Picket Fence Post

Item #1: No ‘Bliss’ for Real Moms

Galt Niederhoffer wants all of you mommies to knock it off with your mommy propaganda, saying stuff like “motherhood is bliss” because, as she says on The Huffington Post, it’s not. In her post entitled, “The Bliss Myth: Cut the Crap Mommies,” Niederhoffer wrote:

“Why not acknowledge that frustration, boredom, guilt and ambivalence are universal, unavoidable facets of motherhood? Sharing will make us better and happier mothers, affording women the comfort of community and the benefit of shared information — the very tools we need to transcend motherhood’s challenges.”

Well, if Niederhoffer had been reading the Picket Fence Post, she would’ve never gotten the misguided notion that parenthood is bliss. Maybe I should e-mail her a few links to places where she can get a reality check on what real, non-blissed-out parenting is like here on Planet Earth.

Item #2: Family Meals Good for Parents Too

Speaking of real parenting . . . Slate’s Emily Bazelton tells us that while we’ve all heard about how absolutely fantastic and grounding it is for children to sit down with their parents for family meals each night — family-meal-eating kids are less likely to get into trouble, are more likely to feel closer to their family, get higher grades, become rocket scientists, etc. – it’s also good for parents too. Bazelton wrote:

“The research by lead author Jenet Jacob of Brigham Young University found that among 1,580 parents who worked at IBM, those who said their jobs interfered less with being home for dinner tended to feel greater personal success, and success in relationships with their spouses and their children. The working parents — both mothers and fathers — had all of these buoyant feelings if they made it home for dinner more regularly, even if they still worked long hours. They also felt more kindly toward their workplace.”

I know I’d certainly feel better if The Spouse were home more often for family meals, then I wouldn’t be the only one to develop a migraine when the kids say they utterly loathe what I’ve made for dinner (there’s always at least one protester per meal), then watch them sulk and, in at least the case of one child, literally throw up all over the kitchen table in order to avoid eating the baked chicken. Good times.

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Three for Thursdays (or Four for Fridays if I don’t post on Thursday) will be a regular feature here on the Picket Fence Post. This feature will include newsy/fun/intriguing items that I stumbled upon in the past week. If you happen to see something — an interesting news story, a funny video, an outrage, etc. — that you think would be perfect for Three for Thursdays, please be sure to send it my way.

Item #1: Grey’s Finale

Will Meredith and Derek finally end the on-again/off-again romantic dance and commit already? Certainly the challenges of being a couple can provide drama and comedy, if it didn’t, then Mad About You would’ve been canceled after its pilot episode. Will Miranda figure out a way to repair her relationship with her estranged husband and reunite her family? Will Christina emerge from her “Like a Virgin”-singing funk? We’ll find out tonight in the Grey’s Anatomy finale. But, as with most bonus-sized finales — tonight’s show is two hours long — they tend to disappoint. Hopefully that won’t be the case tonight. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that nothing totally absurd will happen. Like Gizzie, part II.

Item #2: First-Born Rule-Followers and Their Strict ‘Rents

I KNEW IT! As the oldest child in my own family, I’ve always felt as though it’s harder to be the older kid than the younger one, even when you factor the hand-me-downs into the picture. Now a study in the latest issue of the Economic Journal confirms it.

“The study showed that older siblings were much less likely to drop out of school or, in the case of girls, get pregnant, than the youngest in the family, perhaps because of a lifetime of being held to higher standards,” reported MSNBC. “That stricter parenting style [used with the older child] often shapes the first-born kid into a play-by-the-rules perfectionist.”

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Catch Grey’s Anatomy last week, the episode in which Dr. Miranda Bailey’s toddler got booted out of Seattle Grace’s daycare center for punching a fellow toddler in a dispute involving a graham cracker?

This episode was just one in a long line of episodes which focused on the immense difficulty the Bailey character is having balancing her desire to do some serious medical butt-kicking as Seattle Grace’s chief resident, with the desire of her estranged at-home spouse to spend some time with him and their child. The successful career professional pitted against the resentful at-home spouse who feels neglected.

I discuss this Grey’s Anatomy/working parent story line in my latest Mommy Track’d piece and ask the questions: Do you sympathize with the characters in their struggle? Do you wish there were more workplace flexibility? or is this just the way things are when your kids are little?

Image credit: ABC.

ABC Thursday: Could this be the making of a new, must-see TV night? Thursdays, 9-11 p.m. with Grey’s Anatomy at 9, followed by Lost at 10?

The first, post-writers’ strike episodes of both programs aired last night (I could watch without feeling guilty for missing a Red Sox game as, sadly, the Olde Towne Team had already lost earlier in the day) and I was more giddy than I should have been about seeing the new shows. I kept my expectations in check, though, as nothing good comes from having high expectations about one’s favorite TV shows.

Grey’s was satisfactory and, thank God, no longer featured the wretched, unwise and now-ended Gizzie (the coupling of George and Izzie). While I loved seeing Miranda Bailey’s toddler son in his backwards baseball cap (too cute!), I was impressed by the fact that Meredith Grey was given a spine. At least for one episode.

As for Lost, I continue to be simultaneously confounded and intrigued by each new episode and have no earthly idea how this whole thing’s going to end. For every new question that’s answered, the show yields 10 more. I’m just hopeful that the loose ends all tie up logically when the show concludes or else I’ll be mighty peeved.

The only thing that would’ve made my TV viewing night better — other than a Sox victory — would’ve been if The Office and 30 Rock aired in the 8 o’clock hour rather than in the 9 o’clock hour, opposite Grey’s so I could watch all of those programs in one night. (Good thing for my trusty DVR which recorded the comedies for me . . . one of the best gifts ever.) But even if The Office and 30 Rock aired earlier, I wouldn’t be able to watch them live anyway because my three kiddos are still wide awake at 8 p.m. I definitely don’t want my grade schoolers watching 30 Rock and then asking me what the word “MILF” means.

Speaking of 30 Rock . . . its star, Tina Fey, is headlining a new movie, Baby Mama, being released today. I’m planning on seeing it tonight with a gal pal to see if it’s as hilarious and politically incorrect as its trailer.

So, now it’s your turn: What TV shows are you watching? Which ones are you following, now that the TV writers are once again writing?

Image credit: ABC.