Before I had kids, I had a decent figure - not model-esque by any stretch of the imagination, but I looked OK. Now the mirror tells more of a comedy/horror story than a romantic tale, and I’ll admit that I’ve toyed with the notion of plastic surgery (after we win the lottery) to get my old body back.

I know I’m not alone, because there’s a plastic surgery package (typically called the “mommy makeover”) just for women like me.

Aimed at mothers, it usually involves a trifecta: a breast lift with or without breast implants, a tummy tuck and some liposuction. The procedures are intended to hoist slackened skin as well as reduce stretch marks and pregnancy fat.

You mean my boobs will go back to where they should be and gain perkiness, my tummy sag will tighten, and this spare tire will shrink? Sounds like a deal! Last year, over 325,000 of these surgeries were performed on mothers across the nation - and not just on mothers of young children. Empty nesters are reclaiming their pre-pregnancy bodies, too.

Critics of the triple procedure point fingers at the cosmetic surgery industry as trying to ostracize the mother’s figure.

Many women struggle with the impact of aging and pregnancy on their bodies. But the marketing of the “mommy makeover” seeks to pathologize the postpartum body, characterizing pregnancy and childbirth as maladies with disfiguring aftereffects that can be repaired with the help of scalpels and cannulae.

“The message is that, after having children, women’s bodies change for the worse,” said Diana Zuckerman, the president of the National Research Center for Women and Families, a nonprofit group in Washington. If marketing could turn the postpregnancy body “into a socially unacceptable thing, think of how big your audience would be and how many surgeries you could sell them,” she said.

So…is the post-partum body something to be “fixed,” or should mothers be offended by the notion that they might consider changing their figures in order to feel more beautiful?

I say that if you are satisfied with your body, more power to you. If not, and you have the wherewithal to change that, go for it. Me, I’m going to wear my stretch marks with pride…and buy a lottery ticket now and then.

Posted by Sunshine.

Antidepressants and Pregnancy: A study out of Canada finds women are increasingly likely to drop their antidepressants or decrease their dosages when they first learn they are pregnant. “The risks of untreated depression during pregnancy are significant,” [Dr. Anick] Berard, from the CHU Sainte-Justine Hospital in Montreal, said. “Given the safety of most antidepressants during pregnancy, a careful evaluation of the risk/benefit ratio should be done before deciding to discontinue their use. Although physicians and women think they are protecting their unborn child, they might be doing just the contrary.”

Child Actors in Danger? Paramount, which produced the film version of Khaled Hosseini’s bestselling book The Kite Runner, has stalled the movie’s release because of fears that the inclusion of a rape scene could endanger the movie’s young stars and their families. Ishaq Shahryar, who served as Afghanistan’s ambassador to the US after the fall of the Taliban, explains, “To be raped or to be gay over there—it’s unfortunately absolutely unacceptable.” Even fictional portrayals could have deadly consequences. Paramount admits that when their then 12-year-old star balked at removing his pants for the scene, the director filled the details in later with a body double.

In case you missed it: A wardrobe malfunction during an on-stage dance revealed that Jennifer Lopez is, indeed, pregnant. Furthermore, OK magazine is reporting that Ms. Lopez and husband Marc Anthony are expecting twins.

Some of the images are disturbing, which is the point, of course.

What’s your take on Dove’s “Real Beauty” and “Self-Esteem” campaigns? Sincere? Clever marketing by Unilever? Both?

Posted by MommaSteph.

Few would disagree with the observation that parenting has grown trendier over time, as moms and dads dig in their heels and try to find ways to combine their pre-kid days with the steady rhythm of diaper changes and middle-of-the-night wakings.

But…disco clubs for little ones? Have we gone too far?

No way, say the many patrons of Baby Loves Disco events at Aubergine nightclub in San Diego. Tots get to dance; parents get to kick back with a margarita and connect with other moms and dads in the area. Everybody wins!

The merging of the two worlds makes sense when there are only so many hours in the day to be together as a family, said Sabina Skidmore, who runs the Baby Loves Disco events locally and also owns Babycakes, a children’s clothing boutique.

However, not everyone is as keen on the idea of finding a way to make everything adults enjoy kid-friendly, or vice versa.

Amy Tiemann, author of “Mojo Mom: Nurturing Your Self While Raising a Family,” sees a trend toward “over-intensive parenting,” in which everything is shared and done together. On the whole, she said, Generation Xers didn’t feel that close to their parents, so they’re trying desperately to bond with their children.

