Archive for October, 2010

This is the second in a series of stories to celebrate the five-year anniversary of Momania. We are flashing back to some of our favorite columns and blogs.

I wasn’t trying to attack the Bulldog nation with this Oct. 30, 2005 column complaining about my husband’s football addiction, but boy did the Bulldog Nation come after me!  Here’s a sample from one guy’s sports blog: “I hope this woman has received death threats.” I am wondering if I’m off the hook yet. At the request of our blogging community, I am also posting on the next blog down, my husband’s column from four years later explaining why he doesn’t like to take me to the games. I don’t agree with his full analysis but at least it gives you his perspective on the issue!

One of the few times we actually got to go to the game. We were well behaved — although I may have complained some about the heat and sunburn.

The kids with Uga in 2004 at the journalism school celebration. I'm not sure if we went to game or just the …

Continue reading Momania Flashback: Saturdays in Athens not too kid friendly »

We dressed the baby so cute for Homecoming but Michael sent us packing. I had to push the baby and walk two kids back up Baxter Hill. No game for us that day.

The kids were miffed that we were sent back to the minivan and didn't actually go to the homecoming game just the journalism school celebration.

When we're not welcome at the UGA games with my husband we head to the Tech games with my parents. Much more easy going there! My son refused to pose that year with "the Bee" because Michael had brainwashed him to hate cute Buzz!

Four years later, my husband got his chance to respond to why he doesn’t want to take me to the Georgia games. Here’s his side on the issue. This is a link to the original discussion. To read my side click on this link.

By Michael A. Giarrusso

Ever since our first child was born, my wife has had a hate-hate relationship with college football, a game that she once loved. She’s written about it here many times, but to summarize:

We used to go to games …

Continue reading Momania Flashback: Why I don’t bring my wife to UGA football »

Congratulations! We have been together for five years!

In the course of more than 1,300 blogs we have discussed the mundane – do we like the white-shirt family beach photos? —  to the serious – should a mother kick out her teenager when she’s had enough? We have fought, disagreed, judged, but also often supported and cared for each other. We have shared intimate details about our lives, our families and children, and hopefully some people have learned from the stories. I know I have.

When I proposed this blog and column five years ago, I thought I would simply be writing funny stories about my family and gabbing with other mothers online. But the blog has become a much bigger part of my life, one that I use as a touchstone. Am I making the right decisions? Am I doing the right thing for my kids? Am I the crazy one? (Often the answer is yes!) I appreciate everyone’s input and think about the community’s advice as I go about my daily life. I can’t imagine what my life would be …

Continue reading Momania Flashback: Sharing, fighting, caring and learning! »

This is the first in a series of stories celebrating the five-year anniversary of Momania. We are flashing back to some of our favorite columns and blogs. We started off with a bang on Oct. 23, 2005 with a column about my boobs. I was mortified that this particular one was running on a Sunday – when my parents would see their friends at church. But I think it set the tone that nothing was going to be off limits for discussion and that we were going to be honest.

Long ago, before I had two beautiful children, I had two beautiful breasts. They were perfect 36Cs — not too big, not too small and, oh, so perky. Girlfriends were envious of them, and boys were always checking them out. One of my editors at the college newspaper would assign stories to them — he never looked me in the eye; he always talked to my chest.

In a quest to make my children healthier than I am, I was determined to nurse both babies at least 12 months. I ended up nursing each 18 months. Are my children …

Continue reading Momania Flashback: My 36Cs are now 34Es »

Although overall teen pregnancy rates are down, there is a large disparity in rates between states. Southern states are often the highest, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Why would some Southern pregnancy rates be higher? Some health advocates believe it’s because sex ed in Southern states often stresses abstinence-only instead of being comprehensive sex ed programs.

From The Hill:

“Whatever the reason, the regional disparities are stark. In Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, for instance, 2008 birth rates were less than 25 per 1,000 teens aged 15 to 19, CDC found. In the same year, Arkansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas all had rates topping 60 per 1,000 teens.”

“Mississippi had the country’s highest rate (65.7), CDC says, while New Hampshire had the lowest (19.8).”

“Leslie Kantor, national education director of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the report ‘makes it crystal clear that the teen …

Continue reading Teen pregnancy rates highest in South, but why? »

Would more poor children receive flu shots if Medicaid reimbursed the doctors closer to the real cost of the shots?

Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) believe the number would increase if doctors were not losing money each time they immunized a child on Medicaid against the flu.

The researchers looked at flu immunization rates for children 6 to 23 months during 2005 to 2006, 2006 to 2007, and 2007 to 2008 flu seasons and found those paid by Medicaid had a much lower vaccination rate.

Healthday reports:

“Reimbursement rates ranged from $2 in Colorado, Connecticut and Hawaii to almost $18 in New York, with the average reimbursement rate $9. In a previous study, the researchers had calculated that the actual cost to doctors’ offices for administering a vaccine was $20.”

” ‘In most states the reimbursement from Medicaid is far below the actual cost. This may create an obvious disincentive when physicians’ offices lose money every time they give a flu …

Continue reading Are Medicaid’s low reimbursements keeping poor kids from getting flu shots? »

My 9-year-old’s class was assigned to read a historical fiction novel, and Rose chose the Dear America book “When Will This Cruel War Be Over? The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson, Gordonsville, Virginia 1864.”

The book was pretty depressing (as the Civil War tends to be!). Loads of people died including a baby, soldiers and the young girl’s brother, mother and father. Soldiers had their legs amputated. Her cousin had a nervous breakdown. The Yankees robbed and occupied houses. Some slaves murdered their master and then hung him on a tree (because he used to beat them).

The whole time we were reading the Dear America book I kept thinking Rose would have a more clear picture of the South during the Civil War if she watched “Gone With the Wind.” (It’s much too large for her to read at this point.)

However, there are definitely a lot of questionable scenes in it – the bloody recovering scenes where all the bodies fill the train yard, the hospital with the screaming during an …

Continue reading What’s the right age to introduce ‘Gone with the Wind’? »

A study released Monday by Zillow.com names Atlanta as the No. 15 best city for trick or treating. It’s the only city in the Southeast to make the list. Their study is based on boring stuff like home value index, population density, a “walk score” and local crime data. But I thought it would be fun to get down to the Halloween nitty-gritty and  find out how your family celebrates the holiday. So I have all kinds of candy questions for you (I give my answers after each question):

1. Are you known as a “good” candy giver on your street? (I usually buy only name-brand chocolate candy. I will supplement toward the end with suckers.)

2.  Will you be buying actual chocolate candy (good candy) this year or will the recession force you into the no-name mix bags of questionable fare? (I will be buying the cheapest candy I can find.)

3. Do your worry about allergies when buying Halloween candy? (That never even occurred to me until I saw a news story about it.)

4.  Are you the type of …

Continue reading Candy quiz: Atlanta is No. 15 for best trick or treating but why? »

It is hard to believe, but Saturday will mark the five-year anniversary of the Momania blog!

We have decided to celebrate by flashing back to our favorite columns and blogs, which we will run each day next week.

I spent the weekend picking through old blogs and columns trying to find ones worth sharing with you again. I was looking for ones that were particularly funny, crazy, or created a fuss! (You know my complaining about Michael heading off to the UGA games and leaving me at home with the kids every week will be among the finalists!) I was also looking for ones where the discussion changed my opinion on something or changed the way I was parenting.

I wanted to give you guys a chance to weigh in on which blogs or columns were your favorite and ones that you would like to see again. I suspect you’ll remember the ones that really stood out to you, but you can also search the archive on the right-hand side. We have extended the memory back to 2008. We’re trying to get the …

Continue reading Momania 5-Year-Flashback: What were your favorite blogs? »

“Jackass 3D” hit theaters on Friday and made about $50 million displaying idiotic men getting knocked in the groins and shot at by their friends.

Entertainment Weekly decided to interview the mother of the Jackass ring leader, Johnny Knoxville, to find out if he exhibited signs as a child of his future career as a professional Taser victim.

Knoxville’s mom, Lemoyne Clapp, describes him as a child in EW:

“I had raised two daughters, and PJ came 11 years later. He was completely different, but I thought it was because he was a boy and all boys acted like that. At 9 months old, he could climb up on his playpen and throw himself out on the floor. Luckily, we had carpet back then. But he never cried, even when he would get hurt.

When he was 2, he tried to put the cat in the washing machine. I happened to catch him doing it, and he said, ‘He’s duwty.’ He couldn’t pronounce his r’s…. When he was 14, playing baseball on a travel team, his teammates told me he was diving out the …

Continue reading Is your little daredevil the next Johnny Knoxville? »