A Mommy Blog About Raising Men, Not Boys.
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Thursday, September 21, 2006

Parenting Magazine Thou Hast My Rancor

This has been bothering me for a while. So I thought I'd take this moment to bitch about it.
Parenting Magazine's Tag Line is "What Really Matters Most to Moms".
Wouldn't that really be "MOMMYING"?
I know this is a little soap boxy of me, but it irks me in the same way most articles about babies refer to the baby (especially if unborn) as SHE do. THAT particular practice annoyed the living shit out of me when I was carrying ONE male of the species and doubly so when I was carrying TWO males. SHE? WHERE IS THIS SHE YOU ARE SPEAKING OF? I'm carrying TWO HUMANS AND BOTH ARE MALE. But I digress.
I don't know where this practice comes from, assuming that the parenting is the female responsibility but it just infuriates me.
My husband is a stay at home dad but even if he WASN'T he's a very very involved parent. To belittle that and his dedication to his children would be the equivalent of me being assigned to also fetch coffee for the boy execs when I wasn't busy doing my cute little Director of Operations gig. It's bullshit.
My husband stayed home when there was one newborn. My husband stayed home when there were TWO five week old newborns and I slugged down some Starbucks (okay a LOT of Starbucks) and drug my ass back to work because I hadn't been there a year and wasn't protected under FMLA.
My husband initiated and completed potty training of our oldest.
He timed adding new foods to their palettes based on content and texture as the progressed through the Gerber Stages into table food.
I'm sure articles that weren't so completely based in the "how to get your husband to run the vacuum and not demand blowjobs 24-7" mindset might actually be beneficial. I know he reads this stuff, but I also know it alienates him in a culture that already looks at him like he's insane because he chose to make sure my children were safe and well cared for vs. making enough money to cover day care.

Parenting, you provide valuable insights into our children and their development. But please get with the program. Parenting is a two person job, and about 99% of the time that person CAN read and would absorb more information from your media if it weren't so biased AGAINST him.

You have the right to market to any damn demographic you like. But really, isn't it time to pave the way and embrace the fact that dads ARE contributors to the parenting of their childen these days? They really are. I don't ACTUALLY know of any Dad's whose sole contribution is a paycheck. I want Parenting articles that are just that, Parenting articles. Not mommying articles.

And, stop calling unborn babies SHE.

Annoying as hell, that is.

3 comments:

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah said...

I agree. Alwasy she and always one she.

Parenting magazine doesn't apply to me.

Lumpyheadsmom said...

I always thought it made more sense (and heard it was convention actually, guess I heard wrong) to call unborn babies he, regardless of gender. That way, you could talk about mom and baby interchangeably with less confusion.

English needs a gender-neutral pronoun, dammit.

Frank said...

Thanks.