New Book: Momfidence!

I haven't yet read Momfidence! and with others, find myself cringing at the title, but I've been following our Mothertalk blog tour of the book this week. One after the other, bloggers are loving the book. It's so refreshingly, it seems, not about being hip and avant-garde. On her web site, the author refers to her (decidedly unhip) black stretch pants, and in one photo her daughter wears a smocked dress, imagine that! The book reminds us to focus on happiness. There's more to life with kids than getting all the rules right. Toss out the rules, don't fuss if your child doesn't eat veggies (that's what vitamin chewies are for), and just don't worry. Just half a generation ago, the author notes, milk and cookies were a nurturing combo, and a normal after school snack. What happened? Are cookies so terrible?

The MotherTalk blog tour for Momfidence! made me think, especially in light of today's NYTimes Op-Ed on the insanity of snacks at the soccer field. Why do we link soccer games with increasingly elaborate snacks, bags of chips, sugary drinks. Shouldn't a bottle of water be enough? Isn't there something wrong with the way kids look forward to the snack at game's end even more than to the practice and the game? I read it and totally agreed. Last week after her soccer practice and game, the kids were given: capri suns; a bag of doritos, or some such snack; and a dunkin donut. It seemed like an awful lot to me. I wondered what the other parents were thinking.

So are these contradictions? Is it sweating the small stuff to worry about soccer snacks, or an important worry (and in the Times, no less)? That's what I'm thinking about tonight. I too, grumble about the snack excess, and at the same time, find myself very attracted to a message that says, hey, the kids are having fun, no one's getting hurt, it's a gorgeous blue sun day, put on a smile and above all, don't fret.