#momfilter

[unlikelyfashionista]

"But above all, it is important to have your own style lens to filter through the endless options for style expression.  Otherwise, it can be altogether too much and confusing – there is no end to style ‘must haves’ and ‘don’ts’ many of them conflicting. Know thine own style." --Ann Prentice, stylist

[unlikelyfashionista]

This piece resonated with me. In December I switched from my old, nearly dead laptop (if a computer could cough and sputter, this one would have hacked and wheezed) to a shiny new MacBook Air, full of the promise of speedy activity and convenient portability...and very little storage space for files. The process of moving my hundreds of photos from Nearly Dead to Super Mac(!) was so agonizing I never actually finished it. And in the pain of trying to finish it, I got to thinking about the excessive nature of digital photography.

When I was a kid, flipping through a just-printed batch of pictures (I came of age in the Dawn of One-Hour Photo Processing, a truly wondrous time) was the height of excitement, but I was quick to toss out any photos that didn't meet my aesthetic standards (for at least eight years that included any photo I wasn't in). What I have left now (at the age when one cleans out old boxes and photos from one's childhood home) are worthy of keeping--they mark good (if not important) times, milestones, moments I used to also cherish as memories before having a baby deleted half of my brain. 

What I also have now are a decade's worth of digital photo files that have never been weeded. The weird faces (not the quirky, cute ones--the Weird ones that should never see the glow of the monitor, let alone the light of day), photos of nothing, blurry junk, they're all waiting for me like a vast virtual wasteland lightly peppered with some diamonds in the rough. 

So yes, I'm guilty of over-documenting. Worse yet, I'm not even over-documenting with any prowess. I'm like a hoarder, and my stash of choice is digital photos. Moving forward, I need to go backward and hit DELETE until my pinky finger cramps. And I may give this moleskin idea a whirl.

[unlikelyfashionista]

Heartwarming meets a little gift grubbing in this dad's perspective on Father's Day gifts.

And one tip from me: if the dad in your life is (like my husband) embarrassingly man-crushing on Bob Dylan, this beautifully illustrated (and, I'll admit, composed) book will make a great son-to-daddy gift.

[unlikelyfashionista]

When two things I love collide so early in the morning--chocolate and croissants, honey and lavender, sleep and more sleep, sunshine and dog walking, and now momfilter's Mom Uniform column and J. Crew--I know it's going to be a bright day. 

[omn-blog]

Call to action: Mom, get off Facebook please!

Think of all the time you spend on Facebook. Chatting, ‘liking,’ looking through pictures, and playing Farmville. Now imagine you had a young child to look after…you’d cut down on the Facebook time and engage with your kid, right? Well, not necessarily. MomFilter, an online family-lifetsyle magazine, worries that moms are getting so sucked into Facebook that they’re neglecting their motherly duties. Just this past April, a northern Colorado woman was sentenced to 10 years in prison for letting her 13-month-old son drown in the tub while she played Café World on Facebook in another room. While the 34-year-old mom only left the baby alone for 10 minutes, that’s plenty of time for tragedy to strike. In response to this and less severe cases of Facebook-obsessed moms, MomFilter sponsored a PSA asking moms to log off and pay attention to their kids:

None of my peers are mothers—so I really can’t say from personal, anecdotal experience if this is a fair accusation to make- that moms put Facebook before their kids. I’ve definitely heard (and seen) the flipside though: Kids who are so addicted to tweeting, texting, Facebooking, gaming, and all things social-media that they completely cut themselves off from family time (granted, not at 13-months-old…yet). I think it’s safe to say it works both ways.  We all need to spend less time on Facebook and more time with each other.

[summer-ize-blog]

it's the only way.

i always love reading anna quindlen's thoughts on parenthood.  just read this interview on momfilter, and it didn't disappoint.

some highlights:

My kids have taught me…everything worth knowing...

The biggest mistake I ever made with the kids was…not listening to them enough and listening to other moms too much. 

My favorite moment of the day is…when I hear a key in the front door and a voice calls “Mom?”

(on looking back and being present)

I think having bright lines and boundaries really worked for us, that it made our kids strong and secure because they were clear on expectations and responsibilities.  But I wish I had been better able to combine that with letting things go a little bit.  Nobody really needs a bath every night.  Nobody really needs a balanced meal for every meal.  I should have let the freak flag fly a bit more. It’s hard to be a Type A mom.  I wish I could have been a bit more B plus, for my sake and their own.

(on balance)

Takeout is a godsend, and neatness is overrated. So are meetings; most office meetings are busy work and should be outlawed. You get twice as much from someone who is permitted to work at home. But you don’t get much done at home unless your kids are in school or you have a sitter at least parttime. When in doubt, choose the kids. There will be plenty of time later to choose the work.

(on helicopter parenting)

Helicopter parenting is bad for kids because they wind up with no real accomplishments.  If everything is overseen by your parents, you’ve never really done anything great, interesting or creative yourself. It’s a selfish act because it doesn’t grow out of the kid’s need to be overseen but out of the parent’s need to be central to the kid’s existence. It forces a teenager to either rebel or become too dependent to be a fully realized human being. The trick of being a good parent is to play the line out slowly until, when the moment is right, you drop it and stand there with empty hands. That is hard, and it is sad, but it’s the only way.