usually date night happens because: A) I am desperate to get out alone with my husband and avoid our daughter’s dinner-bath-bedtime trifecta; B) There is a special occasion (like an anniversary) that demands attention; C) the opportunity suddenly presents itself (i.e., grandma wants to take the kid somewhere).

The one constant? I’m the one who makes it happen. And, while it’s true that I have control issues and publicly relish my role as High Commander of the Family Calendar, I would still like to be swept off my feet once in awhile. Or maybe just have my husband be the one to call the babysitter

Click HERE to continue reading on New Jersey Moms Blog.......

The (Self) Worth of the At-Home Mom

...cross posted from our sister site, New Jersey Moms Blog.

As a mom, I'm worth about $171,647 a year and responsible for the physical and emotional well being of two human beings.   Serious stuff to be sure.  But what about my own worth?  My husband has an incredible job that gives him the opportunity to really use all the knowledge and experience he's honed professionally.  Every day he has stories of how the project he's on is turning around and shaping up.  At the end of every week he can look back and list bullet points of how he's improved procedures, fixed code, and averted a crisis.  And they give him a paycheck to boot.

I change diapers.  All.  Week.  Long.

Click Here to continue reading this post on New Jersey Moms Blog....

An Open Letter to the Chicken Nugget

....cross posted from our sister site, New Jersey Moms Blog.

Dear Chicken Nugget,

If I had to do a rough estimate, I would say that my sons have eaten a few thousand of you. Considering the fact that you make up an overwhelming percentage of their diet, I thought we should become better acquainted. First, here’s a little about me.

I never wanted to be a chicken nugget mom. In fact, I was hoping to be more of a “get your five servings of organic fruits and veggies every day no matter what or heads will roll” kind of mom. Somewhere along the line, I got terribly lost. It might have had something to do with the fact that my oldest son refused to eat anything that wasn’t you during his toddler years. I mistakenly thought that he would grow out of this phase and eventually he’d try at least one of the dozens of foods I presented to him, but I foolishly underestimated your grasp over his taste buds. For that, I am truly sorry.

Click Here to continue reading this post on New Jersey Moms Blog.....

When is it Okay to Be a Bitch?

....cross posted from our newly-launched-sister-site, New Jersey Moms Blog.

Obviously there are a few clear answers to the above question. Like, for example, when a clueless camp counselor, or a bully, or even the willfully oblivious parent of a bully poses a threat to your child. Or, say, when the drunken divorcee with the boob job comes on to your husband at the company holiday party. However, as the parent of three young girls, I question my default policy of always attempting muzzle my inner Alpha Female in the service of setting an example of how to be “good.”

I wonder: am I really doing my girls a favor? For every time I pat myself on the back for not cursing like a sailor at some moron in front of me driving like an elderly, inebriated Cocker Spaniel I clutch my head in my hands while watching my 9-year-old daughter’s soccer team. Since The Striker, the star player who used to score the majority of their goals, moved up to the travel league they struggle to maintain their formerly prestigious ranking in our little town. The Striker was the kind of kid who, whenever she even smelled the ball, would seize it and drive it straight to the opponent’s goal with everything she had, regardless of who was in her way. And guess what the mother of one unfortunate recipient of an elbow-to-the-ribs called The Striker during one particularly heated game? Yep, “That Little Bitch.” (The extreme gentility and superior breeding of The Striker’s mother are the only reason that woman still has teeth in her mouth. If someone had said that about my 9-year-old daughter that would have been the last thing she ever said without lisping).

Now that “the Bitch” is gone, however, The Lawyer and her teammates frequently do not resemble young athletes engaged in competition as much as members of the Soccer Ball Appreciation Society holding a convention.

Click Here to continue reading this post on New Jersey Moms Blog......

Vacation At Home

...cross posted from our newest sister site, New Jersey Moms Blog.

As I tucked my daughter into bed last night, my four year old honestly asked me, “Do you promise the Guggenheim will have Picasso’s Blue Period pictures open soon?” We went to the Guggenheim to see pictures that Caroline has read about in the fantastic picture book, Augustine by Melanie Watt, and the museum was under major renovation. Only in New York could we remedy that problem by walking down the street to the Met to continue our Picasso search. Despite having found more than one Picasso at the Met, Caroline still has it in her little head that the Guggenheim is really where his good stuff is. I am thrilled- this will give us an excuse to go back to the big city.

