A Few Words from Guest Blogger, Manager Mom

Note from Meg: My fear in posting what you're about to read is that you'll find Manager Mom much funnier and more entertaining than I and that there will a mass exodus from FairfieldCountyChild.com to her blog, www.managermom.blogspot.com and that I'll never hear from any of you ever again. I'm willing to take that risk though because now I can a) take this Friday off and relieve myself of any posting duties and b) introduce you to another cool, Fairfield County mom who deserves our attention. I've become a huge fan of her blog and I bet you'll become one of her groupies too after reading this great guest post from her. I'm also loving the most recent post on her site about the free concerts at Waveny Park in New Canaan. A great big thanks to Manager Mom for her words of wisdom below:

Greetings, FairfieldCountyChild.com readers!

My name is Manager Mom, and my blog lives just down the road from here. It’s the one with the overgrown lawn and the loud music coming from the minivan pulling out of the driveway.

Meg (the lady of this house) and I first “met” when I discovered the FairfieldCountyChild.com blog. As a guilt-riddled working mom, I enjoy reading about all of these great things that I’ll suspect that I’ll probably never muster up the energy to do with my own children.

So reading led to commenting, which took us down the slippery slope to email, and when we finally decided there was a low probability of either of us being a whacko, we decided to met up for coffee. We were having a good conversation, talking about the challenges of being a mom, and blogging, and working, that kind of stuff. And she asked me if I would be interested in writing a guest post on the site. My first response was, “Heck, yeah!”

My second thought was, “Oh, Heck. What possible value can I add to a blog about family activities in Fairfield County?” For anyone who HAS checked out my blog, you figure pretty quickly out that I don’t exactly pride myself on my mothering skills.

But I was playing with her scrumptiously adorable little daughter and bragging on my own littles (The Girl is 7, The Boy is 5). After a particularly boring story about a recent mother/daughter date we’d had at MOMA, Meg very kindly said that my daughter sounded wonderful, and asked (probably to get me to change the subject), “What is it you think you’ve done as a Mom to help her to grow up into the kid she is?”

And while I was struggling to come up with a more impressive answer than, “I dunno, genetics? Blind luck?” The inspiration for my guest post was born.

I would impart my parenting insights! For the benefit of all, I would generously share the recipe for the secret sauce that I use on my own offspring, which has made them turn out so finger-licking good!

Now, I only had to figure out what that advice would be. I decided to give myself the rest of the afternoon to invent something suitably impressive, yet still vaguely credible.

And then, as happens every day at 6pm, I got home from work around the time as Manager Dad arrived home, kids in tow. And as we launched into our post-school/post-daycare/post-work decompression routine, I realized what the bedrock of my parenting theory was…and I didn’t even have to make it up.

So without further ado: the Manager Mom rule for raising creative and independent children: a strictly administered daily diet of parental neglect.

Not A LOT of neglect, mind you, just ENOUGH so that you get a few moments of sanity and the kids have a chance to think for themselves after spending a whole day of being shepherded from one activity to another.

I dole out my daily chunk of ignoration during that first half hour we get home. The rules are simple: 1) No TV, and 2) Don’t bother mommy or daddy. Find ANYTHING that will not cause grievous bodily harm to amuse yourself.

Don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe in quality time. It’s just that after several years of trying, I have come to realize that that said quality time has a slim chance of happening between 6 and 6:30pm.

Yes, our policy has resulted in some broken knickknacks and scribbled-on walls. But more often than not it has resulted in works such as “The Girl’s Book Of Secret Codes,” or a squadron of hand-folded paper airplanes, or a jointly produced play with a plot revolving around a kidnapped tooth fairy being rescued by a superhero.

So by all means, FairfieldCountyChild.com readers, please DO take advantage of all of these great products and services. (I especially urge you to support local business that are owned by other moms.)

My humble suggestion would only be that you don’t have to take advantage of them all at once. As my OWN mother (who has never met a topic that she isn’t an expert on) likes to point out, a little boredom never killed anybody.

For more from Manager Mom visit www.managermom.blogspot.com.