She left a charming hello at the old BEAW a year and a half ago, when I said that I thought in Blog High School she would be the cool kid wearing a leather jacket and smoking in the boiler room with the janitor.
I got shy.
Then, this year, I got lucky. I got to meet Alice and work with her and laugh with her and eat meals with her and stay up late with her and borrow a winged maxi pad from her fo reals. She is the real deal. Pure gold. Pure warmth and smarts and no hickeys from a janitor thirty years her senior.
I tell you this because this week dear Alice of Finslippy was on Good Morning America, representing Alpha Mom, where she writes a groovy column called Wonderland. Did you see the Good Morning America segment? She made a smoothie for her son! And she played basketball with him! And she typed a little on her laptop while he drew pictures! AND A SCARY BLONDE CHORUS APPEARED IN THE WINGS TO SHAKE THEIR HEADS NO NO NO! What does it all mean?
It’s a weird world we live in. I would just like to tell you that. Read Alice’s account, because I can’t do it justice.
Alice, dove, you are the maxi pad beneath my wings, and I sure heart you.
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Maybe someday Bossy will be on Good Morning America making a smoothie. But first Bossy better become somebody. And next she better learn how to make a smoothie.
Alice was wonderful.
I agree that her account will have you laughing your head off.
LOOK AT JUJU!!
Nice post.
See, I would see Alice as the ‘Most Likely to Succeed’ kid in High School, always making the class laugh with her witty remarks but winning the love of teachers with her studious nature. I see you as dressed in black, with big thick bangs covering your eyes, drawing all over your notebooks and passing hilariously written notes while the teacher drones on. And, yes, the two of you would’ve been friends and would become known for covering the parking lot in maxi pads on the last day of school.
Janitor hickeys are the best. I hear. *ahem*
I only watched half of the interview because I could kind of see where the producer was steering it. It appears to be impossible to come across as a great parent because there’s always this other side of the aisle that takes issue with something. Anything. Alice was lovely, but they still managed to make it seem like there was still something wrong. When I have kids? Moving to Nova Scotia. No interviews.
I’m a big fan of Finslippy and Wonderland. She can make you laugh at the unlaughable.
I will admit…I was jealous when I found out that you were hanging out with her in a place with a pillow menu!
I wasn’t in love with the angle either – the ‘look at me, I am SO alpha, trying to raise the impossible mother bar’. Clearly the producer of the segment just doesn’t get the Alice-essence. (Yes, I know I act like I am maxi-pad intimate. I am not. I still adore her.)
I blathered further on my post Monday.
By the way, I got shy AND super excited when you commented on my site a while back. I called my husband out of a conference call (he loves me, he does) to tell him Jenn, of BEAW, commented on my blog. I yelled. I whooped.
It made my day.
You know, I don’t think it’s necessarily the point of your post and I’m relatively certain that I’m going to feel like a giant ‘tard for telling you, but I think we all feel the same way about you.
You came to my blog once a couple of weeks back and left me a nice comment on my Thursday American Idol post. When I read it and realized it was you, I was suddenly stricken with a crazy mix of awe, excitement, joy, shyness, reverence, and fear. The fact that you, who I admire so much and think so highly of, would come by and read something I wrote, let alone like it, was mind-boggling and I think I can speak for all of us when I say:
We heart you. =)
Very sweet, monkee. The alpha omega grandmother is smiling right now :>) Thank you for supporting Jenn!
They plug in that footage of disapproving moms any time they run one of these segments. It’s like that Monty Python footage of the old ladies applauding. In fact, I’ve seen that same quick cutaway on other morning shows. Also on QVC, when the cubic zirconiums are chintzy. Those moms? Hate that.
Aw. Thanks, Jenn!
For you, I would awkwardly dribble a basketball on national television any day. I would lend you a maxi pad on national television! Just you wait and see.
Alice is a beautiful person. Shame on GMA for missing the point entirely.
So, just to summarize the posts so far this month:
You like Alpha Moms.
The Alpha and Omega sets the bar pretty high for sick days.
You don’t like Alpha males.
…but you *are* the Alpha Dog.
Thanks, Heather! And why couldn’t the segment have been Alice is a Beautiful Person? I could have rocked that interview! My voice wouldn’t have been all shaky and weird!
I’m happy to learn that even the funny, smart alphas also sometimes get an attack of the shys. I can totally see you hanging out with Alice and having way too much fun.
And lIke Lisa and Monkee, I was thrilled to find, not just a comment, but a comment from Jenn(!!!) on my blog during my horrible spring break. Forget the Alpha Moms, we are the BEAW Crew!
I’d like to see Juju Chang try to pronounce THAT.
“… so far this month:
You like Alpha Moms.
The Alpha and Omega sets the bar pretty high for sick days.
