Parenting advice from non-parents?

Sometimes it can be hard to take advice from a “childless bystander” but in a recent op-ed, the New York Times’ Frank Bruni makes it easy. His observations of modern parenting are deeply amusing and often true, especially his take on gratuitous praise and how parents sabotage their children’s eating habits by talking about them excessively. A few points seem a bit tired: when he describes modern parents as prone to “boundless fretting” it feels like Judith Warner’s Perfect Madness or New York Magazine’s July 2011 issue all over again. Happily, he concludes with the observation that most children turn out fine no matter how they are fed, transported, soothed, disciplined, etc. He’s certainly right about that. That, and the fact that all children these days eat way too many chicken fingers.

Friday Frivolity

From the ridiculous to the sublime it was quite a week for the modern mannerly mothers. 

While we can't all be in London riding double-decker buses and trying to catch a glimpse of Prince Harry, those of us back at home managed to muddle along.

 Google images

Speaking of muddling, your humble blogger received some much needed spring closet therapy from the lovely ladies at W2WW that you will hear about next week.  The peace is wonderful! 

Sadly it looks nothing like this divine closet from our beloved Lonny Blog.

We and our 9 year-old loved this piece we heard on Radio Boston about the benefits of taking a Gap Year.  She hopes to take hers between third and fourth and all subsequent grades. 

We had a bit of a chuckle as gp got a bit soppy on goop this week.   All perfectly true, we're sure.  Some modern mothers just aren't that introspective, we suppose, and the fault is ours.  However, we have already shared this blog's views on taking parenting advice from celebrities.  If you try this celebrity relationship advice, please let us know how it goes. 

Finally, before spring takes hold for good, might we recommend this glorious looking fried egg sandwich with bacon and blue cheese from smitten kitchen for your lazy Sunday morning breakfast.

 

This tantalizing picture is from Smitten Kitchen.

Happy weekend. 

Could parenting advice from celebrities ever be a good idea?

At Manners for Modern Mothers, we might be slow to catch up with trends in celebrity culture. In fact, celebrity news might only come to our attention due to a long line at a “conventional” grocery store, a wait in a well-subscribed dentist's office, or, in this case, much chatter in the blogosphere. 

And so, we have only recently discovered a controversy surrounding Gwyneth Paltrow and her purported penchant for administering parenting advice via her blog, GOOP, specifically her recent advice for working mothers, which includes such recommendations as: (1) "condense" your appointments by having weekly spa treatments simultaneously (e.g., manicure, pedicure, facial all at once) (2) don't forget your hands free mobile phone device so you can return calls after dropping kids off at school. 

Reactions appear to range from sarcastic, to disbelieving eye-roll, to partly obscene and potentially offensive (you have been warned), to “great, another reason to feel OK about making fun of her.” 

Since we are not celebrities, but nevertheless frequently share our own thoughts on parenting via this blog, we should probably be the last to ask why anyone would consider a film star a good source for parenting tips. Nor would it be mannerly to incite wanton celebrity criticism, but we are curious. Readers, do you find her annoying?  Do you support Gwyneth as a role model? Or, are you just wondering how people find the time to form such strong opinions of public figures? 

* image from instyle.com