1. these tulips.
{for brightening a(nother) germy week.}
2. two brown paper bags full of cards.
{because little ones really get this holiday right.}
3. this pad of watercolor paper.
{and small people painting.}
4. this baking soda.
{for ten different reasons, but esp. for turning white mugs…white again.}
5. this striped shirt.
{for making it feel a bit like spring, even when it’s decidedly not.}
other things:
13 Comments
Wow, thank you for sharing the article on female slaveholders, it feels so critical for historical accuracy and contemporary context of white-centered feminism. Have you seen the show Finding Your Roots? It’s on PBS and offers similarly illuminating moments about our American history, especially the dynamics and distinctions of oppression based on race, religion, and immigration, told through stories of individual genealogy.
Excellent links as always, the “Slate Piece” about white women’s culpability for slavery atrocities in the U.S. in particular.
The opinion piece about social support for mothers really made me think, too. As the oldest daughter of a single mother of four, I saw firsthand how tough my mom had to be to survive–and pull us all through–with no safety net, so I’m very sympathetic to this call for change. At the same time, I’m really interested in ideas about how to incentivize men to take on more of the burden of child-raising, including taking significant time off work, and I mean at a policy level rather than at the level of an individual family’s decision. And as someone who chooses not to have children, I also think we’d be better off as a society if more paid leave was available to everyone, including non-parents (I like this discussion of the idea: https://www.cnn.com/2016/05/06/opinions/maternity-leave-america-schulte/index.html).
There is paid leave for German fathers as well. You can have maximum have 14 months of paid leave as a couple, but one partner can have maximum 12. that ends up mostly in fathers taking two months, mothers 12. (I forced my partner to take seven months like me, but thats rare). More often, men take their „parental“ leave at the same time as their partner and they go on a two months family vacation. That was not the purpose, I think..
We lived in Quebec for a while and had both paternity and maternity leave. It was so important for my healing and for solidifying my husband’s work in our home and with our kids from the start of his parenting, that I can’t imagine living without that kind of state support as a new mother. It infuriates me that this isn’t a huge deal among both conservatives and liberals in the US.
Thanks for the link in your reply! A sabbatical for every working person, not only new parents, could be healthy and encouraging.
I am completely convinced that baking soda and vinegar will clean up 90% of a household.
I would love to know where your striped top is from!
same!
It’s an old one from Calder Blake!
If you don’t mind sharing, what watercolor paints to your kiddos use?
“for ten different reasons, but esp. for turning white mugs…white again” tell me more about how this works 🙂
ha! just make a baking soda paste! or give them a baking soda bath! a quick google search will point you in the right direction!
oh that’s neat! Thanks!
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