The Best of the Rest of the Web: Parenting with Depression, Spending More Family Time, and (Not) Shedding That Baby Weight

By NYMetroParents Staff March 28, 2013

From the NYMetroParents April issue, a selection of thought-provoking, laugh-inducing, and just plain interesting facts and quotes from the web and the world of parenting.

57% of parents would rather spend time with their family or a spouse than receive a $5,000 pay raise, lose 10 pounds, go on a Caribbean cruise, or get more sleep.

—according to a recent survey of roughly 850 parents by Welch’s; find the full results and an online toolkit that includes advice on how to make the most of your family dinners, healthy recipes, and how to enjoy healthy mealtime moments even when you are not at home, at welchs.com/kitchentablereport

Double Time by Jane Roper “…the fact that I had to keep on parenting through my depression was, in a way, my salvation. With a pair of spirited toddlers to take care of, I didn’t have the option of staying in bed or spending the day parked on the couch channel-surfing. Faced with wrestling my daughters into their clothes or into the bath, making yet another meal or reading them yet another board book, I had to rally. And when I did, the depression didn’t hurt quite as much. I could even manage to smile.… [Now] I’m taking very good care of myself. So I can take the best possible care of my kids.”

—Jane Roper (@janeroper), originally from Fairfield, CT, in a guest post on blogs.nymetroparents.com; Roper’s book "Double Time: How I Survived—and Mostly Thrived—Through the First Three Years of Mothering Twins" is full of warmth, honesty, occasional advice, and more than a little humor as she relays an engaging account of the first three years with multiples while struggling to keep a history of depression under control.

Mirror, Mirror
“Kourtney Kardashian may be able to shed her baby weight in three months…but most of us are not that lucky. Most of us have to make peace with our new friend in the mirror. A new friend who is planning to stay indefinitely and prefers a much higher-waisted pair of pants…[and] lopsided boobs. I’d love to know if there is an upside to having Pamela Anderson on the left and Helen Mirren on the right, because the ladies are not seeing eye to eye.”

—Ilana Wiles, a.k.a. Mommy Shorts, the NYC mom blogger extraordinaire who approaches life with a wink and a smile and, fortunately for us, shares her mom adventures (now with a second daughter in the mix) at mommyshorts.com

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“Our children live simultaneously in two worlds: the physical world of school, home, and what adults call ‘real life,’ and the digital world, which, to young people, is equally if not more ‘real.’”

—attorney, TV host, and mother Lisa Bloom (@LisaBloom) in "Swagger" (Vantage Point Books, 2012), her wake-up call to parents packed with useful and tough-to-hear research about “raising boys in an era of failing schools, mass joblessness, and thug culture”; learn more at lisabloom.com.

child at beach

We can’t shield our children from the heartache and disappointment and tragedy that life inevitably brings. They’re going to get hurt, regardless. But if we can teach them how to be resilient—how to pick themselves back up, to carry on, no matter the force of the blow—they’ll always be protected. If they know how to bounce back, then we’ve done our job.

—award-winning NY blogger Michelle Horton on earlymama.com, where she writes “for anyone who became a parent earlier than they expected”; she also writes daily at Babble and Disney Baby.