Monthly Archives: August 2010

When your Twitter ID has the word Mom, Mommy, Mama, Mami, Ma, or Moms in it, and you are offended that someone calls you a mom blogger I giggle.

When your domain name has the word Mom, Mommy, Mama, Mami, Ma, or Moms in it, and you call yourself a social media expert, the world giggles.

There’s nothing wrong with being a Mommy Blogger. I’m a Mom Blogger (Mommy Blogger) and as job descriptions go, I recognize that it can be seen as silly. If don’t behave in a ridiculous manner then perhaps folks won’t see you as silly, or deluded about your value as a consultant.

In every profession there are people on different tracks. There’s no shame in it, but if the term Mommy Blogger makes you bristle, may I kindly suggest you remove the word Mom from your marketing materials?

There’s some new technology in our house. Each of these deserves a post of their own, but sadly I’m behind in every facet of my life (getting a second opinion this afternoon – wish me luck), and one post with three interesting items will have to get the job done.

Rumor Touch Phone:

The folks at LG sent this phone for us to try out. I have to say, I unpacked it and thought, “oh, wow a phone”. Let me emphasize, that was a wow, not a WOW. The kids, however, went WOW. As we examined it together I see that it’s a really great little phone.

First off the kids were able to get it up and running without me, and without the booklet. This is huge. If I ever have to refer to a booklet to use a phone (I’m talking to you blackberry) I just give up.

The QWERTY keypad is great for folks who like buttons. The kids, and my husband all prefer their phones this way, less typos, and apparently it’s very cool. When you are nine and your mom lets you use a cell phone for a month, cool matters.

I like this phone for kids because it doesn’t have full web access. I mean, technically it does, but really, it’s the Opera mini browser, and you’re not going to have your kids all over the web like you would with an iphone or a droid.

I love love love when kids use cell phones. No, I am not being sarcastic, and I realize that everyone thinks that texting is the shortcut to Mean Girls.

The reality is that cell phones are wonderful tools to preapare your tweens for the social web that lays in their future. Both my kids know that I will read their texts and their emails, and if there’s something they wouldn’t want me to see, then it probably shouldn’t be put in writing anywhere. The last month of playing around with the Rumor Touch has given me an opportunity to teach my son some online manners.

Alexander has commandeered this phone, he’s also dropped it a number of times, and it hasn’t broken. So, in addition to all the specs found here, it’s pretty durable. It’s also available at retail and www.virginmobileusa.com for $149.99.

iPad

Mr. G. brought home an iPad last night. It’s a 64 gig 3G version with a cover and a bluetooth keyboard. I’d really wanted one of these, but as I looked at the way we use our technology I realize that it’s too big to be useful (for me) as a portable device, and too small to get much of anything done. Plus, I already have an iPhone so I already can’t see sites with flash. Yes, that annoys me.

I think the iPad is perfect for the TV and film industry. Long days on set without reliable internet access make the 3G version a perfect solution. I suspect I’ll give it a go when I travel next, but I have to confess  for around the house the iPad leaves me a little flat. Yawning even.

Passport LE

It’s a hard drive. Every family should have at least two external hard drives. One for around the house, and another with all your information stored off site. If your house burns to the ground your homeowners insurance documents will gone as well.

I have two hard drives, one lives in the house, and one lives in the safety deposit box. Every few months I update the one at home and swap it out for the one in the bank.

The Passport LE is a fairly standard hard drive. It’s 500 GB and you just plug it in to your PC and it’s idiot proof. Here’s the thing that families (and businesses too) will love. They come in a variety of designs, and this means I don’t confuse my old data for my new data. If you’re sharing a computer with anyone the Passport is the perfect way to back up your data without confusing it with your coworker’s/friend’s/partner’s.

Oh, and did I mention, they’re adorable?

The Passport LE is $119 and is available online.

As businesses experiment with social media, their first impulses are to get onto twitter and say.

HELLO I AM HERE

or worse yet

@JessicaGottlieb COME SEE MY NEW WIDGET I HAVE A 15% DISCOUNT FOR YOU

And yes, typically they do use all caps. I think they learned it from Oprah.

The magic of social media has nothing to do with the tools, and everything to do with the message. Oprah’s message is, “I’m here and I’m much more important than you.” It’s like when I go to Paris and refuse to speak even one syllable of French. I’m American, and I’m much too important to be bothered learning a foreign language. True story, sad but true.

Unlike Mainstream Media (MSM moving forward), social media (sometimes referred to as new media) amplifies everyone’s voice. Now, I may not have four million twitter followers, but I do have 15,000 of them, and of those 15,000 a good number of them have 15,000 or more. I may not have Oprah’s audience, but I’m here to tell you that on Twitter an average housewife has the ability to have a reach (number of eyeballs on a message) of close to a million with ease.

What is the message?

If you were lucky enough to be on my United Airlines flight from Chicago to Los Angeles last week, the message would have been, “we value your safety”, and “we want to earn your business”. While waiting at the gate for my flight the captain took the loudspeaker and introduced himself. He joked a little, and then said, “your safety is my primary responsibility. I do not take it lightly.”

