Parenting Sites 411

Welcome to another installment of You Need to Read.  This week’s post is a little late because I foolishly ventured forth into the world of retail this morning, trying to procure myself a pair of boots from Kohl’s.  Unfortunately, they were out of my size by the time I got there (since I was unwilling to show up at 4am) so the whole trip was pretty moot.  Boo!  However, that’s as far as the bad news goes today because I have some great posts for you to read.  So put down your leftover turkey sandwiches and take a peek at these gems:

• “Is it December yet?” from Rancid Raves.   What I liked about this post (besides the customary plea for NaBloPoMo to be over already) is how she spoke about her marriage.  It made me think a lot about how I feel about my own marriage.
• “The results are in” from All & Sundry.  Linda had a hilarious follow-up post to her earlier question complete with a pie chart.   The whole post made me laugh.  Which, considering the growing holiday panic and stress, was very welcome!
• “The one about the overdose” from moosh in indy.  Casey deviates from her usual humor to post on a very serious subject.  I admire her courage in posting this and I think her story is an important one for us all to read.  Instead of judging her, I found myself marveling at her strength to come back from something like that.  She humanized depression in that post and that in itself is very worthy of being featured here.
• “Teenager commits suicide over MySpace” from Parent Dish.  You may have also seen this story highlighted on the Today show this week.  It’s a horribly tragic story that really made me repulsed at how some adults behave.  Not only did this mother destroy a family, but she taught her daughter and her friends some really horrible lessons.
• “What about MY rights?” from IzzyMom.  Yet another brave and important post!  What a banner week it was.  She talks about discovering she was adopted as an adult and how she was able to find (after much red tape and headache) her birth parents.  And she raises an important question: Don’t adopted children and adults have rights to learn about their heritage?
• “The wildlife version of Rocky” from dooce.  Oh my heavens.  When I first watched this little video clip, I thought Heather had it in for me and wanted my overly hormonal, pregnant self to be a mess of tears and snot.  But then?  It ended fantastically.  You’ve gotta watch this, trust me.  And it warmed my heart to think that parents, be they animal, human or water buffalo, are all essentially the same.
• “Unwanted exemption” from sweet| salty.  What’s with the brave, soul-bearing posts this week?  Kate shares how she doesn’t feel she can long for more from her life than raising children simply because one of her children has died.  Having been in similar circumstance myself, I understand where she’s coming from.  You feel that if you’ve lost a child, you should always be extra grateful and never complain.  And that’s not good for any mother to have to act that way.

Whew!  Enjoy the rest of your holiday weekends!