Category: Tired Mommy’s Tales

Does Celebrity Mom = Working Mom?

Posted on by Sarah Marshall

When I need to take a mental break at work, I’ll usually log onto sites like modernmom.com, People.com or something equally mindless.  Recently I’ve seen quite a few articles addressing how celebrities moms like Brooke Burke and Gwenyth Paltrow “do it all” as a working mom.

That does not shock me but what does is the venom that is spewed in the comments sections of these articles.  For some reason, non-celebrity moms feel the need to bring celeb moms down a peg or two.  I really don’t understand why we as moms feel the need to do this to each other.

We all have our own struggles.  While Mommy Sue is struggling to make ends meet, Mommy Jane is having marriage troubles.  Does the fact that Mommy Jane’s family have more money mean her misfortune is any less difficult?  Of course not.

Yes, celebrity moms have more disposable income so they can afford nannies, chefs, personal trainers, etc.  But they also have to shield their children from papparzzi, that’s something I don’t deal with on a daily basis.  I don’t have to travel far away and work 18 hour days for long periods of time away from my family.  No one publishes a news story when I make a mistake.

Celebrity moms don’t have it any easier or harder than “regular moms”  just like working moms don’t have it any easier or harder than stay-at-home moms.  We’re all moms – let’s be in this together instead of looking for ways to set us against each other.

What do you think?  Are we as moms too quick too pit our fellow moms against each other?

5 Things I Would Have Never Guessed About Potty Training

Posted on by Sarah Marshall

Brooke has been in the process of potty training for about 6 months now. We’re pretty laid back about it but that doesn’t mean we haven’t had our share of frustrations with it. Which leads me to:

5 Things I Would Have Never Guessed About Potty Training

  1. It can be just as messy as diapers. I don’t know what made me think that the mere shift from a diaper to a pull-up would make changing time any cleaner.  It’s not.
  2. Speaking of pull-ups….why exactly are they more expensive than regular diapers?  And they don’t seem to ever be part of my favorite deal at Babies R Us that gives you gift cards when you buy jumbo boxes.  I’d been planning to build a stash of cloth diapers for our next baby and started early so that we can cloth diaper at home and only buy pull-ups for school.
  3. You spend a lot more time on the bathroom floor. I seriously didn’t clock this much time sitting on the bathroom floor since my morning sickness and college party days combined.  Nothing prepared me for the fact that Brooke was going to view her potty time as a social event.  Heaven knows I’m waiting until I can go uninterrupted again!!
  4. Public bathrooms are even more disgusting. They were bad before but I didn’t think about it much.  Now that I find myself squeezing into a stall with Brooke, holding her on the seat, trying to get her re-dressed with minimal floor-touching,  hoisting her up to the sink to wash her hands I am in a continuous .  Icky Icky!!  When we remember to bring it along, this portable potty seat is really handy though!
  5. How many times we’ d have to interrupt dinner to race her to the potty. Really, how does her body clock seem to know when I’ve just taken a huge bite and she’s just stuck her hands in cottage cheese?

I realize potty training is just a phase and this too shall pass.  Until then, I gotta keep my sense of humor about it all, right?