SC - OT-OOP but I gotta RANT!!!

[Laura C. Minnick]

Hi everybody!

I've been working my way through the Sunday Oregonian at a leisurely
pace, in between minor chores, etc., but I've been stopped cold and must
rant about that- that- that- AWFUL WOMAN! You know, the one we always
pick on- the uber-homemaker who has gardeners and maids and cooks and
still manages to make us all feel bad...

Today- she addresses Birth Announcements. One must have Perfectly
Tasteful birth announcements, it seems. She briefly covers having a
stationer do them, and then goes on and on and on about cute and
charming ideas for HANDMADE cards, with personal touches such as -get
this- EMBROIDERING each card with an appropriate shape, such as a
rattle, having your baby's footprint made into a stamp and then stamping
the cards, cutting out tiny flannel 'onesies' and gluing them to the
cards, making cards out of photos, making cards of paper dolls, or
making tiny 'stocking' of paper, and putting the info on a card to slip
into the stocking. Ohmigod.

What appalls me is- what planet is she on? Has she ever given birth?
Doesn't she know that no one sends out birth announcments anymore-
you're too busy trying to get 20 minutes of sleep in a row or wondering
if the baby will sleep long enough that you can have a shower. I have
three kids- I remember all too well. With a new baby in the house no one
is going to make cute cut-outs of anything. My 'birth announcements'
went out via a phone tree, not the mailman. The new moms I know aren't
worried about making a card look like a bootie- and they certainly
aren't looking to have their picture taken, not when they haven't washed
their hair in three days and have baby barf all over their robe. Why add
the extra burden of having to put out a 'cute' announcement?

Can't Martha just go back to her improbable menus that she doesn't cook
and lovely gardens that she doesn't get dirty for and leave the Real
People alone? Geez!

*pant*pant*pant*

Ok. Rant over. Thank you for your indulgence- now Back to your regularly
scheduled programming...

'Lainie