Alphamummies - how many do you know personally?

[Anna8888]

For the sake of this thread, I'll define alphamummy with a pretty loose definition.

• works full-time and earns over £100 K
• married with husband working full-time and earning over £100 K
• at least two children who have got as far as secondary school without any hiccups
• no career breaks, divorces

How many women do you know personally (school friend, university friend, colleague, family member, neighbour) who have been doing the alphamummy thing for at least 11 years?

Accoring to the Times article recently:

HOW TO SPOT AN ALPHA MUM

• Her children?s activities timetable is more complicated than a Heathrow flight plan

• She has a copy of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families on her bookshelf

• Her nanny speaks Mandarin

• She schedules childbirth for the right month of the school year

• She knows the exact nutritional content and GI rating of what her children eat

• She schedules sex with her husband

• She has a drawer with cards and presents for all occasions

• She always manages to get a front-row seat at school plays

• She serves alphabet pasta at tea, so that her children can practise their spelling

I don't know a SINGLE one. I must mix in the wrong circles.

And the rest:

HOW TO SPOT A BETA MUM

• You can tell what her children had for breakfast by looking at her jeans

• She has been known to wear pyjamas on the school run

• She forgets children?s birthday parties

• She gets drunk at PTA parties

• You can?t see the floor of her car for old sweet wrappers, assorted papers and general detritus

• She tries to remember what sex was like with her husband

• Her house is in a state of perpetual clutter

• She has rotten fruit and bribery sweets in her handbag

• She runs out of petrol on the school run

Ha! I am a SlummyMummy, excpet that mu house is untidy and ill-organised rather than filthy.

Actually, you know, I'm just a mother. I'm a (insert job description) and a mother. The important thing is how my DS sees me as a mother, not how a feature writer chooses to categorise me. And i doubt very many of the feature-writer criteria even blip onto a child's radar in how they see thier mother.

Quattrocentro - but isn't that all mums? Are there seriously many women who NEVER intend to do a days work again after having children? What, never ever? Not even a part time flower arranging job or summat? :-)

Hula - I am the Alpha of the Beta mummies - I mean, I could run Beta Mum masterclasses. Seriously.

the press in this country LOVE to categorise people, like on a huge marketing exercise. Also helps generate column inches .

Modeo Man, Middle England, ALpha mummy etc. etc.

I think we should come up with our own group names for Men. WHy should women have all these ridiculous titles when Men have none?

or fathers I should say

If I was an Alpha Mummy, would my child be much happier and more successful in life?

Tis not intented as a flippant question, but if these 'categories' are to merely pinpoint certain characteristics, why do I get the feeling that behind it all is the desire to make some mothers feel inadequate and lacking.

Mowingmen? For the salt of the earth types who keep their lawns trimmed

Dirtydaddies? For the husbands and fathers who run off with someone else?

Knowingmen? For the men who understand which bits do what ...

Oh this is silly. None of these categories work and there is so much overlap anyway ... And why box people at all?

No, TnOgu, he/she would probably become a cokehead.

Not exactly a good career choice, but perhaps with the appropriate business background he/she could make a go in the distribution side of it and enhance his/her financial portfolio.

exactly, m'dear!

it's mostly women writing about women where these names have come up

men don't seem to be worried about it in the slightest (and quite right too!)

I think I am actually an alphabet mummy - I successful combine aspects of all the letters of the alphabet into my parenting style - from alpha to zeta

with gambling too

These 'sound bites' bandied about by the media cheese me off.

They push certain images, certain role models and certain ideals.

Depressing and quite frankly extremely boring.

TN - Guess what? I agree with you

methinks i'm an alphabetti spaghetti mummy

Noooo

surely not!

lol @ Talcy

[How be the toe?]

me too can't cope with all those hoops!

lol

I am a soon-to-be-unemployed mummy if I carry on like this - arsing around on mnet, when I have meetings galore, billing deadlines to meet and last week's timesheets are still undone.