Comments for Modern Mama

Comment on Phthlt, who cares about phthalates? by Hannah

Hannah — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:29:13 +0000

Congratulations… I am now addicted to this site! My husband and I are prepping to get pregnant, and when I talk about Phthalates to people, most folks think I’m insane. I’ve done a good bit of research on this on my own, but the breakdown of the different PETE codes was excellent, and a very good way for me to figure out what is more and less dangerous.

It’s funny to me that my Organic Honest Tea is all organic and kosher, but comes in a PETE 1 bottle. After reading this article, I didn’t even finish. It goes straight to my recycling. Thanks!!

Comment on End of an era by Kate

Kate — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 10:58:02 +0000

What a beautiful story. Really inspiring.

Comment on End of an era by Beth W.

Beth W. — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 01:20:29 +0000

Aww. This is making me a little sniffly too, just because I feel like we’ve taken such similar roads in some ways. L. is still nursing and it’s going well enough for both of us that I’m not ready to give it up (and she’s not ready at all). We may re-assess at 2.5 years, if it doesn’t change before then.

Comment on You can hear? Good girl! by Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 11:14:20 +0000

Hi Rosanne, ended up here via your post on wikileaks (thanks, it articulated what I think a lot of us have been stumbling to put into words).

The good girl/boy drone has been absolutely doing my head since we first started going to playgrounds. We read Kohn before E was born, and Rodney and I have really worked hard to use descriptive affirmation, and to take E’s cues about whether he is pleased with what he has done. E was sportscasting his life from the time he could string two words together.

So you can imagine my dismay when, about a month ago, E suddenly started saying “well done” about a thousand times a day. After a week of thinking I had been deluding myself about my unconditional parenting, I realised it was …

Fucking Maisy! He gets about 30 minutes of screen time every couple of days, mostly with one little white mouse and he’s been infected with well-donitis. He says it to himself, to us, to kids in the park, to strangers in the street. I’m not yet sure how to deal with it, but suffice to say, we are trying to transition him across to Meg and Mog (which he thankfully also loves).

Glad H’s hearing has come good.

Comment on You can hear? Good girl! by Ricky Buchanan

Ricky Buchanan — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 09:32:41 +0000

I’m very glad Harper’s language is coming along so well and that her USA trip wasn’t messed up by sore ears.

I had not heard specifically of the unconditional parenting stuff until I saw your writing about it somewhere, and I still haven’t read anything except what I’ve gleaned from you online but I’ve tried to alter my interactions with the neigbour kids (there’s probably about six kids under 6 in the same driveway where my place is, and now I can get outside I’m interacting with them more and they recognize me wow!) and it’s a lot harder than I thought it would be. But it certainly makes me interact with more and richer language with the kids, and I love the concept – it makes so much sense once I heard it. I am curious to read the actual books about it but they’ll just make me all “aww, I want kids…” so I think I should stay away for my own sanity!

Comment on You can hear? Good girl! by Mark

Mark — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 01:03:18 +0000

That’s great news about Harper’s hearing. I am sure she’ll make up any lost ground really fast.

Yesterday, A’s OT spoke about “discharging” her from treatment because her progress has been so great.

It felt resonant in relation to a short medical lit. review I found a while ago that concluded thus: “This suggests that babies who are unexpectedly stillborn secondary to intrapartum events should be resuscitated but, if the Apgar score remains 0 at 5 minutes, further resuscitative efforts are futile.” http://www2.marshfieldclinic.org/wissp/wisspers/w523p6.htm
That guy is so wrong.

Comment on You can hear? Good girl! by Adina

Adina — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 10:20:13 +0000

Hmm, Karen told me about this this morning and it made me think. Reading your whole post now, I realise I already do (or try to do) quite a lot of what you’re doing: saying “oops, the water’s on the floor, now we mop it up” and suchlike. But I *do* say “good girl”, and on reflection I probably do overuse it in ways that don’t add value for my daughter. I’m feeling cautious about eradicating it entirely though. It seems to me that she’s going to get “good girl” lots everywhere else, whatever I do. And it’s often going to equate “good” with “compliant”, “decorative”, “submissive” etc. I tend to use it when she’s achieved something she’s been straining to do, in with a whole lot of other congratulations. I’d like her to know that the phrase can be used for a girl who does something strong or clever or just hard-won, not just in the way she’s most likely to meet it outside the home. But yes, a lot more to reflect on, and a lot more things I could probably do to change how I speak to her.

Comment on On the verge of speaking by Modern Mama » Blog Archive » I spoke too soon, she didn’t…

Modern Mama » Blog Archive » I spoke too soon, she didn’t… — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 11:37:50 +0000

[...] funny to look back and read that last post from only four months ago… I kept waiting for that next moment when we would hear sentences [...]

Comment on I spoke too soon, she didn’t… by Danny Yee

Danny Yee — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 11:55:05 +0000

I’m glad that ended well!

Given the number of children I know who’ve had hearing problems of one kind or another, I wonder if having everyone’s ears tested (at 12 months or 18 months?) wouldn’t be a good idea. It doesn’t sound like a hearing test is particularly intrusive, dangerous, or expensive.

Comment on On the verge of speaking by mark

mark — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:46:09 +0000

We’ve done some signing but some of it’s two-handed nature isn’t easy. But Agatha also is pretty centred and won’t be rushed, so like walking, when she’s good and ready she’ll talk more. Because her comprehension is totally normal, we’re not too worried, as comprehension rather than language production is the biggest issue in terms of long-term indicators.