The Laid-Back Mom Arises in a Hectic Year
By Jennifer Gish, Albany Times Union, N.Y.
Dec. 26–Beta moms in. Alpha moms out.
The rise of the slacker mom was only one of several stories cropping up in the domestic sphere this year. Remember the others? Curl up on the couch and take a look at parenting trends and family news while we rewind 2007.
Beta moms bite back: So much for the alpha mom, that go-getter who can manage a career while she leads her daughter’s Girl Scout troop, coaches her son’s soccer team, holds a seat on the school board and whips up a gourmet meal with organic local ingredients.
Beta moms, the trendy moms for 2007, aren’t perfect. And that’s just fine with them. The beta mom, or “slacker mom,” doesn’t have a meltdown if she forgets to pack milk money with her son’s lunch or fails to deep-clean her house every day (or week). Beta moms say less-stressed moms, who aren’t obsessing with the details, have more time to spend getting to know their kids.
Beta-mom books released this year include “Good-Enough Mother: The Perfectly Imperfect Book of Parenting” by CBS TV anchor Rene Syler with Karen Moline, and “Even June Cleaver Would Forget the Juice Box” by Ann Dunnewold.
Maybe alpha moms aren’t the leaders of the pack after all.
Mompreneurs on the rise: Not a new idea, but a growing one, mompreneurs blend stay-at-home and working mother roles, creating home-based businesses that allow flexibility for their families but the satisfaction of a career.
There aren’t any statistics specifically tracking the number of mompreneurs, but the U.S. Census Bureau shows the number of women-owned businesses is growing, up 42 percent between 1997 and 2006, according to the Center for Women’s Business Research. As of 2006, women-owned businesses accounted for two in five of all U.S. businesses, the center reports.
It was a good year in the Capital Region for mompreneurs, as well.
In Delmar, Amy Lucey, Heidi Nathanielsz and Karen Shaw hit it big with a spot on “The Martha Stewart Show” for their handstamped children’s clothing line, Sweet Potato Prints.
Angry, angry Alec: In April, the celebrity news Web site TMZ.com released a recording of an irate voice mail Alec Baldwin left his 11-year-old daughter, Ireland. In the message, he calls her a “a rude, thoughtless little pig.” The rant was said to be an outgrowth of Baldwin’s contentious relationship with Baldwin’s ex-wife, Kim Basinger. It was a story that had parents everywhere talking, including the Times Union’s Parents Panel, a group of four Capital Region parents that offers child-rearing advice.
The hot ticket: Even as the calendar flips into the new year, parents and schoolgirls are scrambling to win Hannah Montana tickets in area contests. They couldn’t get them in October, when tickets for her Jan. 9 Times Union Center show sold out in 20 minutes. The super-fast sellout was blamed on computer hackers, ticket brokers and scalpers gobbling up the tickets, only to offer them to parents for the cost of a Nintendo Wii.
The local ticket frenzy was mirrored nationwide, where tickets at other venues sold out in as little as eight minutes.
More teen moms: This month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the national birth rate among teenagers rose 3 percent in 2006, the first increase since 1991.
The news, detailed in the report “Births: Preliminary Data for 2006,” ended a 14-year trend during which the birth rate fell by 34 percent from its all-time high in 1991. According to the most recent data, the ratio of babies born to girls ages 15-19 in 2006 was 41.9 births per 1,000.
Opponents of abstinence-only education, which is the current federal mandate, say the statistics prove the need for an expanded sex-education program that includes discussion of contraceptives.
Goodbye, Harry: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” by J.K. Rowling, wrapped up the famed Harry Potter series this year, leaving kids (and some adults) with an empty space in their hearts only a boy wizard could fill. Rowling recently managed to place as a runner-up for Time magazine’s Person of the Year, following behind Russian President Vladimir Putin and former U.S. Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore. Now that Rowling has closed the book on the Potter story, we must wonder who will be the next author compelling kids to crack open 500-page tomes.
Toy scare: Because of numerous China-made toy recalls by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission this year, more parents are checking toys for the country of origin. Aqua Dots, a craft kit-style toy in which colored beads fuse together when water is added, was among hot Christmas toys this season until a November recall by the commission. A chemical used in the beads’ coating was reported to cause comas, respiratory distress and seizures.
Jennifer Gish can be reached at 454-5089 or by e-mail at jgish@timesunion.com.
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