Picket Fence Post

Things have been a bit chaotic over the past few days, what with some family drama (don’t ask), the never-ending slog of kids’ activities slowly sucking the life out of me, and trying to shoehorn actual work into the mix, never mind attending to volunteer efforts both The Spouse and I for some reason foolishly offered to do. Plus there was this fifth grade bread baking project we were supposed to complete over the weekend. The Girl actually completed the project on her own — with no help from her parents – but The Eldest Boy did not because, honestly, there was too much crap going on.

In the meantime, to make up for the lack of bloggy stuff, here are a few newsy items I’ve missed in the past few days:

– I had the pleasure of co-hosting the Manic Mommies podcast with Erin Kane last week. We talked about mid-season TV (Big Love, Lost, a bit of ranting about the current state of Grey’s Anatomy) and about our crazy kids’ activities (this was before family drama hit the Picket Fence Post household). You can download the podcast for free on iTunes, including where I called Erin by her co-host’s name, Kristin. Smooth move.

– It was with a heavy heart that I read the recent news stories about a teenage girl living in Massachusetts who committed suicide reportedly in the wake of cyberbullying. Adding to that was the fact that a local school district had an anti-bullying forum led by a Vermont father whose own 13-year-old son (two years younger than my twins) killed himself several years ago after he’d been bullied, and I’ve been wondering when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is going to legally define bullying behavior with an anti-bullying law and when schools are going to start taking harassment seriously and not as a form of “conflict.” If sexual harassment in the workplace and acts which create a hostile workplace can be outlawed, certainly bullying/intimidating/humiliating harassment and acts which create a hostile learning environment should be as well.

– In a similar vein, the web site Parent Dish had a provocative post about parents who bully and name-call other parents online. Blogger Amy Hatch asked, “How can we teach our children be kind to one another when we can’t model that behavior in our own lives?”

– Completely changing subjects here . . . If you were among those who were once fond of watching Hope and Michael Steadman, Nancy and Elliot Weston, Ellyn Warren, Gary, Melissa and the crew from thirtysomething, you’ll be pleased to learn that season two of the 1980s/90s drama is now out on DVD. My Pop Culture column this week is about why, even though decades have passed since these episodes first aired, “. . . I can find no current TV dramas which capture the gloriously messy and stressful, day-to-day slog of child-rearing, work and marriage as deftly and incisively as this 21-year-old series did.” (As you can tell, “slog” was my preferred word of the week. . .)

Image credit: Dyna Moe/Nobody’s Sweetheart.

Item #1: Big Sunday for Big Love

Whenever I start to fret about how insane and overcaffeinated my life seems at times – I never have enough time to get my work done from my home office (hence the caffeine) amid the demands of the three young narcissists I’m raising (for whom I serve as an unpaid administrative assistant/chauffeur/cook/cleaner/home health aide), my husband with his broken wrist (which’ll likely require surgical repair in the next week or so), and our wildly teething nutty puppy who can now leap onto all of the furniture with ease — I like to flip on the TV and observe the hell that fictional TV families (or non-fictional in the case of the Gosselins) endure on a daily basis and realize that these folks — fictional or not — have stress levels way higher than mine.

A prime example of TV families with more on their plate than me comes in the form of the three wives of HBO’s Big Love.  Not only do they share one husband — I cannot even imagine — but they have to worry all the time that they’ll get arrested for practicing polygamy and that the creepy folks and relatives from the nearby polygamist compound (which looks like real life ones I’ve seen on the news) will draw them into all manner of mayhem. Plus they have a good number of little kids and babies running around, in addition to two teenagers, one who wants to get married to a guy in his late 20s. At least one wife is trying to get her career off the ground and another is going back to school.

The fourth season of the polygamist drama premieres Sunday night and promises to be as controversial as ever. My bustling suburban home with three kids, one husband, one wife and one dog seems downright tame and manageable by comparison.

Item #2: High Hopes for Parenthood

Remember that old film Parenthood, the one from 1989 which starred Steve Martin along with a great ensemble cast? It dramatized how parenthood is complicated and messy and heart-rending no matter how old your kids are. Well NBC is hoping that, despite the fact that the film is decades old, that there’s still magic in its formula. NBC is taking the film’s premise and turning it into a TV show, kind of like they did with the phenomenal Friday Night Lights, which was a non-fiction book, then a movie, then a fictional TV drama.  (If shows like the Bionic Woman and Knight Rider can be resurrected, why not a 21-year-old movie?) 

Parenthood, the TV show, will feature Gilmore Girls’ Lauren Graham, Six Feet Under’s Peter Krause and Coach’s Craig T. Nelson. I’ve seen a handful of promos and I’m hopeful that this show will work, though the bar for family comedies has been set mighty high by the fabulous freshman ABC comedy Modern Family which literally makes me laugh out loud each week.

How will Parenthood, the TV show stack up? Check out the trailer for the 1989 film:

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