“The generation gap is almost erased,” she said. “You’ve got kids and parents practically wearing the same type of clothes.”

Tiemann said it’s important for parents, especially moms who have left the work force, to keep their identities. But that means carving out time for themselves, not including children in all of their activities.

While that’s certainly a valid concern, I lean toward the “This is very cool!” side of events like baby boogie nights. I like doing things with my kids, and if some of those things include actual adult conversation, what’s not to like?

Do you agree, or is the idea of baby disco carrying hip parenting too far? Squawk back and let me know!

Posted by Sunshining.

Sesame Street has a refreshing new show opener, aimed at helping preschoolers build their vocabularies. Murray, a recently introduced monster character, interviews folks in the “real world” about the “Word on the Street”. The chosen word then pops up throughout the show so kids can hear it used in different contexts. Celebrity guests like Ellen Degeneres and Kelly Rippa help reinforce the new word.

The “Word on the Street” segment has included, among others, “windy”, “frustrated”, “disappear”, and my favorite so far, “pumpernickel”. The interviews are with folks of all ages, being themselves; it’s nice to see regular people just talking about the words we use every day.

I’m digging Murray Monster as a character, too. It took me a little while to get used to him as he exploded onto the screen off and on in the last couple seasons (if you’ve seen him, you know what I mean - he’s really enthusiastic). But who can resist him? Look at that smile! And his exuberance just seems to heartfelt, and not at all cloying, like Elmo’s, or freaky, like that odd elephant character’s. Murray gives me hope that the folks at Sesame Street have not lost their touch, despite the distressing - and ongoing - fairy debacle.

We’ve been trying to remember to use the Word on the Street throughout the day here, and my three-year-old fills his dad in at dinnertime. It’s a nice little literacy builder.

Thanks, and keep up the good work, Murray!

Posted by MommaSteph.

Browse any major bookstore and you will find dozens of titles on how to help your child do X better (eat, sleep, behave…) or how to parent your child with regard to Y and Z. At first, it seems like a good thing to have all of these books and advice columns and television shows on parenting. As a first time mom, I certainly pored over my fair share of articles and books on everything from sleep to discipline. I didn’t know what I was doing; surely all of these experts could help me make the right choices!

Perhaps they can for some things; however, there is a disturbing theory that all of this parenting advice actually undermines our ability to parent our children. Are we losing confidence in our own parental instincts and knowledge in the face of dozens of popular methods for doing everything from potty training to stimulating our children’s creativity? Are we facing increased pressures, not only on ourselves as parents (to do things an expected way), but on our children because of popular parenting techniques/the parenting expert boom?

Psychologist Tanya Byron thinks so.

“I’m not saying all the books out there are bad, we’ve just got to restore parents’ confidence in their own ability rather than tell them what to do.[…]Parenting is not a job with a series of techniques that we do to our children,” she says.

She is also fully aware that often there are no definitive answers when it comes to youngsters and says that is what makes being a parent so exciting.

“I don’t know what a perfect parent is or what a perfect child is but I suspect both would be extremely dull,” she says. “Life is about challenge and emotion, it’s about the reality of living.”

Maybe we all ought to trust ourselves a bit more and look to the “pros” a little bit less - after all, aren’t we the real experts when it comes to our own children?

Posted by Sunshining.

My son turned 10 this week. First he wanted a party with his friends, then he said he wanted a sleepover. Finally he decided that he preferred an iPod and just a family celebration.

Why is it so hard to find that “perfect gift” for our children?

Apparently I’m not alone with this issues. We are living in a high-tech society that keeps challenging the imagination and creativity of our kids. They just don’t want to play a video game, they want to be able to experience it from within.

According to About.com:

As you are getting ready to buy a toy for your little one, keep it in mind that the toys you pick need to be age appropriate for your child. Children go through various stages of development at different ages. Toys need to stimulate the child’s mind during play.

From the TV commercials during Saturday morning cartoons to the promos on the backs of cereal boxes, marketing messages inundate kids of all ages. Preteens are all very different from each other. They each start to develop interests of their own and that can be very challenging for a parent who is trying to buy a gift.

In the end we got the iPod for our son and he was very happy. He then surprised me by saying: “Can I have another gift?” When he saw my face, he smiled and just said: “Mom, I only wanted a hug and a kiss.”

