New Bad Mommy Homework

I was on PostSecret this morning. And saw this postcard.

It inspired this week's homework task.

So, write a blog post where you respond to this picture.

Tell us how becoming a mother has changed you. What it means to you. What is your relationship like with your child(ren)?

What would your life be like if you'd never become a mother?

More inspiration:
"Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories." ~John Wilmot

"Simply having children does not make mothers". ~John A. Shedd

"Smack your child every day. If you don't know why - he does". ~Joey Adams

"Never raise your hand to your kids. It leaves your groin unprotected." ~Red Buttons

Bad Mommy Moment

Hannah has recently taken up Belly Dancing with me. We go to the classes together and we have a ball. She loves the shimmies and shakes and she's super-flexible - able to do far more with her tiny limbs than I ever could. All in all, it's a great mom-daughter bonding time.

Two weeks ago on belly dancing night, it was a particularly cold evening to be going out. Hannah was really keen to go, so I couldn't say no. We enjoyed the lesson, but when she came home, she began coughing. I didn't think too much of it and sent her to bed.

The next morning, she coughed through breakfast. Having forgotten about her coughing spell the previous evening (bad mommy moment number 1), and knowing that she can be a bit of a drama queen, I told her to give it a rest and eat her breakfast. She got ready for school, all the while coughing and complaining that she was feeling sick. I rolled my eyes and put it down to tiredness from the fun the night before. Later that morning, I waved her a cheery goodbye at her classroom door.

The phone call later that day went something like this:

"Hello, Mrs Dunlop?"

"Yes?"

"It's Mrs X from XX Primary. Hannah's here in my office and she's having an asthma attack and she has a temperature. Could you come and fetch her?"

Um, why yes, I'll fetch her, and while I'm about it, I think I'll knock my head against the closest brick wall, all the while chanting: "Bad Mommy. Bad Mommy."

Your homework for this week is: Write a Bad Mommy Moment post from the past 2 weeks. Don't be shy: you know you've had one...

3 things that could be frowned upon

The question for the week: What 3 things do you do, as a mother, that goes against all the books?

Here are mine:
1. Kids get chips, or whatever is readily available, to eat to tide them over until dinner is ready. My mom would NEVER have done that! The problem is that I can never get home early enough to have supper ready in time, and I'd rather they not scream the place down while I'm cooking.

2. I leave the kids to play in the bath, and fetch things from the rooms. Yes, even the little one! How the heck are you supposed to stay in the bathroom if you've forgotten to get jarmies or a vest? It's too cold at the moment to dress them in their rooms. OK, I'm not that bad... I haven't been doing this for long with the little one!

3. We don't have a staircase gate. And that's probably why Connor can already climb the stairs. This does give me the heebie jeebies at times especially when he starts running at full steam for the top of the staircase, but nothing has happened so far (touch wood), and we are always upstairs with him.

I've restricted it to 3, so that I don't get carried away! LOL!

Seven things I am incapable of doing now I am a parent:

1. See a new baby without getting all idiotically smiley and giggly.

2. Get through the day without saying at least three things no human being should ever have to say. For example: "No, Jackson, cat kibble does not belong up your nose."

3. Hear any sad child-related news story without sobbing big sobby tears.

4. See a pregnant lady without wanting to rush up to her and tell her that I was pregnant too once.

5. Not worry about the environment, crime, violence, the exchange rate etc.

6. Shake my booty. I have tried to dance post Jackson, but I have lost the rhythm and now I belong in the Parents that Dance Embarrassingly Badly Club.

7. Go clothes/book/grocery shopping for myself without buying at least three things for my child.

How about you?

[Write a post in which you relate your seven things]

Does It Ever Really Sink In?

I have a friend who is a very new mother. Her baby boy was born last Tuesday. She has been battling like I never imagined possible. Seemingly no natural maternal instincts, no idea of what can harm her baby.

It may seem judgmental to say that. And you might think that it's the pot calling the kettle black, and I wish I could help her, but her and her boyfriend seem to be refusing help. Which is very brave. I guess I have probably forgotten my own cluelessness far too quickly. Replaced it with memories of calm efficiency.

Well. Mostly I was calm. Mostly I was efficient, although not necessarily both at the same time. I sent her a message yesterday asking her how the first weekend went. She said it was intense, she never ever felt that out of control about something. But what really got me thinking was the fact that she said she didn't feel like a mother, that it hadn't really sunk in.

Then I realised I didn't really feel like a mother either.

Where am I going with this?

Simple. I want you all to write a post explaining when it is that you most feel like a mother. And when it is that you dont. When did you first realise that you were somebody's mother?

The Winner

is thus Angel. For 'Raising Damien'. On account of how you other mommies haven't pulled finger. Badness, I tell you.

Angel, your blingy badges are to be designed for you this week. Keep an eye out in your email for more details.

Bad Mommies: new homework.

Topic: tell us what you and your spawn have been up to lately. News, funnies, pics, rants, eltters, anything. C'mon - this blog is far tooo quiet!!