And then we boarded the plane. As we walked on board the captain handed everyone a set of wings, and a little card that gave details of the plane we were in. It was the first time in many years that I’d seen passengers deferential and kind to the entire flight crew.

I used social media tools to catch him in the act.

To be very clear, this was an old crappy airplane. It didn’t have wifi, tv’s or disco lighting. It did have a seasoned pilot, and a happy crew. I couldn’t tweet my entire flight, and I’m unaware of any particular efforts United may made regarding social media.

Before the flight landed the pilot asked everyone to grab the cards that he’d passed out to everyone as they entered the airplane. Two of them had his signature on them. Those folks would each receive a bottle of wine if they gave the flight attendant their cards. It cost United about $4 to delight an airplane full of passengers.

I know that if you run a great company, that gives great service, you’ll probably want to give folks an opportunity (perhaps even a forum) to catch you in the act of doing something grand. I’m surrounded by companies, brands and publicists who wave social media tools in your face and hope and pray that you’ll say something nice.

Just give me an opportunity to say something nice. Be daring, be grand, be wonderful, and those tools will become part of your toolkit.

When Alexander was five months old and Jane was three, I took my kids to Seattle to visit my brother and his family. I booked the travel in August of 2001 and took the trip in October of 2001. I think everyone in America knows that that trip I’d planned was very different than the trip we took.

I’d planned that my husband would walk the kids and I to the gate, and that my brother would be waiting at the other end for us. I’d planned that the double stroller and the two car seats wouldn’t be much of an issue, and that security would be perfunctory since I was a young mother with two small children.

I hadn’t planned on slinging a carseat over each shoulder and having to taste my son’s formula.

So, on the second day of the trip when Alexander was fussing endlessly, and I was rocking him while gritting my teeth, my sister in law calmly stretched her arms out and rocked my son. She rocked him for an hour. He cried for an hour. My nerves were rattled, she was impossibly calm.

So when I hear about a flight attendant taking custody of a one year old child who is being smacked, I get it. I get it on every level. I know what it’s like to reach the end of your rope, but I don’t know what it’s like to reach it without support. I’ve had family within a five minute radius since I became a mother.

The next time I see a mom at wit’s end, instead of raising my brows, perhaps I’ll be like my sister in law and raise my hand to volunteer. Because sometimes holding someone else’s crying baby is like moving mountains.

Today Alexander went to camp. It’s not the camp he attends for the bulk of the summer. It’s one of those educational type camps, where the kids are learning all year long. It’s the kind of camp that’s perfect for a week, but would grow tiresome after two; a kid’s gotta move after all.

Alexander went for his first day, and we carpooled with a friend. We didn’t carpool because of traffic or work schedules, we carpooled because it’s really nice to walk into a new environment with a friend. I dropped Alexander and his friend off at camp, and returned at 3.30 to pick him up. When I signed him out the counselor had a slip of paper for me. Apparently during water play someone had grabbed Alexander by the shoulder repeatedly and Alexander had received an ice pack. I thanked the counselor for letting me know, and walked my son to the car.

While we were walking I asked Alexander about his day. It was a good one, and there was a lot of great stuff to talk about. Next I asked him about the shoulder grabbing incident. I asked him why he needed ice, a punch to the shoulder couldn’t hurt that much.

“He grabbed me by the shoulder a lot of times.” My son said, “it hurt.”

I looked down and to the right where my boy was matching me stride for stride, “Then why don’t you just punch him? Punch him hard, and punch him once. Don’t get caught and he won’t grab you again.”

My boy looked at me with disbelief. His eyes said a thousand words, but his mouth said nothing.

As I’m sitting here writing Mr. G. and the kids are watching replays of Eli Manning’s injury. Jane and Alexander are marveling that Manning didn’t cry. I, on the other hand, wonder how his mother feels. I know it was an accident, but I bet she wants to beat the shit outta the guy who hurt her son.

The stories don’t belong to me any more.

It’s easy to talk about potty training, your child has barely separated from you. Everyone has a first day of Kindergarten, and a first year of soccer. Little League is a rite of passage in America, as is Scouting and learning to ride a bicycle.

How do you write your children’s stories as they mature? Is it fair to tell the world that they are having a tough time in school? Should you discuss the emotional games that girls play with each other, or the punches that little boys dole out? Certainly no one will be writing about their daughter’s first brassiere until said daughter is a mother herself.

Jane is eleven. She will be twelve this winter, and our discussions have changed rapidly.

Last night we were running up the stairs together, and I said, “ooh ouch, my boobs hurt.” So naturally Jane stopped running long enough to roll her eyes and say, “Mo-om.” To which I replied, “no really, they’re a little tender sometimes before you get your period. It happens to a lot of people, but no to everyone. Sometimes I like to wear a tighter bra that week.”

And she started asking me questions that I was happy to answer.

I can’t tell you everything, because this is her story, not mine. I can tell you that talking to your preadolescent daughter is critical, they have so many questions, they just don’t know how to ask them.