UncoolMom.com

Uncool Parent Hall of Fame: Madonna

2012-02-06T07:18:12Z

Empty Promises: Are We Failing Our Kids By Telling Them They Can "Do It All"?

2012-02-01T07:55:33Z

In January and February, it's "roll out the red carpet" time here in North Texas for area middle schools, junior highs and high schools. Which means if you're entering one of those illustrious institutions next fall, you get to attend a welcome night at said school, and if you already attend one of those schools and are involved in any extracurricular activity that can "show off" in three minutes or less, you are invited, sometimes required, to be a part of this welcome. And if you're a parent of a kid in one of these categories, you attend, too, to sit on gym bleachers and either learn ("Umm, is that a beard and sideburns I see on that senior?") or watch your child perform ("Should I wear my photo button?"). Over the past six years that I've been attending these dog ...

Friday Freebie: A Handy Phone App Plus Trendy Eyewear!

2012-01-27T19:44:59Z

If your kids have been sick as much as mine have been lately, today’s freebie could come in very handy—it’s a free website service and free mobile app (for iPhone, Blackberry and Android), called ZocDoc (www.zocdoc.com) that allow you to book doctor appointments online, at your convenience 24/7, without ever having to call and deal with the frustrations of being put on hold.

Here’s how it works:

-Search for nearby doctors who accept your insurance

-View doctors’ photos, qualifications, verified patient reviews and ratings, and available appointment times

Potty (Mouth) Training Revisited

2012-01-25T07:36:57Z

I watched with interest all the hoopla last week about the little girl on the ABC-TV show "Modern Family", who was depicted as cursing on last week's episode (or is it "cussing"?). See, "using swear words" had already been a "hot topic" around our house this month. In the wake of the episode, which was entitled "Little Bo Bleep", I found lots of online psycho-babble by professors and other experts chiming in about how swearing is, among other things, a natural part of early language development, cathartic, and helps people tolerate pain. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think most people already know that. And we also know something else the experts were saying, that, just like in the Modern Family episode, little kids use swear words without really knowing what they mean, and get a kick out of adults' reactions when they use them, and so they'll say them again. "Modern Family" was just art imitating real life. (Does that mean the Parents Television Council, the group who first caused a stink about the show, is not made up of real parents? Sometimes I wonder...) But what I really wanted to know amidst last week's jaw flapping was how real parents deal with swearing by children and teens.

Shared passwords: the new "friendship ring" among kids?

2012-01-19T05:59:28Z

Just when you thought you knew everything you needed to know on what to warn/teach your kids about using Facebook and the Internet...have you heard that kids/teens/20-somethings share their passwords with each other, for everything from email accounts, Facebook and other services? According to a recent New York Times article, it's a widespread practice among young Internet users, even among young couples who are dating. Apparently, it's a sign of trust-- i.e. "if I'm your only love, prove it with an all-access pass to your Internet accounts." Gee, nothing says "love" quite like mistrusting someone, huh? And I guess nothing says "I'm a stupid risk taker" quite like that either, since of course breakups can be messy, and BFF's can become BFN's (Best Friends Never) faster than Justin Bieber can swoosh his hair. Who wants to risk being kicked off a sports ...

The Circle of Pride and Embarrassment

2012-01-15T01:21:04Z

While I generally have an "I don't worry about what people think about me" attitude, it's funny that when you have kids, you do care about how they "show" in public, in part because you feel like their actions are a reflection of your parenting skills. You wince when they're young and throw tantrums in Target, pick their nose while walking down the aisle during a wedding ceremony or point a finger at a stranger in a parade and yell out something brutally honest ("That man is HUGE!!"). And you rejoice when they remember to say "Thank you" to Grandma, sing a song perfectly at a recital or run to greet you in front of school with a big hug. I hope I never forget the time when Emmie and I were sitting in a bookstore coffee shop-- I was looking through a stack of cookbooks and she was engrossed in one of her Rick Riordan novels, when all of a sudden she looked at me and my books and said, "I am so glad I have a Mom that cooks, and plans out all of our meals, because a lot of people don't do that very much anymore." Yes, I about fell off my chair at that sign of appreciation, and yes, the elderly couple walking past our table right at that moment almost dropped their lattes in astonishment, then offered some words of praise to both Emmie and me. It was a proud moment and I think it made that elderly couple happy, too...

A Vegetable Even Kids Can Love

2012-01-10T05:59:56Z

Though Uncool Mom is often called a "parenting blog" or "mom blog", one topic it doesn't focus on much is cooking. But I do a lot of cooking, so I've been thinking that once in awhile I should share a recipe worth sharing, which in my opinion equals something that's a.) EXTREMELY easy and b.) really good. Easier than even Cooking for Dummies or one of those "3-ingredient cookbooks", easy enough for a kid to make, easy for an adult to make by memory...and so good, the most finicky kid should like it, yet it can still impress company. Because something like that doesn't come along too often, you can be assured I'm not going to turn this blog into Recipe Central. Just know that when I do take the time to post a recipe, it's a keeper.

Updates

2012-01-04T20:18:15Z

Time for a few updates, for all of you Uncool Mom readers who are dying to know the answers to such burning questions as: Did my now-17-year-old ever get her driver's license? Did she ever get a job? How is the exchange student doing now that she's gone back to France? What was the outcome of the CBS DFW Most Valuable Blogger contest? Read on to find out the answers, and other things I promised to "keep you posted" about in 2011:

The Diet-- In August, I posted about spending the summer doing the Atkins Diet with Allison and how we were both having success with it. She stuck with it until about a month after school started (it's a really hard diet for a carb-loving teenager to do, especially when everyone around them is eating chips and pizza). I'm still at it, ...

Two Family Movies Worth Watching (Again) Over The Holiday Break

2011-12-27T18:05:33Z

I cried a bunch yesterday. When the doctor finally came in to see us after two hours of waiting at Primacare (a walk-in clinic) and saw the tears rolling down my cheeks, he probably thought I was worried about Emmie (she has bronchitis)... or that I was fed up with having to wait so long with a bunch of sick people ON THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS. But Primacare was showing The Rookie on their in-clinic movie system-- why wouldn't everyone cry at that?

It was the second time I've seen it. But I think I cried not only because it's a great, true story about second chances, it's also a really well-made movie, and well-made movies are hard to come by-- great soundtrack (tunes by Steve Earle, Willlie Nelson, John Hiatt, and Ryan Adams, among others); great acting (Dennis Quaid in the lead role of Jimmy Morris); ...

Who Spiked the Punctuation? Why Most Holiday Cards Need A Ride Home From The Party

2011-12-21T19:38:02Z

Okay, okay, I know…who am I to criticize holiday cards when I haven’t sent any out in… hmmm…a couple years? But I’ve been wanting to say something about them for a long time. No, not about how good friends I haven’t seen in ages expect me to read the long letters they’ve composed but don’t even bother to personalize it by signing their name at the bottom, let alone write me one or two lines. And no, not about how some families spend tons of money and time on getting that perfect holiday card portrait taken by a professional photographer when sadly most of those gorgeous cards just end up in the trash…but my biggest beef with holiday cards is with the use of the apostrophe. Or, I should say, misuse. I know most adults have long forgotten many punctuation and grammar rules they learned in school, but I think most remember ...