I hope MotherTalkers grows into a thriving community. I’m a Bay Area activist/litigator who became a single mother later in life. I have boy/girl twins about to turn three. We are in the process of toilet training, speaking in full sentences for the first time, tantrums, and other assorted goofiness…… More below the fold. Since […] Continue reading →

This starchy little tribute to the fulfillment of housewifery was tucked into the SF Chronicle’s Home & Garden section this past week. I read the whole thing, mystified. The heavy, gleaming General Electric sits, heated and ready, on the ironing board. My mother moves quietly around the kitchen. Even at this hour, she looks neat […] Continue reading →

Parenting’s website had an interesting poll question: “Is it okay for fertility doctors to help a woman have a baby no matter how old she is?” By Sunday afternoon, the poll garnered 8,036 responses with 61 percent saying “no” and the rest replying “yes.” Of course, it was a quick poll that didn’t define “old.” […] Continue reading →

Now that I am past breastfeeding and carrying a baby, now that my son is his own little man and I no longer have to worry about making him wheeze, I am ready to wear perfume again. A distant reminder of my past before motherhood, I’ve been visiting perfume counters and sniffing the samples in […] Continue reading →

Reading or receiving any news is in sharp decline among people under the age of 30, according to an article in Salon. And it shows: Disturbingly, today’s 18-to-29-year-old segment knows less about what’s happening in the world than their counterparts did in the 1950s and 1960s — that, despite the proliferation of information on television, […] Continue reading →

Here’s some fun stuff for the weekend. The theme? FANTASY. Apparently, there’s a whole genre of trashy romance paperbacks devoted to baby-daddy fantasy. Red meat for the Smart Bitches. It’s hard out here for a superheroine. Peer into the adolescent world of comics, and you’ll discover a roiling id full of rape/torture/dismember/snuff fantasies. Travis Frey […] Continue reading →

I was inspired by Fabooj’s post to introduce myself, I hope she doesn’t mind the copycat! 🙂 I am a WAHM now, who was a trial lawyer before getting pregnant at age 39. I immediately knew that my profession was not “baby friendly” (at the office at 7:00 a.m., never home before 6:00 p.m.) and […] Continue reading →

When my son watches TV, I feel guilty. The primary reasons for that: 1) the nearly unanimous conclusion by pediatricians that television watching is bad news for kids, and 2) I grew up watching minimal TV, and I rightly or wrongly associate that with increased creativity. Then this article comes along and up-ends some of […] Continue reading →

Batteries are the bane of my parental existence. I’d guess that a good 85% of children’s toys today require batteries. That, to me, is indicative of a complete lack of imagination, perspective, and responsibility on the toymakers’ part. Batteries contain hazardous waste, and increasingly, states are adopting laws that ban batteries from landfills. California’s just […] Continue reading →

This has been an on-going debate between my husband and I. An avid gamer himself, he plans to insist that our son join him for “matches.” (Not sure what the proper terminology is for “squaring off” in a video game dual.) But seeing that today’s shoot-me-up games and graphic violence, especially towards women, are a […] Continue reading →