So I took all my notes with me and headed over to their studio. I looked extremely glame, as you would expect. At one point, when I talked about the Fly Lady and the one hour power clean, I had to stop myself from saying "batshit crazy". I'm pretty sure that's something you're NOT supposed to say on live TV. If you watch you can see me start to say "BAT" and then stop myself.
So anyway, here's the clip. I also talk about awesome you are.
xo, Lydia
(c)Herding Turtles, Inc. 2009 - 2011
I applaud your restraint and the fact that you still have a filter after having children. BTW, I love the phrase, "bat shit crazy!" and use it all the time.
ReplyDeleteGreat segment! It was good to hear again. I totally saw the BAT coming, and then fly right out the door. Nice save. :)
ReplyDeleteHaving managed most of my children's lives without swearing around them ... my 14 yr old has accepted that 'bat shit crazy' is a part of life ;)
ReplyDeleteLove the Pinterest comments! :)
ReplyDeleteBwahaha... "everyone just goes B--" *gaah - filter!!* "... nuts." hehehe.
ReplyDeleteLoved it!
As the mom of a 5 day old and a 22 month old, I may be sleep deprived but really think you and the readers suggestions are awesome!! And you look awesome!!!!
ReplyDeleteYou are so adorable, Lydia!! Thanks for being the voice of all us 'batshit crazy' moms! I couldn't do this everyday without you!! (and Kate & Louise too!)
ReplyDeleteGood restraint on the "batshit"! lol And I'm gonna start using the basket on the stairs tip.
ReplyDeleteHere is a purging tip that I always used. About a week before Christmas when I was cleaning the house for the holiday I would start collecting up toys and games from my kids rooms or the toy box that were broken, missing parts or out grown. I would bag up the toys that could be donated to good will and throw out the hopeless broken stuff. All this would disappear by Christmas Eve. On Christmas day the kids received their new toys and they never even missed the old things. During the height of yard sale season if we brought home "new" toys then something old would have to go. Some people ask their kids to choose what is going to be donated but we all know that like lots of adults sometimes they just don't want to give up their stuff. The secret to keeping the clutter down is purging, but quietly!
ReplyDeleteExcellent save on the batshit crazy, although, it is a wonderful term that I have adopted in past week or so :)
ReplyDeleteWow! You are getting SO comfortable on camera! And so gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteYou were awesome! "batshit" was so right.on.your.tongue! Love it!
ReplyDeleteI can't even remember how I stumbled across this blog a few months ago, but now I wonder how I lived without it. I've been systematically going through (read jumping all over in no particular order) the archives and laughing my big, white p'tush off all the way. Lydia, you are absolutely adorable. I wish that I'd had just one neighbor like you since I became a mommy 7 years ago. Add in the rest of your posse and I would just be one ecstatic SAHM. Still bat shit crazy, mind you, but ecstatic! I guess if I can't have this team of awesome women in my real life, at least I get to have you in my virtual one. Thanks to all of you for working us into your busy schedule!
ReplyDeleteI loved all the tips and tricks you collected, some of them were really useful! And btw I think it's great that you get to go on tv (I'd be too nervous to sit still, let alone avoid words like batshit crazy) Rock on!
ReplyDeleteBehind the scenes you may feel like a mess, but sister, you are a NATURAL on tv. Seriously. Articulate *and* funny? Wowsers. You rocked it.
ReplyDeleteExcellent save, you can just say you were going to say Ballistic, but decided to tone it down to nuts. bwa ha ha! You look so fab! not glame at all!!! Excellent report, excellent posts, excellent Mommies!!! ♥
ReplyDeleteI <3 Lydia! That was awesome and so fun to watch. Loved the not-batshit crazy part. And now I'm going to go find baskets for everyone!
ReplyDeleteLydia- You rock! As I am now 2 months from Mommyland, I know these posts will come in extra handy. Thanks for all your hard work!!
ReplyDeleteXO, Dag
Hold the murtherfurking PHONE! Your name is NOT Lydia?
ReplyDeleteYou did rock it! Nice job, and nice save!
ReplyDeleteMore of the same ... more and more enhanced running techniques for making the hamster wheel go even faster.
ReplyDeleteThe unspoken and unquestioned assumption behind all the tips and techniques is that the suburban, hyper-consumptive, over scheduled lifestyle is an appropriate one, if even an achievable one. So, rather than pick-up games or great exercise like running, roughhousing, bicycling, tree climbing, playground adventures, roller skating and the kind of unstructured and free play that EVERY generation up to the current one or two thrived upon, we have kids being driven around for literally thousands of miles from venue to venue to play in/on swimming, baseball, softball, volleyball, hockey, lacrosse, etc. organized sports teams. Unstructured play requires a minimum of gear, little coaching, no elaborate venues, no car mileage and requires that kids develop their organizational, judgment, and timing skills as well as any motor skills related to the activity involved.
Pushy, competitive, bourgeoise suburbanites coddle themselves with a notion that they know what is best for the kids, even while running their families beyond ragged by capitulating to the ridiculous demands that these activities impose on the family. Since a kind of groupthink drives the whole thing, it is hard to see any way out for those captured by the spell. It may be that $5 to $10 per gallon gasoline will shake people out of their stupor, as the suburbs/exurbs become more and more isolated and the hugely destructive lifestyles practiced there are revealed for the unsustainable rat races that they are.
RFML fans will do themselves and the environment a huge favor to resist the pressure to make themselves and/or their kids into "human doings" rather than allowing them their birthright as human beings.
You may want to read the "Is this the right blog for you" post.
DeleteSaw that reply coming a mile away ...