Our art museum adventures were part of Vacation At Home. This is a concept that I have heard about, read about and always though to be a bit hokey. I mean really, a vacation involves lots of travel, hotels, money, restaurants, right? At least a good one does, I thought, before this week.

Click Here to continue reading this post on New Jersey Moms Blog....

The launch of our newest sister site: New Jersey Moms Blog

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our newest sister-site, the New Jersey Moms Blog.

New Jersey Moms Blog is a collaborative group of mothers living or working in New Jersey. Salty on the outside, but soft in the center, these East Coast moms are not only hip, they say what they mean and mean what they say as they write about their lives in The Garden State, where they spend way too much time driving in traffic, being stuck in carpool lines, and dodging tourists on the Parkway or Turnpike. But they know that nothing beats strolling the boardwalks on the Jersey shore, hiking along the Delaware River, or rooting for the New Jersey Devils. These quintessential Jersey Girls will show you far more than the concrete, iron and rubber that you'll see in the opening credits of Sopranos.

Meet the fabulous and talented ladies behind the New Jersey Moms Blog, sign up for their RSS Feed and come back day to day as you follow the lives of these incredible women!

New Jersey Moms Blog is the fifth sister-site to join Silicon Valley Moms Group LLC.  These sites include Silicon Valley Moms Blog (launched March 2006), Chicago Moms Blog (launched April 2007), DC Metro Moms Blog, (launched September 2007) and New York City Moms Blog (launched December 2007).

Epiphany in Hell

....cross posted from our sister site, New Jersey Moms Blog.

As we pulled into the parking lot of Chuck E. Cheese for my daughter’s birthday party last Saturday I was suddenly seized by the conviction that I had made a terrible, terrible mistake. My husband and father-in-law’s evil laughter (she made these reservations! well, you know how crazy she is) as we parked and carried in the cake only amplified my anxiety. I could not shake the feeling that we were descending into the Underworld to face the fate of the hapless parents who are too lazy to plan action/adventure theme parties for the children whom they profess to love so dearly. In this world, Cerebus was cleverly disguised as a teenager disinterestedly stamping our hands with invisible ink at the entrance underneath the pointedly large video monitors, which clearly served not only as a warning to would-be kidnappers but also as a rebuke to parents: “Look, we have to provide these security measures because you insist on taking your children into this happy hunting ground for child predators.”

Did I mention I popped a Xanax before we left?

Well I did. But instead of making me relaxed it only made me confused and overwhelmed (perhaps if I had had the foresight to follow it with a chaser of bourbon I would have achieved just the right state of consciousness for the Chuck E. Cheese experience).

Click Here to continue reading this post on New Jersey Moms Blog...

Calling All New Jersey Mom Bloggers!

It is not like we don't have children to raise, spouses to contend with, homes to organize, laundry to fold, or jobs that demand our focus and energy 24/7. It's not like our lives are THAT busy.... Oh pish, what is one more blog to add to our community of mommy bloggers? As a displaced "Jersey Girl" who grew up in the Garden State (Go Montclair, NJ!), spent the summers and the Jersey Shore (Go LBI) and graduated from Rutgers University (Go Scarlet Knights!), it is my pleasure to announce the upcoming launch of the New Jersey Moms Blog; the newest sister site to Silicon Valley Moms Blog, Chicago Moms Blog, DC Metro Moms Blog, New York City Moms Blog and the soon-to-launch, 50-Something Moms Blog.

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Isn't this a lovely banner?  Thank you Kris Loew for another INCREDIBLE BANNER!

But wait... we first need our initial group of "Mommy Bloggers" to join the New Jersey Moms Blog! (Yes, that is pretty much needed before we can launch the site!) if you are a Mom living anywhere in the Garden State, can commit to at least two posts per month and want to learn more about our networking/blogging community, please click over to the New Jersey Moms Blog and check it out! We would LOVE to hear from you....

Gosh, do I miss living in Jersey!!!  Fondly, Jill Asher