VOTE FOR ME!

It's election day! Or at least that's what it looks like to me...

You know how Election time rolls around in your city/county/state/country and it's like the world explodes in red, white and blue. There are signs every where and all of a sudden your city is the perfect poster board for a campaign and by day three you're already wishing all the signage and personal advertisements were down? Lately, that's the way the mommy blogosphere has looked to me. It's plastered in pastels and ads all screaming the same ad-age, "VOTE FOR US!" Now I give the mommies one thing and one thing only here, props for remembering the fact that your blog is about being a mommy and the life that comes with it, so the 'me' to 'us' switch, total kudos. But that's about it.

See when MF got into blogging in general, it was (and still remains) to be able to bond with other moms, to listen and look into their lives, have a sense of "it happens to someone else too", and maybe most importantly to help mold her sense of how she does and doesn't want to parent. Taking and leaving whatever advice, rules, and style she wants from her ever widening set of mommy bloggy friends. But as I dink around the the mommy blogosphere lately it's really started to bother me. Maybe it's the Christmas spirit getting into me, but holy moly blogging has gone commercial and I'm thinking that it's a train I don't want to catch. It's a whole hierarchy thing and it blows my mind. Everyone is competing to be the best mommy blog, have the cutest kid, get the raddest giveaways. Pardon the Not-A-Mommy for a moment but where did the kids go? Your kiddos are the reason I look at your blogs, and so are your trials and triumphs of mommyhood. I read your blogs because I connect with you on some level even without having given birth myself. I see what I will and won't try and yes sometimes make the large realization that I am not ready for the plunge with kids that you brave women have already taken. No siree I'm still ok with handing them back at the end of the day. And now here you are campaigning to be the BEST mommy blog around. I'm not sure that's how it works though, in my honest opinion it's a total word of mouth thing, one friend reads your little (or not little) blog for the first time and then one of two things happen: either they give a little shrug and the word meh barely passes their lips or their brain goes OMGmustreadeverypostthiswomanisamazing/hysterical/brilliant and then when they are done they tell a friend who has the same one or other moment and the cycle continues. It's one or the other but campaigning, all it does is give someone the option. But you know what some of the top mommy blogs, I bet they didn't campaign much, in fact most of them probably rose to the top on accident, and would probably tell you they never thought it would go so far. For example, Single Dad Laughing ok ok ok so he isn't a mommy but maybe it should be the parenting blogosphere instead, because this guy shot his little star to fame in a heart beat. How? He accidentally went viral. Like the Black Plague viral, and well if you have no idea what I'm talking about then just think about it like this, you've just been introduced to someone who falls into the same category as George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Ryan Reynolds, we're talking Top 100 sexy men, and this guy is on the list or at least he should be and in the mommy bloggy world, he would be. Point is people, campaign or not your blog will go where it goes and do what it do.

The Minivan Arguement.

Recently MF has had enough with her not so little sedan. Dinging doors with other cars and practically breaking her neck to get the little man into his seat sometimes is just not cutting it anymore. The final decision (Hubs included!), to get a minivan. GASP!

"Oh my gosh I will NEVER own a minivan" or "I won't be THAT mom" and my personal fav, "anyone who drives a minivan is a HORRIBLE driver"

Ok so I may have uttered one or two of these phrases, even this week perhaps (if we're totally honest I guarantee I've said all three before, sue me). But I bet you a penny candy you have too.

What's the big deal? It's practical, there is plenty of room for a growing family, all their stuff and even a few extra kids when called for. Oh but the backlash has been interesting. You'll find your friends standing on drastically different sides, maybe even different sides than you would have pegged them for, usually however it boils down to whether or not you're a Minivan Mom or an SUV Siren. Thus I give you the arguments:

The Minivan:
Ample leg room
More seating
Fold away seats
Sliding doors
Storage
Good gas mileage

The SUV:
Nice leg room
More seating
Fold away seats
Higher riding for a better vantage point
Good storage
OK gas mileage

Wait... those are AWFULLY similar lists...interesting. In fact I'm having a hard time deciding if one is truly better than the other, it seems to me it's more about personal opinion. At least we can hopefully all agree that minivans now are way better than minivans way back when.oh so sexy...

What about you? Any pros/cons? What did you choose?

Did You Know?!

That there is a song that you're supposed to sing while playing with your wee wee? No really it goes something like this:

"La la LA la la LA LA!"

There is even a cool little hand motion that we wont show you.