DeleteIs it true that one of the posters needs someone to pick up after her two nannies? Or was it that she's so busy scheduling and chorecharting that she had to install sophisticated software that allows her to schedule her scheduling sessions to avoid conflicts with her planning meetings?
Part 1 of 2:
DeleteSo I got off my hamster wheel to think deeply about your very angry posting. For me the net takeaway is you feel strongly organized sports teams are environmental hazards and ruining our children and our world. And you make a lot of assumptions. (Ironic, I know! As you make so many, many assumptions about the readers of RFML.) I wish I had my PhD in anthropology and sociology to rebut your arguments with $2 words, but I'll just have to muddle through and trust that you'll correct me when I'm wrong.
You suggested "respond to the message not the messenger." I say this with the utmost respect but you must not be aware that you come across as judgmental and harsh. I don't feel you had my best interests at heart. I felt like you wanted to stab me. If that was your intent -- kudos. If not, I gently offer a suggestion that your message might have been received better if you had rephrased it. Maybe if you said something like "One suggestion I'd like to make is if you are feeling overwhelmed with your commitments, you should consider not enrolling your children in organized sports. Studies show that free play is important to your children's development. There is an article on Momstream dot com you should look at. Just think how much less stress you'll feel if you don't have to drive your kids all over the county. You'll save on gas and you'll have more time to make homegrown healthy, nutrious meals while hanging your laundry on the line." Maybe you see that approach as being weak. I see it as being nice. As most people who follow RFML are nice it might go over better. (I think it's called "understanding your audience.")
Gina (I have to do Anonymous because I don't have any of those other IDs or URLs)
Part 2 of 2:
DeleteI have some responses to some of your messages. You suggest that we keep the cars at home and allow the kids to just "running, roughhousing, bicycling, tree climbing, playground adventures, roller skating and the kind of unstructured and free play" ... "...that EVERY generation up to the current one or two thrived upon..." well, I don't know about you but I don't have a soccer field in the back yard. No roller rink either. And the park -- well, we walk to the one and drive to the others. Yep, you got me on the suburban thing. I don't live in a walking community. Wish I did, but one wasn't available to me. Until then I need to use the car sometimes to access these parks and play areas. I'll just have to make do as best I can in my current environment as I don't control the urban planning commission.
"Pushy, competitive, bourgeoise suburbanites" -- ouch, that hurts. Seems to me that is an assumption. I had to look me up that fancy Franch word "bourgeoise" which simply means "middle class." You used the feminine form and there are men on here so you might want to check that next time. OK, you got me 2 out of 4. I am middle class (above poverty level, but below wealthy) and I do live in a suburb (to get access to the pool, playground, sidewalks in a nice neighborhood -- hmmm, like the one I grew up in where I did a lot of free play). Pushy and competitive, not so much. You seem to have it in for "organized sports teams." I always thought of it as a way to build a community and teach teamwork and good sportsmanship. I guess I was wrong as it seems to be an environmental hazard. Thanks for enlightening me.
For what it's worth, my grandmother in 1935 was on the high school basketball team. My uncle played basketball. Mom wasn't into team sports. Dad never mentioned how he spent his free time in his youth. I did hear something about hopping the rails with his brother and working a job when he was 12. So much for that happy childhood with "free play." If I think really hard with my tiny brain and shake myself out of my stupor I think all cultures had organized team, community events -- Egyptians, Romans, Aztecs, Mayans, Native Americans, etc.
I don't feel like I'm on a hamster wheel running in useless circles. Not feeling really rat racy or overscheduled. I like talking about laundry and hearing stories about child rearing challenges. I'd rather bop along in my happy little mindless world than poke sharp pointy virtual sticks at people I don't know. I guess I like self-deprecating funny things instead of mean, judgy things. Which is why I read RFML and the comments. I have to go now and wash my feet before I use them to start making the crockpot meal while I type up that report for work with one hand and sort the laundry with the other. Rainbows and butterfly kisses everyone.
Gina (I have to do Anonymous because I don't have any of those other IDs or URLs)
Lydia - you are, as always, the bomb. We have started saying B.S.C. among the adults here in order to control ourselves, because the phrase bat-sh*t-crazy has become a very necessary part of our vocabulary. Also, I love you.
ReplyDeleteNo surprise the comment above was from "Anonymous." I'm so tired of people hiding their self righteous comments behind "Anonymous."
ReplyDeleteLydia, you are so comfortable on camera, and everything you had to say was great advice and delivered in a light and funny way. :-) Loved this series of posts. Got some good advice, and confirmed some of the tips and tricks I'm already doing. Baseball starts in T-minus... ;-)
It's much easier to attack the messenger than it is to respond to the message. Anonymous makes the point that an unsustainable lifestyle that grinds up families cannot be sustained, and families suffer being ground up. Look to the masses of RFML fans desperate for a way out of the consumptive trap that suburban/exurban life has become, and do not insult them by telling them that washing socks more efficiently will solve their problem. It is the hours wasted in cars yo-yoing endlessly the vast landscape of schools. sports venues, work, shopping malls, etc. that robs people of the time they need to live a human life; it is the cruel workloads of today's corporate serfdom that suck the energy from parents who try harder and harder to keep on.
ReplyDeleteClever little tips on how to fold laundry with one's feet, while making crock pot dishes for three meals, while simultaneously organizing by speakerphone the schedules of multiple sports teams ... this kind of advice only digs deeper the frantic spinning hole. It does no one any favors to pretend otherwise.
Thanks again for the laughter (always helps, no matter what) and the useful tips! The camera wuuuuvvvss you Lyd-i-A! ;) btw: feeling kinda inadequate, because of the not having ever (ever) ran, let alone won a marathon at the peak of my youth... And especially with a six are-you-freaking-kidding-me-old infant.... Just saying you know!
ReplyDelete