National Mom's Nite Out

My blogging partner, Maria Bailey, has been very, very busy for months and months pulling together the first annual National Mom's Nite Out scheduled for TONIGHT, May 7th!



The National Mom’s Nite Out is the first nationally organized celebration of motherhood that will unite more than 150 social media groups, companies, local playgroups, mommy bloggers and mother social networks, physically and virtually, because, as Maria says, moms deserve a night off, too.

The evening will consist of local events held across the country, as well as mom-organized parties and virtual activities. To allow moms everywhere to join in on the fun, mothers will be invited to throw their own mom’s nite out event by downloading party ideas and elements from The National Mom’s Nite Out website. The night of the event moms can join in the fun through online chats, Skype and Twitter tweet-ups.

A big, huge, virtual hug goes out to Maria and her entire team for looking out for us moms and for organizing what is sure to be a highly successful event.

Enjoy yourselves tonight, Ladies! I'll be in the dugout tonight at my tween's softball game, so have a Mamatini for me!

A Stab At Bad Parenting

Image via Wikipedia

Well, I'm all done moving, unless you count the two boxes crammed with toiletries that I have absolutely no room for anywhere. (Perhaps I'm a tad high-maintenance...) A special thank you goes out to Sherra for stepping in as a guest blogger last week while I got all my affairs in order. (Check out her blog at http://ilashgirls.com/)

And to answer your question, Sherra, I think I do my fair share of lying to others about the real state of affairs in Teen Land. Not because I'm trying to paint a rosier picture of life with a teen, but because many of the situations that I deal with suck up so much of my energy that I am too battle-weary to rehash them. I'd rather just move forward.

Even so, it's no secret that raising teens is a battleground at times. We parents can get so frustrated and overwrought over the smallest act of defiance. Take this father in Maryland, for instance. He and his teenage son were sitting in church together and the father asked the 19-year-old to remove his hat out of respect for church rules. The teen refused.

OK, we've all engaged in a battle of wills with our own teens more than a few times. What would you have done? Taken away the car keys, refused to pay his cell-phone bill, maybe told him that you were leaving?

Any of those responses makes a lot more sense than what this dad did. He got out of the pew, walked out to his car, grabbed a knife (how handy to have a knife in the car!), came back into the church and stabbed his teenager in the buttocks. Then he did the only thing left to do . . . he fled! There is an outstanding warrant for this father's arrest.

Yes, teenagers drive us crazy at times. But stabbing them? That's just insane.