Worrying Professionally

I love helicopter parenting. I consider myself something of an expert on it, because I'm either doing it myself or chuckling at someone else's attempts to do so, while I sit back and enjoy the fact that this isn't my particular "issue" to care about.

Here are some things I've noticed lately that fall into the latter category: things I just can't get my head around wasting time worrying about. Not just parenting, but all kinds of things can keep you from getting your eight hours. Check it out.

The NY Times is worried about sleepovers. Apparently, they're full of hidden difficulties. I can't see it myself, since as an only child I spent every weekend from the age of 6 on either sleeping at someone else's house or having someone over to mine. But it's a big enough topic for the Grey Lady, so it must be important.

The Mommy Wars continue over at Parenting.com, where it’s announced that working moms can worry some more about obesity, since their children are more likely to be heavier than their stay-at-home counterparts’. After all that hype, what’s the weight difference? A pound. Well, that’s enough to keep me from eating at all, so I’m calling my boss now to tell her I resign. Or not.

Peggy Orenstein is convinced that letting your daughter wear her Belle costume to pre-school is causing the world to go to hell in a hand-basket. She’s so convinced she’s written an entire book exposing the evilness of pink. Obviously I can just laugh this one off (since none of my kids have ever asked me for a Cinderella costume), but seriously? My go-get-um nieces are in danger because their parents take them to Princess Breakfasts at Disney and let them wear pink soccer cleats? Okay ...

Thanks to Amy Chua, controlling mothers everywhere are searching for a metaphor that describes them best (and apparently no one wants to be the Rabbit Mom, even though this is the Year of the Rabbit). Dr. Yvonne Thornton tries to make sneering at your daughter when she gets her master’s degree from an Ivy League school more palatable by calling herself a “lioness” instead of a “tiger”.

Motherhood makes you poor! So says Ann Crittenden, who is more worried about what happens if you get divorced after that baby than any decent person should be. Just what every woman in the wealthiest country in the world should spend her spare time reading about, I’m sure.

And finally, the ever relevant Huffington Post discusses the horrible problem of divorced couples who keep sleeping with one another. It’s a question on everyone’s minds these days, dontcha know.

I know all these thorny problems will worry you just as much as they worry me. Have fun!