Posts tagged as:

trying to do the right thing

Freedom from Want, Or The Case of the Golden Turkey

November 22, 2009 a picture is worth a thousand words

Even if you don’t know its name, you must have seen this iconic painting by Norman Rockwell: The name of the painting is Freedom from Want, by Norman Rockwell in 1943. Ever since its appearance and subsequent permeation into the pop culture and the collective American consciousness, it is also known as Thanksgiving Dinner. This [...]

Tagged as: Bring back Thanksgiving!, guilt is the trip mothers take often, my youngest, neurosis, trying to do the right thing

23 comments

Towards a Discussion of Religious Pluralism with a First Grader. Gingerly.

November 20, 2009 no manual for parenting

Scene 1 On our way home in the car, the 11 year-old lodged an official complaint against his younger brother for embarassing him in school: He talks about God too much. He said things like, “God created everything” in daily, random conversations, without prompting. On top of that, he also sometimes sports a British accent, [...]

Tagged as: Catholic church and me, how much is too much, my youngest, questions kids ask, things you don't think about until you are a parent, trying to do the right thing

26 comments

Got Pigtail? Ugh. Halloween Costume Conundrum

October 31, 2009 imho is just a polite way to say I know you don't give a hoot what I think but I'm going to say it anyway

Every Halloween, we saw news reports and editorial comments on offensive costumes du jour.  What I call Halloween Costume Conundrum. HCC. This year, the HCC award went to Illegal Alien: It was such a brouhaha partly because, in my opinion, it was sold through Target’s website.  Target, the one mega store that does not seem [...]

Tagged as: ability to be oblivious, Halloween, photo, posts in which i talk about race, stereotypes, trying to do the right thing

11 comments

“What are you?” OMG, a form I could fill out wihout having to choose!

October 11, 2009 imho is just a polite way to say I know you don't give a hoot what I think but I'm going to say it anyway

My children are, in the common lingo, “mixed”.  Or, if they want to be hip when they grow up and get into identity politics, they can call themselves Hapa, or, indeed, whatever the hack they want.  If they want to call themselves a mutt, the way Prez. Obama did, fine with me too. But despite [...]

Tagged as: ability to be oblivious, posts in which i talk about race, trying to do the right thing, what keeps me awake

2 comments

“How to Care for Introverts”

September 29, 2009 no manual for parenting

I saw this a couple of weeks ago from a twittie bird on Twitter…  I clicked on the link, expecting it to be a funny, ha ha moment, “tongue in cheek”.  I grew silent as I read the list.  It describes my youngest almost to a T, and for the first time, I was getting [...]

Tagged as: guilt is the trip mothers take often, my youngest, trying to do the right thing

15 comments

“A Class Divided”: Powerful experiment on how Racism can be learned, and in 15 minutes

September 23, 2009 this i believe

Some of you may know about this already, since this Frontline documentary was first aired in 1985. I have only heard about the “Blue-eyed vs. Brown-eyed” experiment done by a daring 3rd-grade teacher, but I have never actually seen the documentary until today.  Through Twitter, of course.  There is something to be said about the [...]

Tagged as: ability to be oblivious, damn liberals, posts in which i talk about race, trying to do the right thing, video

6 comments

Maybe, just maybe, The People of Walmart has something to teach us?

August 30, 2009 a picture is worth a thousand words

Scene 1: There is this new website, People of Walmart, that’s gaining the buzz.  (Heck, even The Bloggess mentioned them as “shit-I-didn’t-write-but-wish-I-did-because-it’s-kind-of-awesome” for this week…) (Note: Time.com also wrote about it on August 31, 2009, the day after this post was originally published.) Here is one of the most excellent specimen, in all its glory: [...]

Tagged as: body image, funny scary, irony, trying to do the right thing, what keeps me awake

3 comments

The Ability to be Oblivious OR Is there a manual for the multicutural world we envision?

June 16, 2009 no manual for parenting

Warning: The following text contains ruminations on the color of our skins. If you feel uncomfortable discussing skin colors, wish that people would just stop obsessing over skin colors and go on with their lives, or believe that the insistence on talking about the colors of our skin makes the originator of the conversation a [...]

Tagged as: ability to be oblivious, damn liberals, guilt is the trip mothers take often, how much is too much, posts in which i talk about race, questions kids ask, things kids say, trying to do the right thing

0 comments

We are like The Simpsons. Yellow like The Simpsons.

May 22, 2009 no manual for parenting

My 6 yo drew this picture of us today. This would be one of the 86,337 pictures drawn from the teacher asking “Please draw a picture of your family” before he graduates from high school. Surprised at his choice of color. But thank goodness that they no longer call the pale pinkish color “Skin”. That’s [...]

Tagged as: ability to be oblivious, my youngest, photo, posts in which i talk about race, trying to do the right thing

2 comments

A flower for Joey Roth, the designer of Sorapot

February 28, 2009 random

Humbleville, Interweb – Local woman awoken from her solipsistic stupor by designer’s sincere, genuine interest in feedback of his creation. Submom received a wake-up call when designer Joey Roth replied directly to her random vent of his creation, Sorapot. When asked to reflect more carefully, Submom admitted that she DID enjoy watching the Chinese flower [...]

Tagged as: sorapot, trying to do the right thing, wired

0 comments

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