Thought some of you might enjoy this that I came across yesterday. I wasn't sure whether to give it its own thread or put it in MarieZug's thread about lazy parenting as it's kind of related.

http://planningwithkids.com/2011/08/...of-motherhood/

I like number 8: good mothers and their kids always look immaculate. Definitely not happening in my household!

Nice list I remember not long after I had my daughter, being back in the hyper-parenting Cambridge/Boston area and feeling like I was a complete failure in the Mommyhood. I would wind up watching CNN to bolster my feelings of inadequacy by thinking, hey, I didn't microwave my kid today or I didn't drive into the harbor with my kid today so I'm not so bad. My neighbor was a classic competi-mommy, too, who I learned to sort of tune out.

I often wonder if our parents would have survived today's parenting pressures.

Thanks for the article. So true!

I especially like #9 - "Good mothers do not use day care if they are not going to work."

I believe it's incredibly important to socialize your children as much as possible (without losing quality time with them). We socialize puppies but we think it's bad for moms to put their kids in daycare?? Sorry but I prefer having a child who learns to be respectful of others, gets lots of hugs & love from others, learns to share, and has others saying "no" to them so I'm not always the bad guy!!

#11 - Good wives will not demote their husbands to being purely the financial breadwinner.

Bad Mothers' Club (Members are mainly from Britain)

http://www.badmothersclub.co.uk/jsp/index.jsp

I agree! An occasional viewing of "Supernanny" sometimes makes me feel like I must be doing something right, even though I am aware that it is likely the "bad behavior" portrayed on the show is mostly contrived and "acted."

Most of us are probably all guilty of sometimes using the thought of, "Look, someone is failing worse than me" to lift one's self esteem up a bit, be it in the area of academics, parenting, diet/fitness, housekeeping, career, personal relationships, etc. I think that is why reality shows are such big business!

I don't quite follow you - are you saying good wives are ok to do that? Or are you pointing out that kids have fathers too, in which case, good point, and of course this can all apply to dads too, although usually people do seem to blame mothers for such things as biting or sartorial errors.

Speaking of which... I had to rush my daughter to the doctor today after she screamed for an hour, and only when we got home an hour later did I realise my son had his T-shirt on inside out.

Actually, the scary bit is that I don't think a lot of those episodes are staged where the kids are concerned. The culture of having the parents become servile to their children and being completely unable to discipline them is pretty widespread. There were a couple of kids at my daughter's daycare back home that could have benefitted from a session with Supernanny.

And the whole reality thing is just a symptom of how voyeuristic and judgmental the current culture is today. For every insecurity, there's a reality tv show to make you feel better about yourself. I think that must be why I think they're so incredibly vile. I once watched about 5 mins of the 'hoarders' show and I couldn't bear either the thought of my house being like that or that so many people might enjoy watching such a terrible illness being turned into 'entertainment'.