The Marmee blogger. . .

Everybody knows about the dreaded mommy blogger, someone who says home with their kids and parents like a mo-fo. Like nobody's business. 

They aren't rich--no, they're a lot like you and me--and they do things that we could do if only we cared enough. Soothing your teething babies gums with breast-milk popsicles. Yes. Diapering your baby in cloth diapers made by Nepalese woman who are paid a living wage? Check. Buying your daughter Barbie-like dolls with realistic proportions and then using markers to illustrate the chakra system "And here is the solar-plexus chakra, which is the seat of our sense of security." Why not? Carrying your baby in a sling and crafting Waldorfian felted fairies and other imagination-nurturing toys? Uh, yeah. 

If I sound sarcastic, it's only because I'm more than a bit jealous of people who do good stuff like baking their own bread instead of buying the ultra-soft and quite affordable Mexican brand, "Bimbo."

Anyhow, while I have my moments I'm proud of, including regularly reading to my 5-year-old son and doing different accents for each character, I'm just not that good a mime. I will never be a mommy blogger. 

But I was thinking today. I love Louisa May Alcott. We're talking love. 

I pored through "Little Women" and "Little Men" as a child and, yes (spoiler alert), I cried when little Beth died. I cried again when I saw the 1994 film version of the movie, with Winona Ryder as Joe and with Claire Danes as Beth. 

"I was never like the rest of you, making plans about the great things I'd do." 

Didn't she just kill it?

And I realize that everything I need to know in life I learned from these little women's profound and wise mother, Marmee. She set such an example and shared so many verbal gems, that I don't even need to come up with my own content. Yes, I'm becoming a Marmee blogger.  

So on my first day as a Marmee blogger, here's the first bit of parenting advice I am shoplifting from the March matriarch. 


"I am angry nearly every day of my life, Jo; but I have learned not to show it; and I still hope to learn not to feel it, though it may take me another forty years to do so.” - Marmee

The lesson I take from the above quote is that it is okay, even beneficial, to share with your children that it is a struggle for you, and everyone else, to control their anger. It makes maintaining emotional balance a less scary and more shared proposition. 

In my next Marmee blog, due to appear at the start of December, I will espouse the benefits of sharing your fine Christmas breakfast with the hungry family down the street. 

—Sarah Torribio