Monthly Archives: January 2010

I know a few bloggers who fancy themselves citizen journalists. It takes a lot of work to be a journalist. I often stop bleeds for my children, administer medication and homespun remedies, but still I am not a citizen medic. I’m just a Mom.

Bloggers have immense value as we offer commentary, opinion and enlightenment. What we don’t offer is balanced reporting, and we certainly don’t adhere to journalistic standards. I am not saying that bloggers don’t have value, or that bloggers don’t break stories, but even the best bloggers with the best of intentions are more akin to columnists than to reporters.

Blogs, like many newspapers, begin because the founder has an agenda. Agendas are not necessarily bad things. The agenda may be World Peace. The agenda certainly could be Get Free Things or Promote Myself. There are any number of reasons one may start a blog, inevitably they evolve or die. Like everyone else, my blog started in one place, and grew to another. I don’t know where I’m headed, but I know this is not journalism.

There are plenty of journalists who have blogs. The slow death of the daily newspaper has sent an incredible number of talented writers online. Almost without exception journalistic standards online are not being met. When is the last time you got a phone call from a fact checker? Before an assertion is made are there three independent sources to verify? There are two sides to every story, and quite often a third, fourth and fifth, does your story show those? If not, it’s a nice story, but it’s OP/ED, it’s not journalism.

Do not get me wrong, I love bloggers. I’m a blogger, I read you. I want to emulate you.

I’m just putting the call out for bloggers to please self identify as bloggers. Because when we call ourselves journalists, it’s like we’re the crappiest journalists you ever saw.

The Society of Professional Journalists has their ethics code posted online. It’s a good starting point.

Remember how Jane wanted to read Breaking Dawn? Well, today she asked me again, we were in the car. Jane and I were in the front seat and Alexander in the middle back. A nice little triangle.

Jane asked me if I’d come to any conclusion about her reading Breaking Dawn. I told her that I had several thoughts on it, and one of them was to just let her read it and self censor, but that it was a discussion for Dad and me to have first. Then this happened:

ALEXANDER: Why can’t you read about a baby in a tummy.

ME: Uh, errrr… ugh…

JANE: Because it has sex in it.

ALEXANDER: What is sex?

[insert sound of Jane giggling... please remind me to punish her for something soon]

ME: I’m going to have you talk to Dad about it when he gets home.

ALEXANDER: Why? Is it like baseball?

Then we got to talking about Vampires and the afterlife, which is, frankly, much better for me. Because talking about sex in a car in rush hour for the second time (remind me to tell you about Jane one day) is simply too much for me on a Friday.

I got home and sent my husband an email. Take a look.

(more…)

Yes, I’m on the show tomorrow. Please set your DVR, or better yet, watch live.

That’s me looking tired. TV is exhausting.

I can’t really storytell, as I’d like to, so I’ll give y’all a rundown of my day yesterday. It was quite a day.

I started, as usual getting up a bit before seven, breakfast and lunches for the kids, and then driving them to school at 8. By 8.30 I was back home making beds, cleaning up breakfast, and getting ready for my day.

I had a most extraordinary brunch (yes BRUNCH on a Wednesday… I know my life is perfect) with a woman who is ten years older than I am.  I am 39, she is 49. My daughter is 11, her daughter is 21. My son is 8, her son is 18. My husband is ridiculously handsome, hers is too. They are both very old. She and I, we will change our definitions of old, as needed.

I learned a few things from my new friend. The kids are going to start setting the table. Right now, they clear it after dinner and I enjoy the washing so I’m okay with that, for now, but I’m not setting the table any more. They’re old enough and it’s a quick chore. We’ve also had a few issues with Jane and her adolescence, basically Jane is changing, and my husband and I are standing in the middle of it all with our eyes closed, fingers in our ears and we are singing la la la la la la while trying not to cry. Clearly, we have a handle on the situation. (more…)

Right now, my Mom is home with my kids and I’m at the PBS press day. Jane and Alexander are absolutely thrilled to have an afternoon with Granny, and I’m enjoying an afternoon with adults.

My Mother is soon to hear a phone message that will make her heart sink, and she will be too polite to say anything.

This pay period my husband switched banks, this means that last Wednesday he got a paper check for the first time in nine years. My husband forgot to bring the check home for a few days, and then for a few more it sat on the kitchen counter. Right now my husband’s paycheck has been folded four times and is in my back right pocket.

Something important has not happened.

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Oftentimes I find that if you begin with an apology people flip out a little bit less. It doesn’t mean I’m sincere or apologetic. It just means I can type the word Sorry.

I’m room mom for my daughter’s fifth grade class, there are 22 kids and 44 parents. There were about 30 last names.

Then I changed them. You see I love my friend Anna Vocino, but her daughter isn’t a Vocino. Today I changed Anna’s name, along with all the other moms in the class who dared to keep their maiden names, divorce or remarry. Repeatedly my daughter was asking me to call a friend and I couldn’t remember the Mom’s names. So I changed them. Anna is now a Tarquinio like her husband. Now I can call Anna and arrange for her to babysit Jane the girls to have a playdate.

I hope it doesn’t bother them too much, but sheesh it’s just a name change. Call Jessica Valenti, burn your bra, I don’t care. Just make it easy for me to figure out who you are.