2007 Rewind: 10 Memorable Mommy and Family Topics

Nordette — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 01:15:47 -0600

Here are the 10 topics from the Mommy and Family blogosphere that first leaped to my mind when I decided to do this 2007 in review post. I'm not claiming that these are 2007's best stories or posts. This list reflects the mommy and family topics that intrigued me or caused me to think, smile, or cry or that simply stuck in my head.

10. So You Want to Start a Mom Blog -- The Series. BlogHer Contributing Editor Jenn Satterwhite shared valuable information with readers in this series about how to start and maintain a mommy blog. Readers appreciated her advice and the series was timely. Mommy blogs stayed hot in 2007.

9. The Spears family saga continues. Mommy bloggers sounded off about Britney Spears' behavior and baby drama. Later her younger sister Jamie Lynn fell into the spotlight with her high-profile teen pregnancy while the sisters' mother, Lynne Spears, fell from grace with a Christian book publisher that yanked her upcoming book. Publishers Thomas Nelson now says was never a parenting book and that they are supportive of Ms. Spears.

8. The Don Imus insult. Sorry, had to bring this up again. Radio personality Don Imus made the mistake of calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" (whores). He lost his job, and mommies, daddies, and everyone else talked about this story that seemed to go on forever. His getting a new show with a black female sidekick didn't get quite as much coverage.

7. Flying the family unfriendly skies. Didn't we have enough of the airlines last year when one kicked off a mother for breastfeeding her baby (The airline later apologized). But again with the airlines kicking families off In 2007! One airline kicked off a cranky toddler and another turned the plane around because a flight attendant thought a talkative toddler and his mother posed a security threat.

6. A mommy's war is never done. Posts and comments decrying media's perpetuation of the fictitious mommy wars appeared repeatedly in 2007. Here's one post on that and here's another.

5. A mommy's war is never done, part 2 A Silicon Valley mom blogger had no idea what she'd set off by questioning Elizabeth Edwards' parenting choices.

4. Do not pass go. Just go to jail. Parents were scared straight in 2007, doing jail time for letting minors drink alcohol or being carted away for starting a brawl at a restaurant on Mother's Day. While traveling through Virginia, a mom was arrested and later sentenced to two years in prison for tossing a McDonald's cup of ice at a driver. With some coaxing the judge reduced the sentence, and a working mom dodged a possible one year in jail for leaving her 10-year-old home alone. The police came calling after the child called 911 to complain about having to do homework.

3. But parents have rights, don't they? The Gardasil vaccine, which is promoted as protecting girls from certain forms of cervical cancer, hopped on and off the hot seat this year as Texas "sidestepped" parental rights groups and required girls as young as 11 take the shot. And that wasn't the only vaccine under fire. Catherine Morgan also told readers that parents lost their rights to refuse the chicken pox vaccine for their children. In addition to these serious matters, the state of Massachusetts contemplated making spanking one's children illegal, raising the ire and eyebrows of some moms and dads.

2. Virginia Tech. We all mourned with the families who lost loved ones in this tragedy.

1. Parents scared witless. From lead-paint-covered toys made in China and shipped here to Aqua Dots to the Barbie recall and tainted baby bottles, 2007 may have been the year of living dangerously in paranoia for parents. Who can blame them? In addition to shuddering at massive toy recalls, parents also learned that children's health is not a priority of the present administration in Washington. The President nixed SCHIP.

As I said in the opening, this list is not a best stories or best posts list. It's a list of the stories that I recall most when looking back at a year of mommy and family topics.

See you in 2008, and may we all be healthy and prosperous.

Nordette Adams is a Contributing Editor for BlogHer.com.

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2007 Rewind: 10 Memorable Mommy and Family Topics