Mamarati

Polished off. Where did that phrase come from any way? It gives this air of delicate refinement, polishing. Yet I just polished off the last of the peanut butter cookies and there was nothing refined about that. In fact, it happened in a rather manic fashion, I’d say.

I will let that serve as my announcement to the world that I’m off Atkin’s.

Atkin’s is truly a WOL, as they say on any number of Atkin’s related forums. A way of life. I should know better because nothing is a WOL to me. Everything is in flux. I like to try out the new thing, master it and then move on. Then when I’m bored and there’s no new thing I’m interested in, I like to go back and revisit old things. This is my life.

I think that’s what Atkin’s was this time around. Just a return to something I tried once out of curiousity. I mean, I know it works. But I also know I won’t stick with it like the people who live it. I don’t do that with anything.

Flux.

On the show How it’s Made, they always say that flux is a cleaner. They’ll say stuff like “after cleaning the area with flux, a worker solders the two pieces together.” It drives the boyfriend nuts.

In the last year we have watched less of this show than we used to. They have this new narrator that is kind of douchy and the dialogue was starting to veer off into total cheeseland. But I just saw that the old narrator, Brooks T. Moore, is coming back. I’m probably going to have to fire up the DVR for the new episodes. I so miss hearing his Canadian spin of words like water, worker and robot. I know it sounds crazy, but we frequently pronounce those words Canadian style around the house because of that guy. When we’re at Home Depot and we see the flux, we kid, “You better get some of that flux so we can do some cleaning.”

I just saw that someone launched a a petition to bring him back. Funny. You just never know the things that will affect someone… I mean, I literally stopped watching the show when this new guy started narrating. Canceled the recording of it in the DVR.

Recently there was this ad campaign that Motrin did, with the best of intentions I believe, not in any way intending to offend. And a bunch of moms flipped their shit over it. When I started to see it go down, I had a moment where I thought, “You know, I should cover this at work and give it some attention.” But then… something made me turn away. Something made me literally log off Twitter and stay away nearly the whole weekend while it all went down. I did peek a few times, but found it sucking me in and again, had to turn away.

And I decided not to write about it and rather to just let it blow over. It seemed a little bit silly to me on some level. It seemed like everyone was taking the whole thing overboard. Calls for a boycott were going down and I was a bit mystified. Not to mention I can’t remember the last time I saw a brand name pain reliever or anything else at any of the homes I frequent. We’re in a recession. I buy Advil Liquigels and it’s friggin’ killing me every time I plop down the money on that crap. It’s three or sometimes four times as much as the store brand. But I HAVE to buy it because my kid needs a pain reliever and they all have corn in them, which he’s allergic to. Actually, I found out recently that someone had a reaction to them but the liquid suspension in grape and fruit flavors is still OK.

But I digress. The point is, I would not buy Motrin anyway, whether or not they launched an offensive marketing campaign. Whether or not they mean it. Now, if they’d meant to be offensive, I would have written about that.

Or would I have? It’s been a long time since I was a new mom. It’s been a long time since I had that mama bear mentality. It’s been a long time since I was there in the trenches, defending my every parenting decision, ready to squash anyone who dared question me. It’s been a long time since I practiced saying things in the mirror like, “I have every right to nurse my baby here. Do YOU want to go eat in the bathroom? WELL NEITHER DOES MY BABY!!!!”

Practicing attachment parenting 13 years ago… extended nursing, delaying solids, having my own immunization schedule, family bed, babywearing… all that stuff. I did it all. And I had to defend it all. Every day. Every single day. Mostly not from big companies, however. Mostly from other mothers who were doing it differently and who thought what I was doing was WRONG. I was lucky to find work with an online parenting community made up mostly of other parents who were doing the same thing I was. Actually, even moreso. We didn’t even allow formula ads on our site. Even when iVillage bought us out, that was one of the things that my boss was very clear about. NO FORMULA ADS.

One of the women I worked with introduced me to the Nestle boycott. Sometimes we’d be talking on the phone and I’d mention that I ate something like a candy bar or a breakfast shake and she’d be quick to point out that it was made by Nestle and what the hell was I thinking?

And I lasted a while on that boycott. But I do like me some Toll House Chips. And they are corn-free… So, baby killers or not, deceptive cheats or not, we eat those chocolate chips. They are cheaper in bulk from Costco than the store brand, too, and of course, that makes a huge difference to me as I have almost ZERO brand loyalty when there is a quality store brand alternative. I’m mostly frugal.

I wonder how many babywearing moms who were pissed off at Motrin are also boycotting Nestle. Or Wal-Mart. Different people have different causes they want to take up… even if the causes are in the same genre… but I’m getting ahead of myself.