You don’t like Alpha males.
…but you *are* the Alpha Dog. ”
LOL Spot on, Spot!
Off to read Alice’s account … I completely forgot about her being on Good Morning America – maybe she’ll have a link.
i thought alice was lovely, and honestly couldn’t get the gist of that segment to save my life. if i understood correctly, and alpha-mom is someone who takes motherhood as seriously as she did her career? and then robin makes fun of that at the end? what? would you prefer the opposite, robin? “I found out I was pregnant and decided to wing it for the next 20 years or so.” i mean, what mom doesn’t take their parenting seriously? it doesn’t mean we’re all crazy helicopter moms, it just means we are educating ourselves for this part of our lives in the same way that we have for other parts of our lives. why would you put someone down for that? i’m not talking about the extreme moms, here, who literally die for their kids and lose themselves in their kids lives, just the regular everyday moms who are trying their best to be as good of a mom as they can without going nuts. which is what i thought isabell kallman stated at the end of the segment, which is why i really didn’t understand what point, exactly, the producers were trying to make.
the whole thing annoyed me, except the parts where i got to see henry drawing while his mommy was typing. i need to teach my kid how to do that, she just likes to slam her hand on my keyboard while i type. sorry for the rant. i heart you both, alice and jenn.
The sad part is that usually I draw right along with Henry, but they didn’t like that, and wanted me on the laptop. I guess Alpha Moms aren’t supposed to color.
Has anyone done a TV piece on “mommy bloggers” per se and this whole grass-roots thing?
I think that the BEAW crew and the Finslippy Alphas should start a write-in campaign to Oprah to get some of these gals on for a no-holds-barred tell-it-like-it-really-is session on today’s generation of mothers. Crayons preferred; laptops and maxi pads permitted. Stepford blondes not allowed.
i’ve been thinking about my comment all day and i think i know what is bothering me- in a much more subtle way, this is touching on the same issues when melissa summers went on the today show- the idea that women who continue to think for themselves, make choices that are powerful, and in fact set the trend rather than follow it *after* they become mothers seems to be very threatening to many people. as if women lose their adulthood, and ability to make conscious and informed decisions once they have a child. and that the “average” woman (blonds shaking their heads) disapproves of these rogues who dare to exert something outside the accepted norm. the misogyny in this country never ceases to amaze me anymore!
what I don’t get (i mean, i get it, but ykwim) is the whole need for marketers and the media to fire up a storm pitting “alpha” moms against (“beta? delta? omicron?”) moms as if ‘alphamom’ is some exclusive club that most moms wouldn’t be good enough for. which again, is where my initial confusion came from- the piece seemed so disjointed, as if the producers didn’t seem to understand what their own point was at all. were they for or against alpha moms? they have no idea.
what isabel and alice et al advocated for during the piece (to me) is a mom who is still her own person and takes some of the life lessons learned in her life (career, school, family, etc) and applies that to her role as a mom. what is wrong with that, i ask you, blond ladies who seemed overwhelmed and disgusted? we’re not better than you, we’re with you! we are just moms, just like you. the only people who win these ‘wars’ are the groups who instigate them. this mommy war bullsh*t has got to stop. i don’t even know where the sides are anymore. and, it seems, neither does the media.
Weird… I’m wearing a maxi pad with wings as I’m reading this….
Alice is a glorious creature as are you. How cool you got to meet.
pnuts mama – I think you hit the nail on the head there. That GMA story had no point and no focus, but it was just there to stir up controversy and try to cause divisions. “Oh, we’re not like *those* moms.” Controversy sells.
This is why I don’t watch morning shows or network news.
Oh, I only feel like a Delta mom because 1) I ignore my kid sometimes to read mommy blogs and parenting books, and b) I don’t blog myself (except for a brief-lived thing called “Snax” on Friendster. But I think you rock even tho I stumbled over here from Fussy/BlogHer.
Boy, between the titles they give us, the expectations they have and the way we need to do things slightly differently than we might normally to achieve to representation they are seeking (insert adjective) moms I am a little befuddled as to what to do next.
Perhaps I’ll just start with blocking my daughter’s attempts to touch my laptop with the spoon she’s been using to get the potty out of the dog’s add.
I only wish I could rock the skater looking shoes like Alice and personify wanting and so much more in my writing like Jenn. You two are awesome people – moms, writers, women, the whole kit and kaboodle.
i liked alice, but cripes, you americans can be scary …i mean good morning america is ….i am a young mum, (not mom, i’m an australian living in new york) and i have to say..too much analysis!!!! ….i laughed as i tried to imagine my mum in the seventies, cork heels, lentils and a cigarette now and then, talking about being an alpha mom…
and i think she did it best…she was just a mum and still is.