I totally had more to say. I meant to upload the pictures, save it and go home and write about how much I hate, HATE, hate those exponential mom shirts. And how I find the idea of plastering stick figures of our family on the back of my minivan pretty horrific. Then, I was going to find a video of the Bing commercial with the pregnant woman at yoga class and complain about how she is 10 and half months pregnant and if she hasn't figured out yet what you can't eat when you're pregnant, she's pretty screwed.
Apparently, though, instead of hitting save, I hit post. Which sucks.
Although, apparently, some of you are annoyed enough at this stuff that I didn't have to write anything at all. Which rocks.
Cause, you know, I love it, LOVE IT, when someone agrees with me about the absurdity of something. And I can just say, "I know. Right?"
I may come back tomorrow and talk about how those "I'm an exponentially better mom than you" shirts run all over me. Who knows.
9 comments:
They annoy me too!
you made me laugh, thanks!
I thought the Mom3 ("Mom cubed"?!) shirt meant she had three kids, rather than being three times the mother. I guess I'm just naive. Or it's a woman thing. Or both.
Yeah those shirts are SO obnoxious.
Steve - You realize you baited me. I know, you didn't mean to. *Deep breath* Okay, yes, that's what it means, except that putting it like an exponent, it does imply that a mother of 4 is more of a mother than a mother of two and mothers of one aren't even included in the madness. There is no mom1 shirt that I've ever seen, and if I did see one, I'd get tense because it's mathematically redundant. But it's more than that. I can't get one, because what would I get? I could get a three, because I'm a mom three times over, but then people who don't know me that well would always be asking about my third and I'd have to tell them about losing Ethan. Or, I could get a two and pretend that one of my children just never existed. It's complicated for moms of loss. But it's also complicated for stepmoms and foster moms and adoptive moms. So, by wearing one of those shirts, you are also advertising how un-complicated your life is. And yes, those of us who are complicated can just choose not to wear them, but there's a certain superiority (I've noticed) in those that do wear them. We've just never gotten past the belief that nuclear families are somehow better and more complete than more complex families.
Okay, rant over and now I don't have to blog about it anymore. I promise.
Jessi, I am sorry, I had completely missed the relevance of 3 w.r.t. your loss. I am insensitive and dumb. I apologize.
As I said, I don't think these shirts are worn over here (or at least I've never seen them), so I commented after 20 seconds thought, but I now appreciate the "suggested superiority" angle. Obviously you can't judge parenting by numbers and the idea that people wear these T-shirts as if you can is almost as baffling to me as it is alarming. Like I said, I guess I'm somewhat naive that way.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I think Moms aren't afforded proper respect in our society (and I am talking about real tangible things, like publicly funded daycare, preschool and healthcare), and as a result, mothers feel marginalized and competitive with each other to make up for that. Hence the obnoxious t-shirts. I mean, you don't see doctors wearing t-shirts saying "I'm an awesome doctor" because we already revere doctors in our society, so that would just look conceited. See what I mean?
Steve - You are neither insensitive nor dumb. I made a decision a long time ago that I was going to accept my loss, but not be defined by it. So, I don't expect everyone to look at everything those that lens. I think that most of those women I know who proudly sport these shirts don't see it that way. They wouldn't think of it as an act of superiority.
Suze - Excellent point! I never thought of it that way. I am proud to be a mom, but I've never felt even the tiniest need to advertise it. The two screaming kids latched onto my knees are advertisement enough.
If the number of children you have equated your Mommy greatness than that stupid Dugger woman would be the greatest mom of all. However, I don't believe the number of children you dictates your Mommy greatness. It's how you love and raise your children and there's no t-shirt for that. Maybe we could start the "I didn't raise a serial killer" mom t-shirt club. :)
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