09/30/11

Homemade Flair

I don’t really know why, as I’m not generally into complete self-delusion, but for some reason, I was quite certain that once I had a child, I would never just run out and buy a Halloween costume at the store. Making homemade Halloween costumes, I said to myself, was a bonding experience, a chance to be creative, the kind of thing that good mothers did.

Then Ruby was actually born; I no longer had any free time; and with the haze of “nesting” hormones gone, I remembered that I can’t even sew on a button. So for her first Halloween, when she was 10 months old, she was an adorable pink octopus in a costume I bought online.

The following year, when she was 22 months, she went as Little Red Riding Hood, a play on...

Posted at 09:49 AM | Permalink | Comments: 4

09/22/11

Car Talk

There are many, many things I love about New Orleans: the food, the architecture, the casual way everyone calls you “baby,” even the weather. But one thing I hate about living here is owning a car.

I would love it if we had good public transit, but that’s not what I’m talking about – public transit was also lousy in Columbia, Mo., but there I didn’t really mind. I liked the convenience of having my car right out in my driveway and not having to walk to a subway or bus stop.

But in Columbia, I didn’t worry about potholes or uninsured drivers or my car flooding or being stolen. I had two accidents in the 10...

Posted at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments: 6

09/15/11

Take 2

Well! That was fun! I read and thought about every single comment on my last blog, and I found myself nodding along to just about every one, even the ones calling me out for being a hypocrite or a racist or a reverse racist or a typical liberal whiner – the back and forth in the comments mirrors the arguments I have with myself every day.

There are several things I’d like to clarify, and please note that I am not editing any comments for style, grammar, spelling, language, etc.

1. I absolutely do not condone my daughter using the n-word. The comment that spurred my last blog, from “another New Orleans...

Posted at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments: 1

09/09/11

Grammar School Grammar

I got a comment on my last blog from an anonymous poster who signed herself “another New Orleans mama.” She wrote: “I had many of these same feelings of pride in Morris Jeff until my preschooler came home the other day and said, ‘Mama, I don’t got no raisins in my oatmeal.’ I almost fainted. Quite honestly, I would have rather heard the n-word.”

Now, I can get very defensive about my choice to send Ruby to public school. I can get very defensive about my own public school education. But my first reaction to this comment was not anger or even righteous indignation. My first reaction was relief: So it’s not just my kid who has started saying “I don’t got no …” and “I don’t want no...

Posted at 08:52 AM | Permalink | Comments: 27

09/02/11

Practice Makes Perfect?

Ruby and I have been having important discussions since she was a tiny baby.

“Your friend Zaydie has two mommies,” I would tell her as she drooled all over a teething cracker. “All you need to build a family is love.”

“There are no such things as boy toys and girl toys,” I’d lecture as she shoved her feet into her mouth. “Boys and girls can play with whatever toys they like.”

“Your friend Maya is Asian,” I’d tell her as she threw Gerber Puffs all over the house. “And your friend Charles is black. And your friend Gramm is white. Mommy and Daddy are white, too, and so are you. Having lots of friends from different backgrounds is great!”

I started having these...

Posted at 08:55 AM | Permalink | Comments: 4