supermoms

Things are busy in Central New Jersey, where Liz Thompson works at a fitness center, looks after her four kids, and maintains her popular award-winning blog This Full House. She spoke with Life360 Now! about writing, The Brady Bunch, and why parents never sleep.

What prompted you to start writing the blog?

I started blogging in 2003—back before traffic counts and SEO ruled the earth—as just another way to connect with other moms, share stories and feel a little less disconnected with life on the outside, beyond all the poop and diapers.  Who knew, right?

Was a very full house something you’d always hoped for or something that just came about gradually?

I am a first generation American.  My parents worked two, sometimes three jobs just to be able to support our small family.  So, my Grandmother helped to raise me and my twin brother.  The rest of our family lived overseas.  I loved watching shows like The Waltons and The Brady Bunch and—although now those television shows seem awfully cheesy—I remember hoping that I could also have a big family like that one day.  My husband, however, comes from a large family (five kids). He’s a great partner and a wonderful dad, who didn’t take much convincing, really
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For the first time since we started to figure out what was going on with Eric, I was ready to admit I needed more support. I had been so busy taking care of my kids for so long that I didn’t notice that nobody was taking care of me.

I had stopped taking time for myself.

For the past eight years, my friends had been mostly from my mommy world. Besides my long time best friends (mostly from as far back as my own preschool days) other moms had made up my social circle. I knew them all from Paul and Eric attending the co-op, my mother’s club, tumbling classes, and story time at the library. But I wasn’t partaking in (or missing) those activities anymore. When I realized I had a little more freedom in choosing what to do with my own free time, I had to really think about it. I needed to choose wisely; those school hours went quickly. At least I was no longer jumping at every phone ring expecting a frantic call about Eric.
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Expectations have historically been high for mothers, but the load placed on today’s moms can be extraordinary, according to writers Amy Nobile and Trisha Ashworth.

“We put so much pressure on ourselves in this generation to be perfect at everything, as a mom, wife, friend, daughter-in-law,” Amy said. “We were told we could, and should, ‘do it all.’”
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Blogger Stephanie Elie’s family keeps her busy, as does the online store she manages, but she still finds time to write on her blog devoted to technology and parenting, appropriately called Bizzie Mommy. Life360 caught up with her recently to discuss mommy blogging, tech that make kids safer, and the gadget she wants most for 2010.
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“Mom, you rock” is a phrase mothers love to hear, and blogger Lindsay Maines, aka Rock and Roll Mama, wants you to know it’s a fitting one for moms everywhere.

“If there’s one thing I’d love for women to take away from my writing, it’s that they’re doing it right,” Lindsay said. “They don’t need to fit in a box to be great mothers, and they need to give themselves permission to cut loose every now and then… motherhood doesn’t need to be a woman’s sole identity.”
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Asha Dornfest is the founder of Parent Hacks, a community-guided site full of everyday know-how, crowdsourced from the creativity of its readers. Parent Hacks covers everything from removing gum from your kid’s hair (olive oil) to getting helium balloons down from a high ceiling (vacuum cleaner) curing hiccups (peanut butter).

Asha spoke with us about how she started the site, what other blogs she reads, and what book she’d bring if she were stuck on a desert island.

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What was the inspiration for Parent Hacks?

The inspiration (or should I say anti-inspiration?) was the bewilderment I felt after my first child was born. I read all the books but was as confused as ever when he didn’t “fit” the descriptions and the strategies. I slowly realized that a combination of advice from experienced parents plus my own intuition was generally more helpful than anything ever written by an expert.
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Six children race around Dana Rose’s front yard, intermittently whacking each other with foam swords. After a successful lunge, one youngster takes a breather, going into the garage to put a finishing touch on his gingerbread house. It’s a lively scene that contrasts with the otherwise calm street—nestled near Bacich Elementary in Kentfield, CA—just as it diverges from the stereotypical image of an after-school art class. But that’s just what Dana, a former chiropractor, has run from her home for the last several years.

At the daily drop-in sessions, kids work on projects from painting to puppet making to crafting the perfect shoebox doll house. If they have extra energy, which they always do, the young artists have ample opportunity to burn it off with Hunter, Dana’s son, who helps oversee the class.

“I don’t make them do artwork. If they don’t feel like doing it that day, they play, they read a book, they can do whatever they want,” Dana says. “But mostly they want to come here and do art.”
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On a cloudy December afternoon, Lisa Hannah checks her laptop, glances at CNN Money TV, then fills her new puppy’s water bowl. As a mother of three, the holidays are a busy time in her town of Greenbrae, just north of San Francisco, but Lisa has recently undertaken a project that made this season even more hectic. As we speak, she is working on the details of a microloan to a Bay Area business.

If Lisa can finalize a business plan and dot all the I’s on the deal, she will provide $10,000 in capital—collected in ten $1,000 investments from women in the community—to a woman planning to open a certified organic café in the East Bay.

“She’ll be my first microfinance client,” Lisa says.

She hopes, however, that this initial credit injection will signify the start of a microfinance network that provides loans to women looking to open, improve or maintain their businesses in the greater Bay Area, and ultimately in other places as well.
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