to find the Guardian article "The Dummy Mummy Decade" offensive?

[PenguinProject]

See here. Then again, perhaps I should be polishing my bugaboo rather than reading the Guardian...

Yes, that was one dumb pair of articles. Cheers Observer Woman for another brilliant contribution to the sisterhood.

Actually, if she was talking about Zoe, then maybe I agree - those columns bore me rigid.

here here wilfsell - just said same to dh (whilst watching the baftas and observing very few of these films worth wasting a babysitter night on).

If I give you a few symptoms, will you tell me what might be wrong with me?

Tingling breasts, such as they are.
Strange smelling urine.
Gone off cocktails.
Feeling nauseous.
Desperately tired.

you've read your own article???

It was certainly enough to induce fatigue and nausea. Not sure about the tingling breasts though...

Oh I never read my own articles. I give them straight to the sub (female, returned to work recently after baby number 2) and say "This should keep your mind off Waitrose Baby Bottom Butter, fatty".

heh heh heh

Oh cooee, Rachel. Do you drink before 11 too, or is it just the old hags hacks who do that?

yes and is 50 the new 40 rachel?

I read it this morning and understood where she was coming from. I remember the days before I had children when Mums used to drive me demented about things I have since talked about on here. If the author did ever have children, she'd know why we talk about the subjects (and love the websites!) she derided. But we all had life before children so should try a bit harder to understand her (ignorant) waffling.

And this from a magazine that gives us instructions from Jade Jagger on how to make a bracelet out of ribbons and safety pins and Marc Jacobs' shaved pubes.

Yemen Schemen

I was at the foot of Mount Ararat when ds was 3 months old.

Reminds me of my ex best friend who wasn't interested in children.

Couldn't stop talking about them either, funny that.

Observer Woman is written by desperate, bulimic 38 year olds with saggy arses who spend their lives worrying about getting old and being undesirable to men. I mean - a supplement aimed at professional women in which 95% of the articles are about face-creams that cost £90 a pop, dieting, shagging, and splitting up with your boyfriend. Please. It's so demeaning.

And Polly Vernon is creepy. She has a nasty, desiccated look about her. Like a piece of biltong in expensive jeans.

What's the point of her?

Fair enough - I understand some women don't want to squander their creative juices on having children, but for goodness' sake - if you've got all that extra time, do something worthwhile with it, instead of writing shite articles that people forget the minute they've read them.

Spot on Chilly.

Very well said indeed Chilly. Especially about the designer-clad biltong.

Exactly. I'm off to start another thread about fucking brilliant mothers. Let's see if the bulimics rip that one off. Oooh no, too busy worrying about where the next Manhattan is coming from.

another article written by women...hissing at other women...mistakenly thinking that it is motherhood that makes them different/somehow justifies their rant.

it just read like a rant...a rant you'd regret when sober...surprised they didnt choke on teh inconsistencies.

oh i see you are all hissing now...bah

She seems jealous. Probably because nobody actually wants to breed with her.

confessional tangent

i love zoe williams

(i'd like to listen to polchel and zoe after a few too many pinots)

Trip to Austria?
Trip to Yemen?
Not having children because of global warming?
Oh pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease.

To be honest, before I had my son I always used to think that it was incredibly rude of some parents (unfortunately for our gender, it's usually mother ) to go on & on & ON about nappies & baby food & baby sleep etc, talking amongst themselves, when a child free friend (moi!) was present. I have to say, I still believe that. I also though have realized how preoccupied (in a good & bad way) mothers can become about their children. Come on Rachel Cooke, surely your imagination can stretch far enough to realize what a life changing experience (again, in a good AND bad way) having & raising a child is? It's not selfish or boring to discuss the issues that are central to one's life... and for many months after the birth of- particularly- our firstborn, I'm sure we can all be accused of boringness & narrow-mindedness! It goes a bit with PFB territory (and that can be annoying, sure) but as I said, some compassion & empathy on the part of the Rachel Cookes of the world would be useful (& I should have been able to realize this myself in the past... oh well).

Now that I'm on the other side, I do see that it's also rude & hurtful (and does happen with certain child-free friends) when people ignore your child. I mean, when Rachel Cooke says that woman talked to her about the antenatal class she went to... well why the hell not?! What else was that poor woman supposed to be talking about. She must have been 7-8 months pregnant at that point, hardly a time to be particularly interested about trips to Yemen or to Austria.

What a load of shit.

chillybangbang - will you be sending that to OW!! - end of

So she somes and does a little bit of research on MN for her article and chooses to only see topics about buggy reviews and the like and seems to just skim over all the other topics that have nowt to do with kids like AIBU, news, relationships, chat, sleb gossip etc. Me thinks she just sees whats she wants to see and hears what she wants to hear. Silly ole bint.