Category Archives: moms

Reborn dolls and women who mother them

Woah! This video really freaks me out! It is long but I could not pause it. Kind of like staring at the accident. The song choice makes it all the more disturbing. If you don’t get to the end, the best part is where we are sternly instructed not to search for ‘fake baby’ as the correct term is ‘reborn’. WTF!!

I searched YouTube for these ‘babies’ after seeing a scary little news story on the Today Show. You can see the story here.

Matt Lauer interviewed some frankly wacko rather interesting women Wednesday morning about these dolls called reborns. What the hell does that mean, reborn? EW! This interview was in anticipation of a BBC film called ‘My Fake Baby’ which is a documentary about these ‘babies’. (shame on you BBC, you did not use the right terminology, how ignorant!).

These dolls sell for thousands and are collected by women, some of whom dress them up and ‘care’ for them as if they were real. Yeh, this is real healthy. Touted as the perfect baby (um, wait, why is this ok?) one woman says that while she doesn’t have children this ‘satisfies a female instinct’ in her. Women find them therapeutic. Oh, I am thinking there is surely some therapy needed. This is way creepy, no? OK, so why do we not think these women need some serious help?

I particularly like the way you can pop their heads off, but hey, that’s me. Seriously, I never got to do this with my kids and I find that to be a nice feature, don’t you?

G-d bless the doll ‘artists’ who are making a fortune on these things. It got me to thinking that this could be a woman’s version of the sex doll. Seriously, they satisfy a need, right? No one gets hurt. Well maybe they do. I wonder about the woman in the interview who had a two-year-old at home. This woman left her real kid home to take her fake baby on TV, um yeh, we are real healthy. I worry about that kid getting the right kind of attention. While mommy is rocking plastic bro to sleep is real life toddler sticking her finger in a socket or something? (I know, I can be so judgmental sometimes).

My favorite line from the Lauer interview:

Matt: What do you do with an old baby when you get a new baby, put the old one on a shelf?

I am thinking if you did not have children there are many creatures that you can ‘satisfy your female instinct’ with. How about a cat? A puppy? Even a fish?

Then again, hard to dress up a fish.

Although there is something to be said about not needing to get a sitter.

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Filed under absurdities, family, moms, parenting, trends, Uncategorized, women

#1 Sign that Your Daughter is Too Old for the Pediatrician’s Office

NOTE: It’s Wednesday and that means I am posting at Mid-Century Modern Moms today. Don’t miss it!

Jana is home for 5 whole days between camp and school. We like to think of this week as relay for health. We fit many doctor’s appointments into a short period of time. Last visit was the dentist, eye doc and gyn. This week it is allergist x 2 (trying to get that asthma in check) and the dreaded annual check-up with…

the pediatrician. Ok, so she is 19 and we are still visiting the pediatrician. Yeh, like we are the only ones doing that! While we were in the exam room I heard what sounded like a full grown man in the other room taking an eye test.

Note the ‘gown’ she was asked to put on. She wanted to know what short little porker size kid this was designed for. Wait, didn’t I see this top in a Vera Wang ad in the NYT fashion mag?

What is with our generation that we don’t trust the big people’s docs with our college kids? Do we have some strange masochistic nostalgic streak that makes us feel the need to still be around kvetching babies and toddlers in the waiting room to validate our vision of ourselves as ‘mom’?

Here are a couple of favorite sound bites from the ONE HOUR wait to see the doc:

8-year-old-girl: Mom, remember our babysitter Uma from Iraq?

Mom: She was from Canada!!

Mom: Let’s play the guessing game. I am thinking of a man.

Kid 1: Is he a singer?

Mom: Yes.

Kid 2: Bob Dylan?

Mom: No.

Kid 2: Bob Marley?

Note to self: kidnap Kid 2 and take her home. She fits perfectly with our musical tastes and Gary always wanted a third child. 

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Filed under family, humor, moms, parenting, teenagers

Lucky 7s


Today is a very special day.

Today is my mom’s 77th birthday.

Oy, is she going to friggin’ kill me for letting you all know how old she is. But too bad, Ma, you deserve to have everyone wish you a happy, happy day.

I thought it would be a nice gift to share you with the internet – don’t worry, I bought you something too.

Internet, meet my mom. Mom, meet the internet. Don’t worry Mom, for the most part they are very nice people.

Ok here goes…

It is hard to put into words how special my mother is. Growing up she was the ultimate mom. She has taught me, by example, what it truly means to be a parent. She rarely lost her cool (except that thing she did with her lips when we really pissed her off). Our ultimate cheerleader, we were raised to believe we could accomplish anything we set our hearts and minds to. Now my brother, he was a peace of cake to raise. Me, well, if you have been reading this blog, do the math.

Her home was – and still is – always perfect. Growing up I had no idea a house could get dirty. (oh boy, did I learn differently when I had my own place). And she always had the most awesome ‘goodie basket’ (think devil dogs and twinkies). Her garden is her pride and joy and it is beautiful (even if one damn flower was the cause of her breaking a hip last year!).

She is tall, elegant, and as Jana tells her when she has wardrobe doubts, grandmothers always wear the appropriate thing wherever they go.

She has a supportive word for everyone, for some reason thinks ALL babies are cute – even the ugly ones – and has pictures of dozens of them on her fridge. (seriously, send her a baby picture, even if your kid is really funny-looking she will hang it up in one of those lucite magnet frames).

My mom has been no stranger to adversity and yet she rises above it all to live her life the only way she knows how:

lovingly…

to the point of tears! (go ahead, cry. you have the time).

Happy Birthday, Mom. I love you.

(now really internet, don’t you think there should be some major commenting here today?)

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Filed under aging parents, moms, Uncategorized