isn't Charlotte Raven bonkers?

[CarolinaMoose]

There's an article in today's Guardian by her about how she didn't realise before getting pg that children have their own identities and aren't just cutsey mini-mes, and what a blow this discovery was to her over-developed ego. Weird.

And yes - fancy the Observer printing something like 'I went and snorted coke'!

Am I the only person on MN who loved this article?
I clicked on the link from the OP hoping for an opportunity to have a good bitch but it had me in stitches. FWIW, I think it's all irony - she's not trying to say anything very much.

(Soooo agree with all the comments on this thread about Observer Woman, by the way.)

OMG Kathy you've just prompted me to read the article and I'm shocked to say I agree with you! Charlotte Raven sounds much, much saner, than I've ever heard her sound before!

So all she really needed was a baby to make her wise up then....

what would you like to see in the family section to replace the crap that currently passes for interesting columns / features?? it really is rubbish isnt it? have good frien who writes for (daily) guardian and she thinks its awful.... she rightly asked what i would like to see in it and that was harder to answer!

I'd like to see some serious journalism asking proper questions like for example why do so many women still change their name when they get married - not in a shallow "features" way but done in a proper political way and asking some leading feminists what they think. The guardian always pick up on some story, eg sexual harrassment at work, then instead of following it properly they get some twat to do a "funny" piece listing all the ways you could be felt up, or something similarly daft. It's very lazy journalism and does nothing to address why our society is like it is - that's what good features journalism should do.

Oh and families can be OK, but even the best articles are usually "my moving personal experience of blah". I'd like them to cover some real issues - like why is it always women who are told to stop leaving it so late to have kids, when it takes a woman and a man to have a baby, and it's usually the man who wants to wait? What makes so many men abandon their families and why is that more prevalent in particular societies - and interview the men themselves, don't just theorize. Birth order in siblings and how it affects you - real effects like mental health and career achievement, not just emotional waffle. There's such a lot they could be addressing.

I glazed over by the second paragraph - did I miss anything?

No GA - it might as well have been in Martian for all the sense it made. Mind you I'm not really an intellectual type and struggled with some of the big words

Well maybe it's the heat, maybe it's the big words, but I really didn't have a clue what she was on about, and couldn't be arsed to continue as the words were blurring and merging into one black blob of "wtf is this woman ON?!".

A completely different world to the one I'm inhabiting, unfortunately. No, actually fortunately - as I'm quite enjoying life on the one I'm inhabiting - hers sounds soulless.

Controlfreaky, I was going to post a reply to your q and then snowleopard said it all .

Fewer over-long reminiscences about long-lost uncles and more ishoos would be nice.

yup carolina, def. more ishoos for me too. does anyone else find that libby brookes column following 500 families over a year (a) really hard to follow in any meaningful way and (b) REALLY REALLY BORING?

yes, totally agree about the boring families. It's impossible to keep track!
I agree with whoever suggested intelligent articles (not just endless vox pop) about issues like naming the kids; I'd also like to see informed debate on choices in childbirth; isolation/depression; reviews of books etc relevant to parents/children; more about birth rituals in different communities, eg, in my neighbour's family, they don't let a new baby leave the house for 6 weeks...anything but the same middle-class voices whittering on week after week.

i'd like them to put the family articles back in the main section so that i can read them all but look as if i'm actually reading the paper properly

Incidentally i was asked if i had anything to contribute to this section but couldn't think of anything in the least bit interesting about my family, past or present. I'm quite relieved I didn't tbh as other people's family in-jokes are just Not Funny. Dh sometimes asks me what's happening when I snort randomly at odd moments, and sometimes at least it's because I've remembered an old in-joke from my first marriage. Which is now a lost joke, with nobody to share it with. Mildy about that loss but it's pointless trying to recreate those tiny jokes that really are the warp and weft of marriage.

[note to freelance journalist; please work this up into 1500 word article for £2.50. and check, warp and weft? warp and woof? wibble and wobble?]

Thank god for this post - I was flabbergasted by the CR article on Sat. It started out OK (motherhood is tough - not exactly a revelation but I could relate), but then I couldn't follow the rest of her argument/point. It was extremely badly written/thought out. I didn't finish it.

I was also shocked at her comment about going out to snort coke with a friend as she seemed to imply that this made her feel 'hey, great - I can still be me and have occasional drugs with my pals while being a mum'. Surely it is made up - or does she really want social services at her door?

CR article was pointless and hirritating. But am I the only one feeling for the poor mother of teenagers????

So glad I found this thread....! I started to read the article on Sat but couldn't stomach it after the first column or so.

Who the f**k do the Guardian think reads their paper, and how did they brief her? 'Hey Charlotte, we've got this Family section that could be really good but we just toss it off by filling it with snobby, cringe-worthy bollocks. Can you go off and write the twatiest article possible for it? By the way, here's your zillion pound fee.'

Mother of Teenagers is an utter wet blanket and deserves all she gets.

I speak secure in the knowledge it's a good 10 years til I'll be in her position and have to eat my words. But MY teenagers will NOT get away with such behaviour.....

Families over a year is boring drivel, as others have said.

i still like the Family section though.

hmmmm, I see your point.... but are they nasty!

just read snoleopard posts, totally agree, exp on why is it always women who are told to stop leaving it so late to have kids, when it takes a woman and a man to have a baby, and it's usually the man who wants to wait?

The CR piece was rubbish journalism, badly written, had no point, the 'argument' didn't exist - ok. But there was some self-deprecating humour in there, wasn't there? The hemp bar and the organic flour and the porcini - surely she gets a bit of credit for poking fun at herself for being so self-conscious about the mc trappings. Also the bit about snorting coke was obviously meant to be a joke. Must admit I did identify to some extent with the general premise of motherhood being such a shock - I deffo struggle to find things to pass the time with dd sometimes. I think it's a brave thing to admit that one is basically selfish and has to struggle to put anyone else first - most of us must have felt like this at some point.

snowleopard totally agree with you about family section - more serious stuff needed. New grauniad generally quite crap now.

I agree doggiesaywoof, I thought the whole thing was taking the piss out of herself.

If you thought she's bonkers now, you should have read her 5 years ago! She's improved greatly, imo

Yeah caligula, m'hood must have knocked some sense into her - relatively speaking