At any rate, at first the whole thing was a little bit of an eye roll situation to me, but then, I have to think about where I am now in my parenting life, which is a totally different place. I have a teenager and… how do I put this? I used to be in a place where I thought every little thing I did was going to have this huge impact on him. Every choice I made. Every little thing. And that’s such a huge weight to carry.

Now, I realize that not much about parenting is really like that. Kids will turn out well despite many of the stupid things you do. Not that I’m advocating doing stupid things, I’m just saying that the narrow path I chose for myself is not the only path and I could have gone way off that path and the end result would have been the same. I’m glad I chose that path for a multitude of reasons, but I’m also sad that championing my position sometimes meant trashing someone else’s. Maybe not out loud… but you know what I mean. Included in the language of “Breastfeeding is Best” is also “Formula is Worst.” And that’s loud and clear to any mom, whether she chose formula or had no choice.

And even in the case of this Motrin brouhaha, I turned away from Twitter as moms went crazy talking about this thing that was pissing them off… and I thought, *I* am not bothered in the least by this thing. I wondered, WHY? Why does everyone have their knickers in a twist over this? And of course I get WHY. Deep down, I do. But I still couldn’t muster an emotion out of it. I couldn’t find outrage, shock, disgust or any of that, hard as I tried.

And yet… I can somehow find it within myself to boycott a television show over the change of a narrator.

Go figure.

While I was just like “Meh” over the whole thing, I saw others who were floored by the mom response. Like this post: Apparently, Mom Bloggers Care About Baby Slings, Not Child Rapists

It’s about the Protect Our Children Act and it reams the collective asses of the Motrin Moms saying stuff like, “I blogged and Twittered about the bill many times until it passed, and I’m not even a parent,” and then concludes, “I don’t want to offend anybody, but knowing how hard it was to pass that bill, it just made me very sad. To all the mommy bloggers out there raging about the Motrin ad: I blogged to help protect your kids when you didn’t.”

And that makes sense. And yet, not so much.

Because who can really see the whole picture? Just because all these moms weren’t out there Tweeting and blogging nonstop about this Act, it doesn’t mean that they didn’t do anything or that they don’t care about the Act. Just because they haven’t said anything? What? That suddenly means they have done nothing? And who can say what the impact was of that unblogged, untweeted thing that they did? And who can say if that effort was more significant than someone else’s effort?

I mean, I haven’t talked too much about politics here or on Twitter except for some joking around while watching the debates and yet I have made contributions to campaigns with my time and my money, gone and seen candidates speak when they were here, I voted in my primary and not only that, I RAN A FRIGGIN’ CAUCUS. RAN IT. And was a delegate for my candidate. So, blog and Tweet away Patricia. But don’t bitch about me because I actually DID something. And you may not know this, but OTHER MOMS ARE DOING THINGS, TOO. Even moms who rally around something that may seem to you, me or others like a petty thing.

And, for the record, I wrote to both of my Senators regarding the Protect Our Children Act and others in the same vein. See responses below.

Did I blog about it then? No. But then I don’t blog about every damn thing that happens in my life. I don’t even blog about the most important things. In fact, I’d say that most of my blog entries contain all the crap that’s left over at the end of the day, week or month. My blog sure as hell doesn’t get the best parts of me. I don’t have TIME for that crap. And I’ve been blogging since 1996. Before it was even called blogging. And I’ve been judged up one side and down the other for things I’ve said relating to parenting. But this is the first time I’ve seen moms getting dogged for things they AREN’T saying or including.

It kind of makes me wonder, too… Just because one person chooses to take up a certain cross that relates to children, everyone should? Every mom should? (And what about stuff that doesn’t relate to being a mom? Am I allowed to care or blog or Tweet about that? What about digital rights management? What about open source software? As a mom, is it OK if I do things relating to those causes, or will I be branded as someone who doesn’t care about predators raping babies?)

And what about all the other mom causes? Can I only care or blog or Tweet about children in my own country? What about child labor in other countries? Kids in India busting open batteries and making clay bricks all day instead of going to school? What about all the children in other countries who are sold into prostitution? What about Darfur? Children of rape in Africa? Or here at home, what about pregnant women who do meth? Shouldn’t you moms be doing more about this? Why haven’t I seen the blogs on this??????

You have time to blog about what you made for dinner.

You have time to blog about your baby’s first tooth.

You have time to not only blog about but post pictures of every single outfit you’re considering for this weekend’s girls’ night out. Plus you made a poll so people could vote about it. And then you had your husband, who is laid off from his programming job, create a game in flash that allows people to try the outfits on you like a paper doll.

SO WHY AREN’T YOU BLOGGING ABOUT SOMETHING MORE WORTHWHILE?????