Happy [Bad] Mothers' Day!

On account of how it's a day for us, I hope you all got spoiled. Hope your rotten, ungrateful snot-nosed children remembered and made you feel special.

I thought it would be time we all did some homework again. But something different. Something a little more exciting. Something with a promise of reward, at the end of the day. So, I propose a

'Baddest Mommy of Them All' competition.

How it works:

1. Write a post describing why you think you are the baddest of them all.

2. We will then hold a poll. Once everyone has submitted their entry-posts. The deadline is Friday the 16th of May.

3. Readers can vote, based on each contributors' post, at the end of the week as to whom they think is the baddest of them all. So email all your friends and solicit votes on your own blog.

4. The results will be revealed.

5. The winner will get a custom-made 'Baddest Mommy on The Blog' badge for their personal blog, and will have a permanent custom-made pretty button-badge linked to their blog, displayed on The Bad Mommy Blog.

Rules:

1. You cannot vote for yourself, but you must nominate yourself.

2. You dont have to be a Bad Mommy Blog contributor to participate, so you can post an entry on your blog, and then email me at cheapthrills [at] webmail [dot] co [dot] za. Your entry will be posted as a guest blogpost on this blog, and you will be added to the poll so readers can vote for you. If a non-Bad-Mommy-Blog-contributor wins, she will be invited to be a permanent contributor to the blog.

3. There are no limits to badness! Anything goes...

So, go forth, and be BAD!

Its Waaaay too Quiet Round Here!

I would like to ask a question... I know its not my turn, but I was wondering about something.

How do you talk to your kidlets about losing their pets? Especially given how attached we get to our animals.

I recently had to put my very old cat to sleep as he was getting poorly and wasn't happy. I was more fond of him than Damien was, but he was heartsore. This was the first time I had ever had to have a pet put to sleep, and it hurt! I have lost pet rats in the past, and it was heartsore... and Damien has lost rats, mice and a bird... and it was tough to explain it and his tears were heartwrenching!

I do not believe animals go to heaven, but for the life of me I cannot remember what all I told Damien back then. We did have little funerals, and bury them, and so on... but I don't remember much besides that.

And now my youngest cat has been diagnosed with FeLV. Its not a death sentence, but its serious, and my other cat has to be tested too.

Damien being 17, we can have a fairly in depth discussion about the compilcations arising from Taxi's virus, and how to deal with it... and the possibilities of losing one or both of our precious furbabies.

But his being older doesn't mean it hurts any less if something happens to either of our cats.

What do you tell your offspring?

Homework: Online Time Capsule

Alright Bad Mommys. Ready for some more homework?

The idea is to encapsulate your child’s/children’s life at this moment with words, pictures, and if your really ambitious, video.

Following, is a guide by which you can use to collect your data.

(Here comes the overly ambitious part)
THEN, the plan is in 20 years, April 1, 2028, we will all come back to this blog, reopen our time capsules with our children (or e-mail it to them), and write a post describing the event.

I really wish we could do this (Yahoo Digital Time Capsule). Maybe in the next 20 years, I'll find a way to do it!

GUIDE:

Today you are ______ (age).

At this exact moment, you are ______________ (what they are doing).

These days, you like to wear, or I like you to wear (for the mommy with teeny tinys) this:

Your favorite t.v. show(s) or movie is this:

You love to do this:_______(activity (ies) : i.e. climbing on counters, riding your skateboard).

You say this a lot: _______________ (i.e. “mommy mommy mommy”, “screw this!).

Your favorite food these days:__________________(i.e. breast milk, pizza…or even breast milk and pizza for some!)

Your favorite character from a show or movie is this: ________________(i.e. Elmo, or Captain Jack Sparrow).

This is your favorite toy: ______________ (i.e. teething ring, skateboard).

I love you to death, but I really wish you would stop doing this:____________.

You're a great kid because of this:________________.

I'm amazed that you do this:_______________(i.e. talking, wake up before 11:00am)

I love when you do this:_______________.

Something I’m wearing these days that will probably make you laugh some day (or already does):_________________.

Something you are struggling with presently that I wish I could help you with:__________.

This is an article from a magazine or newspaper describing an event that happened today or around this time:

Feel free to do whatever you want to do to remember these moments. This is simply a guide and you can use some of it, all of it, or none of it!:-) It's your time capsule!

HAVE FUN!

Homework Time!!

Right, Bad Mommies, it's my turn to set the homework. Sorry it's so late. I could give a whole list of excuses, but you won't believe me anyhoo…

Okay, for this week, I want everyone to do a Photo Project. I know all of you, myself included, are Happy Snappers and that is why I think we need to do something like this.

So for topics, please choose one of these*:

• Place your emotions and feelings into a picture. How does your child(ren) make you feel? What do they mean to you? For example, Happiness = A photo of an ice-cream or a chocolate (cause we all know how happy that makes us). Be as creative as you want!
  