There are always gifts that money can buy but the simple inexpensive ones are really the ones that touch everyone’s heart. And for the record… I gave him tons of hugs and kisses.

Posted by Momcrazyforkids.

This is offensive? Facebook, the popular social networking site, issued a statement addressing the recent dust-up over its removal of certain breastfeeding photographs it deemed offensive: “Facebook does allow mothers to upload and share photos of themselves breastfeeding their babies, and those photos remain available on Facebook as long as they follow the site’s Terms of Use. Photos containing a fully exposed breast do violate those Terms and could be removed.”

Bumper Pads and Baby Safety: A new study out of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis concludes that the risks associated with bumper pads in cribs, which include accidental death, outweigh their possible benefits. In reviewing databased kept by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the team found 27 bumper pad-related infant deaths occurring between 1985 and 2005, of which 11 were caused by suffocation when babies rested their faces against the bumpers, 13 resulted from babies becoming wedged between the pads and other objects, and three were attributed to strangulation on bumper pad ties. One expert in infant deaths offered, “I don’t think bumper pads are doing any good…Although the deaths and injuries may be rare events, they are preventable by eliminating the use of bumper pads.”

Prenatal Testing Innovations: According to a report in the journal Analytical Chemistry, Stanford University researchers are developing a test for Down syndrome and other chromosomal abnormalities that will produce results in two hours. Conventional tests now take two weeks.

When my mother was pregnant with me, pregnancy was not a publicly celebrated thing. I’m sure people looked kindly at her, but she wouldn’t have dreamed of wearing anything that would accentuate her belly. In fact, most maternity clothes were all about hiding it (tents for sale - Aisle 7!). Most women would have probably been mortified to see likenesses of their pregnant stomachs on display in their homes or even in a photo album.

These times, they are a-changin’.

Shannon Iverson has photographed children and babies for years. Two weeks ago she began photographing a new market segment — bare bellies of moms-to-be.

“Maternity photography has taken off ridiculously,” the Edmond, Okla.-based photographer said. “One of my friends who is a photographer in Arkansas started doing maternity shoots and her business doubled, so that’s why I started.”

In addition to photographs of their baby bumps, expectant mothers are indulging in plaster cast belly molds, special spa treatments, even prenatal yoga courses. Many mothers also pay upwards of $175 for 3-D ultrasounds of their babies. Not a bad haul for 30 minutes’ worth of work on the “tech’s” part!

Maternity wear is no longer the frumpy cover-it-up style of yesterday. Hip styles are altered and even created just for the pregnant woman’s figure. Bellies are bared even in the eighth month and onward, and I saw several pregnant women in maternity bikinis at the pool this past summer.

Businesses are raking it in, and mothers have new ways of making this ultimate journey memorable - and of taking it in style. More power to ‘em, I say.

Posted by Sunshining.

I was watching Disney Channel with my son when I saw an ad about the celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. In an effort to educate people about Hispanic contributions to American Culture, Disney has introduced stories and dialogs on the subject to their cartoons. Handy Mandy and Johnny and the Sprites teach kids about the different cultures and explain to their audiences the different languages and traditions of Hispanic people. From September 15 to October 15, Hispanics have the opportunity to celebrate their heritage and to provide awareness to the public about the innovations that we, as Americans, have been doing over the years. The National Register of Historic Places is pleased to help foster the general public’s awareness, understanding, and appreciation for Hispanic culture during National Hispanic Heritage Month.

According to a proclamation By the President of the United States of America:

“Hispanic Americans have helped establish America as a place of freedom and opportunity, and their contributions have illustrated what is best about our great Nation. Their hard work, love of country, and deep commitment to faith and family have shaped the character of our country and helped preserve the values we all cherish. By sharing their vibrant culture and heritage, Hispanic Americans have also enriched the American experience and helped define the unique fabric of our Nation.”

From Ugly Betty to the Latin Grammy Awards, Hispanics have lately been making a statement in popular culture in the United States. I think we are proud to be part of this nation, and we are lucky to have the opportunity to teach our children multiple languages, religious beliefs and extraordinary festivities. We may have been born in different countries yet we all have the same goal: to have a better world for our children. Let’s celebrate whatever makes us better parents and better human beings.

Posted by momcrazyforkids.