And I have to admit, I thought the same thing. For a moment. Actually, for more like 5 days. And then I came to my senses. And I thought about how each person’s blog is their own space. And no matter how many people out there try to define what that is for you, in the end, it’s up to you to define what parts of you get out there or don’t. It’s up to you to decide if you show your whole self or just tiny little bits. It’s up to you if you want to talk about all the great work you do with volunteers or how involved you are politically or if you want to give a minute-by-minute account of your struggle as mom to a kid with special needs. It’s up to you if you want to talk about mascara and botox, the latest cell phone or how you wish 7up hadn’t changed their formula.

So tell Motrin to screw off, accept their apology, boycott them, whatever you like. And to How It’s Made, I say, “Thank you.” It’s about damn time you listened to all your nerd fans. Welcome back Brooks T. Moore. I can’t wait to hear your voice again!

Dear Ms. Brown:

Thank you for contacting me regarding on-line child safety. This is an issue that is very important to me, and I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Children in schools and households across the country log onto the Internet every day to access a wealth of information resources, to communicate with friends, or simply to seek entertainment. For predators, however, the Internet represents a vast unregulated space in which they can target and victimize innocent children. This is a frightening reality that we must confront as explicit material becomes increasingly available online. Since 1996, the FBI has documented a 2,000 percent increase in the amount of child pornography on the Internet. According to a study conducted by the Department of Justice (DOJ), 25 percent of all children have been exposed to unwanted sexually explicit material. Those numbers are alarming, and we must act to protect our children so they can safely use the Internet as an educational tool without being exposed to illicit material or targeted by predators who try to trick them into revealing personally identifiable information.

Safeguarding our nation’s children has been my longstanding priority. In 2003, I sponsored a bill that was later signed into law and that created the National AMBER Alert Network. Since its inception, the alert system has safely returned 420 missing or abducted children to their parents. I also cosponsored the Internet Safety Act. It was signed into law in 2006 when provisions of the bill were included in the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which directed the DOJ to conduct training of state and local law enforcement to effectively deal with computer-aided child exploitation crimes. We must ensure that the law enforcement community possesses all necessary tools to pursue and apprehend child predators, from enlisting the support of Internet providers, to educating local law enforcement, to bolstering awareness among parents.

On June 28, 2008, Senator Joe Biden introduced S. 1738, the Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2008, a bill I joined as a cosponsor. The Combating Child Exploitation Act directs the Attorney General to create and implement an initiative known as the National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction. This legislation will also help strengthen cases against criminals by requiring Internet service providers to provide information on the Internet identity and geographic location of suspected sex offenders, and preserve electronic evidence of child exploitation. I am pleased to inform you that the Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2008 has been passed by both the Senate and the House, and has now been sent to the President.

In addition, I have also cosponsored S. 431, the Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act of 2007 (KIDS Act), and S. 1965, the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act. The KIDS Act requires a convicted sex offender to register any email address or online identity in the National Sex Offender Registry and requires the Attorney General to maintain a system that allows companies to check the database prior to granting an individual access to social networking sites such as MySpace and Face Book. The Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act contains important provisions that raise public awareness. It requires schools and libraries that receive support from the federal universal service telecommunications fund to provide age appropriate Internet safety education for all children. The KIDS Act has passed both the House and Senate, and will now be sent to the President. S. 1965 passed the Senate by unanimous consent, and was passed by the House of Representatives as part of another bill. It will also be sent to the President.

I will continue to support efforts to combat child exploitation and to ensure that those who prey on our children are punished to the full extent of the law. I appreciate hearing from you, and I hope that you will not hesitate to keep in touch on any issue of concern to you.

Sincerely,
Kay Bailey Hutchison
United States Senator

284 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5922 (tel)
202-224-0776 (fax)

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Thank you for contacting me regarding the Protect our Children Act of 2008 (Combating Child Exploitation Act; S. 1738). I appreciate having the benefit of your comments on this issue.

As you know, S. 1738 was introduced in the Senate on June 28, 2007. This legislation would greatly increase the resources available to law enforcement officers and prosecutors in an effort to combat online child pornography crimes. Additionally, S. 1738 would establish a National Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) with locations in each state to assist local law enforcement by providing training and technical assistance, establishing a national networked database tracking internet child pornography, and developing child pornography prevention programs. ICAC will provide state law enforcement agencies with an information sharing network to more efficiently guard against these internet-based crimes.

We can—and must—do more to protect our children. I am proud to cosponsor S. 1738, and its efforts to strengthen laws against child exploitation and provide law enforcement with the tools and resources necessary to catch, prosecute, and monitor those who may threaten the safety and lives of our children. You may be pleased to learn that S. 1738 was approved by Congress and currently awaits consideration by President George W. Bush. It is my sincere hope that S. 1738 will be quickly approved and implemented to stop those who commit these despicable crimes against our young people.

I appreciate having the opportunity to represent the interests of Texans in the United States Senate. Thank you for taking the time to write me.

Sincerely,

JOHN CORNYN
United States Senator