Momania: A Blog for Busy Moms

Earlier this year we learned from a study that scanning our “friends’” photos on Facebook can make us feel envious and lonely. And now we learn that social media may be causing an uptick  in plastic surgery.

From Time’s Healthland:

“Now the annual poll from the American Academy of Facial and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS) reports that social media activity may be driving an uptick in plastic surgery requests.

“The survey polled 752 of the AAFPRS’ board-certified facial plastic surgeons on the trends in reconstructive and cosmetic surgery. This year, one finding stuck out: surgeons are seeing a 31% increase in plastic surgery requests as a result of how people wanted to present themselves on social media….

“The survey shows that growth in cosmetic plastic surgery outpaces demand for reconstructive procedures. Cosmetic surgery accounted for 73% of all plastic surgery operations in 2012, up from 62% in 2011. Among the more popular procedures are rhinoplasty, …

Continue reading Would you get plastic surgery to look better on Facebook? »

More than half of water samples taken from Atlanta-area public swimming pools last summer had fecal bacteria, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Thursday.

From The Associated Press:

“Investigators found the gut bacteria in 58 percent of the samples taken from about 150 pools in Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties. They were gathered from municipal pools or pools at waterparks, apartment complexes and clubs.

“Municipal pools — where young children in diapers are common — were worst, with 70 percent of samples tainted.

“No illness outbreaks were tied to the pools.

“Proper chlorine and pH levels should kill bacteria. But health officials advise people to shower before the pool, and not swim if they have diarrhea.”

I was talking to my mom on Thursday morning about which water parks we could take the kids to when we visit Atlanta this summer. I was also thinking about trying to get a limited membership to neighborhood pool …

Continue reading More than half Atlanta public pool samples had fecal bacteria in 2012: Will you dive in this summer? »

A mom recently told me about a scenario at an elementary school where some Mean Girls bullied her daughter. The girls are supposedly the daughter’s friends and the moms are supposedly the mom’s friends. She wrote to the teacher for help but she is afraid the teacher won’t help because she thinks the teacher is afraid of those moms. She knows that the moms had dressed down the teacher about some other incident that happened earlier in the year.

I told her she should give the teacher a chance to respond but then if she doesn’t go to the principal. She is concerned the principal won’t care because the principal is an interim principal who is leaving at the end of the year.

It’s interesting though that it seems like the little girls are emulating their moms – being pushy and bossy.

What do you think? Have you had a case in your class where the teacher was afraid of dealing with certain parents? Do you see the patterns of Mean Moms then Mean Girls? What steps should …

Continue reading Are teachers afraid of Mean Girl Moms? »

Every year my little trailblazer wants a birthday theme that is not readily available at Party City. Long before you could find anything at the store, even the Turner Store, Walsh wanted a Ben 10 Party. Then it was Moshi Monsters. Last year it was Skylanders.

This year, he wants Minecraft. Luckly we now have Pinterest where I can gather ideas for a makeshift Minecraft party.

He basically wants everyone to bring their laptops and play on a server together, but I want it to be more festive and active than that.

I have three activities in mind. One lady showed a painting craft on nylon bags. She let the kids paint a creeper face using a plastic stencil. I think you could do T-shirts or bags if you found the right color.

Another mom used Jello and Rice Krispies Treats and icing to make Minecraft party food, but I think it would be fun to give them those tools and …

Continue reading Planning a Minecraft party! I need your ideas »

The New York Post is reporting that some rich families in New York City have been using disabled tour guides to bypass lines. One of the tour groups named in the story writes on its website that the story is inaccurate. Here’s a summary.

From the AJC:

“The New York Post is reporting some wealthy families are now hiring disabled people to pose as family members so they can jump ahead of the Disney masses.

“My daughter waited one minute to get on ‘It’s a Small World’ — the other kids had to wait 2 1/2 hours,” the Post quoted one mom, who hired a disabled guide through Dream Tours Florida.

“The Post reports the “black-market” Disney guides can be rented for $130 an hour, or $1,040 for an eight-hour day.  The guide will escort a family through the park in a motorized scooter with a “handicapped” sign on it. At each ride, the group was sent to an auxiliary entrance at the front of the attraction.