OR

• Take photos of objects/shapes to spell out the name of your child. It could be his real name, or the nickname we all know him by (like Damien for Angel and Boobah for me). For example, I could take a photo of a ball, to represent the B in Boobah and a photo of a wheel or round object for the O.
  

For mommies who have don't have a camera, Google Image Search** has just become your new best friend. And seeing though I've only put up the homework midweek, deadline for this project would be end of next week. Bear in mind that on Monday a new assignment will be set as well, so the two will run parallel with each other.

I hope you all have fun and that this really gets those creative juices flowing!

*Minimum of 3 pictures required

** Please remember to give credit to the original owner of the pictures you use

Homework – House Rules

When you get the time.

Here is more homework

Briget, Becasue I Can recently did a post, Letter of Intent.

Thought it would be fun to do a letter modelled on that.

But on of actual house rules in your home.

Moms with babies can skip this one if they want.

bad mom seeks amusing moments

So, I haven't done last week's homework and I'm late with this week's assignment. Clearly I am cut out for the Teacher of the Year award, right after Best Mom Ever.

Regardless, here we go.

Please tell us about something your child(ren) said that was supremely amusing. Embarrassing is also fun.

Okay, me first.

One from the archives of my son's many hilarious exchanges:
When my son was about 3, I was getting him some applesauce when he passed gas. I asked what he should say; he replied "Thank you." Realizing I had kind of confused him I then said, "But what do you say after farting?" My charmer - "You're welcome!"

Paige once finished her dinner then lifted her shirt and announced, while pointing to her stomach, "I have an empty space shaped like dessert right here!"

Letters Into the Future

This week's homework takes the form of a letter.

You will write this letter to your kid(s), with the intention that he/she will receive it on an important milestone in their life.

This milestone can be anything - an age (16/18/21), an event (passing their drivers' licence, sex for the first time, going away to college....) or any time in the future you think is appropriate.

"Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them." ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

"If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves." ~C.G. Jung, Integration of the Personality, 1939

"Your children tell you casually years later what it would have killed you with worry to know at the time." ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966

PS: if you're not a bad mommy, feel free to do the homework in the comments section, or on your own blog, and paste a link to it in the comments section!

Meme For Bad Mommies

On account of how Sheena has been missing from Bloggerama recently, I have decided to set the homework this week. In case she has forgotten. So here we all are.

This week's homework is something a little different. I have grown tired of the 'Questions & Answers Format'.

It's called.... "Before I Was A Mommy....." and I was inspired by "Shelled & Deshelled".

So click the link. (Here's another example)

Read hers to see how it'd done...

And let's see what you come up with...

PS: if you're not a bad mommy, feel free to complete this in the comments section.

Homework - my turn

Posting this from my phone, so finger trouble must be forgiven :-)

1. What is the one thing you have said or done to your kid that you regret the most.
2. Have you passed any bad habits on to your kid/s?
3. Does your own mom rock or suck?
4. How do you feel about TV, music, popular media around your kids? Anything in particular you feel strongly about not letting your kid/s watch/listen to/read?

Okay folks, only four from me. It's been a rough week and this week ain't looking much better, but I'll definately be back to check your answers.

do your home work!!! by Sweets ;-)

1. How is mothering, in reality, different from what you expected it to be?

2. What is something you, as a kid, vowed you would never say to your own kids? Have you kept the vow?

3. If someone stopped in to your house for a surprise visit, would you be glad for the company, or self-concious by the condition of your home?

4. If you had twins tomorrow (boy and a girl) and you got to name them without any input from anyone else, what would you choose?

5. Did you suffer from post natal depression (this is an awful boring question but I always wonder about this cause I didn't suffer myself)?

Bad Mommy Homemork: Bridget Asks The Questions.

The format of these is really simple. I'm the Bad Cop as well as the Good Cop. This is an Interrogation Chamber! You answer my questions! End of story.

1. What was your biggest disappointment when you found out you were pregnant and how did you cope with it?

2. How have you managed, if you have, to retain the friendships of child-less friends?

3. Have you acknowledged the mistakes you have made in raising your child, to your child?

4. What is the best thing your kid's other parent has said about your parenting?

5. What is the worst?

Bad Mommy Homework - Week 2

Again, this week's task takes the form of a questionaire.


1. What do you remember most clearly about the birth of your kid(s)?
2. What weird cravings did you have, if any?
3. What other names were you debating, before you settled on the name you did?
4. What's the hardest part about being a mommy?
5. How did becoming a mommy change you?
6. What advice would you give any future mommies-to-be?

Attention: New Bad Mommies

Seeing as we're all new to this blog - and I'm new to all of you, I'd like to tag you, and get you all to do something for me:

1. Post a picture of your kid(s).
2. Tell us all 3 things we wouldn't know about you.
3. Tell us some things we wouldn't know about your kid(s).
4. What quote/saying best describes the way you feel about being a mommy?
5. Who's your Famous Mommy Role Model (haha, like there actually are any good celebrity mommies)
6. If you could have one wish granted for your kid(s), what would it be?

And I'll do the same too....