“You can’t go to Disney without a tour concierge,” said …

Continue reading Did rich moms use disabled tour guides to bypass Disney lines? Have you used a disabled relative similarly? »

Angelina Jolie announced Tuesday in a New York Times editorial that she had a preventative double mastectomy. She learned she carried a gene that gave her a 87 percent chance to get breast cancer.  Her own mother died at 56 of breast cancer after a 10-year battle.

Here is more from the AP:

“The Oscar-winning actress and partner to Brad Pitt made the announcement in the form of an op-ed she authored for Tuesday’s New York Times (http://nyti.ms/17o4A0f ) under the headline, “My Medical Choice.” She writes that between early February and late April she completed three months of surgical procedures to remove both breasts.

“Jolie, 37, writes that she made the choice with thoughts of her six children after watching her own mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, die too young from cancer.

“My mother fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56,” Jolie writes. “She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will …

Continue reading Would you choose a preventative double mastectomy like Angelina Jolie? »

I told my oldest kids about the rescued Ohio women. I told them never to take rides from anyone and never to walk over to a car or van while waiting for the school bus. I told them the girls had been kidnapped and held for 10 years. I told them to know I would never send anyone to get them that they didn’t know and to always stay with a group.

My 10-year-old son told me to PLEASE stop telling him about news events that they were upsetting to him.

So I am wondering did you tell your kids (what age?) about the kidnapped girls/women? Was it a teachable moment to never get in the car with a stranger or was it just too horrific to share with them? How much detail did you share if you told them about the case? When is something just too awful to tell them? What news events have you shared with them this year and what events haven’t you shared?

Continue reading Are the rescued Ohio women a teachable moment or too awful to tell kids? »

Feel neglected on Mother’s Day? Today might be the day to join AshleyMadision.com – the dating website for married people. The site’s founder confirmed that the day AFTER Mother’s Day is the site’s second busiest day for women joining. (Read on to find out the first busiest day.)

From MSN.com:

“Noel Biderman, founder and president of AshleyMadison, confirms that is true year in and year out. “I think this is due to the simple fact that, for many women, Mother’s Day is a barometer of how her family and partner feel about her. That is not to say that all women are expecting to be lavished with gifts but they are expecting to be adored and lavished with gratitude, love and respect,” Biderman says. “If Mother’s Day, like so many other days, is once again hollow and absent [of positive] reinforcement … well, is it any wonder that they end up in the arms of another?”

“Biderman revealed to female-centric parenting site Momlogic.com last year that, on a typical Monday, …

Continue reading Mother’s Day not up to par? Time to join AshleyMadison.com »

I found an interesting blog about how mothers can better be honored on Mother’s Day in places like church. The author who goes by the name Amy on the blog is bothered when they ask mothers to stand up to be honored because she feels like it can be hurtful to others – such as women who long to be pregnant, women who have lost babies or women whose kids have run away.

From The Messy Middle by Amy (can’t tell her last name from the blog)

“Fast forward several years to Mother’s Day.  A pastor asked all mothers to stand. On my immediate right, my mother stood and on my immediate left, a dear friend stood. I, a woman in her late 30s, sat. I don’t know how others saw me, but I felt dehumanized, gutted as a woman. Real women stood, empty shells sat. I do not normally feel this way. I do not like feeling this way. I want no woman to ever feel this way in church again.”

She believes that we can honor mothers without alienating others. She offered a nice prayer called …

Continue reading A better way to honor mothers: Celebrating the continuum of motherhood »

A professor at the University of Texas has conducted the first major study of Tiger Moms and how their cubs develop. She found that the Tiger Cubs were more depressed with worse grades and felt alienated from their parents.

Su Yeong Kim, an associate professor of human development and family sciences at the University of Texas, had been following more than 300 Asian-American families for a decade when Amy Chua’s book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother came out in 2011. Here is how her study worked:

From Slate:

“For Kim’s study, parents and children answered questions during the children’s adolescence about their parenting styles. The vast majority of parents were foreign-born in Hong Kong or southern China, with relatively low educational attainment and a median income of between $30,001 and $45,000 in each of the study’s three phases, spaced out equally over eight years. Three-quarters of their kids were American-born. The study controlled for socioeconomic status and …

Continue reading First study on Tiger Moms: Kids more depressed with worse grades and alienated from parents »