# And the mother of the year award goes to... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 26, 2006, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169 "2006-07-26T22:58:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/1 "2006-07-26T22:58:01Z")
[definitely not this Bitch.](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=397672&in_page_id=1879&in_page_id=1879) Yes, children can be boring. I mean, how thrilling is it to play 14 games of Candyland? But let me let you in on a little secret…_it’s not about entertaining you!_ It’s about making your children feel secure and loved and happy. Spending fifteen minutes pushing your child on a swing pays off in _spades_. > [@Self Centered Twat](#): > > I know this is one of the last taboos of modern society. To admit that you, a mother of the new millennium, don’t find your offspring thoroughly fascinating and enjoyable at all times is a state of affairs very few women are prepared to admit. We feel ashamed, and unfit to be mothers. No, SCT. You’ve completely missed the point. There’s not a parent among us who hasn’t wanted to strangle their kids, who would much rather sit through a movie but have to leave because the baby won’t stop crying, who has to give up the hot Mustang convertible for the minivan. Raising a child to be a functioning, contributing member of society is an awesome, painful, sometimes unrewarding job. It’s not all fun and games. I certainly don’t find my children thoroughly fascinating and enjoyable at all times. And you know what? I bet they feel the same way sometimes about me! It’s called life…it can’t be all martinis and chocolate all the time. > [@Clueless Witch](#): > > Am I a lazy, superficial person because I don’t enjoy packing up their sports kit, or making their lunch, or sitting through coffee mornings with other mothers discussing how Mr Science (I can’t remember most of the teachers’ names) said such and such to Little Johnny and should we all complain to the headmaster. Guess what, toots…no one enjoys that! But you do it because your HIS MOTHER! > [@Sorry](#): > > Research tells us that mothers drink the most when they have young children. Is that because talking to anyone under the age of ten requires some sort of lobotomy? First off, what research, and second off…condescending much? Do you know how much fun it is to make a three year old giggle? To get a child to name the colors on your shirt? To take a teenager to get her ears pierced? > [@One is not the other](#): > > Because I have categorically said: ‘I am not a waitress, a driver or a cleaner,’ my children have learned to put away their plates and tidy up their rooms. They’ve become brilliant planners, often inviting their friends to come for the weekend (because I’ve forgotten to bother). Guess what? One is teaching your child responsibility, and one is being involved in your child’s life. But I guess you missed that on your way to the beauty salon instead of your kid’s soccer game. > [@Woman who confuses kids with pets](#): > > Frankly, as long as you’ve fed them, sheltered them and told them they are loved, children will be fine. Yes. That’s all it takes. :smack: You should have gotten a cat instead of pregnant. > [@And Now I Shall Cry](#): > > They stopped asking me to take them to the park (how tedious) years ago. But now when I try to entertain them and say: ‘Why don’t we get out the Monopoly board?’ they simply look at me woefully and sigh: ‘Don’t bother, Mum, you’ll just get bored.’ Poor babies. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/2 "2006-07-26T23:08:27Z")
If it helps, you should know that the Daily Mail is what they print on toilet paper that fails quality control. ---
**Author:** ![pendgwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3da27b/32.png) [@pendgwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pendgwen)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/3 "2006-07-26T23:11:03Z")
While I agree with the article that there’s nothing wrong with women who refuse to attend school plays, go to the playground, read kid’s books or participate in any other childcare activity I would encourage such women to refrain from having children. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/4 "2006-07-26T23:14:08Z")
[QUOTE=Dead Badger] If it helps, you should know that the Daily Mail is what they print on toilet paper that fails quality control. [/QUOTE] So, we don’t believe what’s printed in the paper? Is it like the _National Enquirer_ over here? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/5 "2006-07-26T23:14:46Z")
[QUOTE=Sorry, gotta call CITE on this one] Research tells us that mothers drink the most when they have young children. [/QUOTE] Maybe she got it backwards (Mothers have young children the most when they drink)? ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/6 "2006-07-26T23:20:02Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] So, we don’t believe what’s printed in the paper? Is it like the _National Enquirer_ over here? [/QUOTE] Weeeell, we just pretend it doesn’t exist, really. It’s not quite National Enquirer levels, but it’s kind of the newspaper equivalent of a troll; the sort of paper which will lose subscriptions if it doesn’t use the phrase “political correctness gone mad” at least five times per page. I didn’t mean to dismiss your rant, by the way, which was most excellent. I just meant to assuage your worries about the children in question, who have probably been taken into protective custody as soon as the authorities were alerted to the fact that one of their parents was a _Mail_ columnist. That column is particularly heinous, though, isn’t it? It could almost be an _Onion_ spoof (or something out of _Private Eye_, in fact). ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/7 "2006-07-26T23:24:36Z")
Jesus Christ, why did she even have kids in the first place? It’s too much bother to spend TEN minutes to read a freaking story? Wow. No one said you had to totally stop doing everything you love-but there’s a MIDDLE GROUND, bitch. > [@](#): > > Frankly, as long as you’ve fed them, sheltered them and told them they are loved, children will be fine. Told them “they are loved?” Maybe she TELLS them that, but her actions are telling them that they’re a total burden. Oh well, someday they’ll get “bored” with Mum too and pack her off to some cheap, fifth-rate nursing home. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/8 "2006-07-26T23:25:14Z")
It’s just her perky, giggly, oh aren’t I an enlightened woman of the new millennia crap that made me want to shake her. While she’s congratulating herself on how she doesn’t cater to her children’s “whims,” her kids now know there’s no point in asking her to play with them because she considers spending time with them boring and tedious. I can only hope Dad is more involved. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/9 "2006-07-26T23:29:13Z")
Let me concur with **Dead Badger** here … You know when you’re travelling on a bus, and there’s a man in the back seat, sitting by himself, smelling strongly of methylated spirits and urine, and he’s ranting incoherently about something, you can’t quite make out what, but he’s clearly annoyed and rampantly paranoid besides? An opinion piece in the _Daily Mail_ has about the same level of credibility. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/10 "2006-07-26T23:30:12Z")
So maybe things were “exaggerated” for effect? ---
**Author:** ![jemmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/65b543/32.png) [@jemmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jemmy)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/11 "2006-07-26T23:35:07Z")
Does anyone think this attitude is really new? She’s got a nanny for Pete’s sake! She’s affluent and can afford not to mother her children. Women from higher social position always have/had this option. Makes you wonder why they squeeze out kids, but really, who cares? As long as you raise your own and doing so gives you pleasure, then why do you care about some ridiculous article in a less than respectable rag? ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/12 "2006-07-26T23:38:27Z")
Meh, I think it’s an Onionesque put-on designed to rile up the readership. What else do they do at the Mail when they’re in the mood to poke their readers with a sharp stick? ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/13 "2006-07-26T23:41:22Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > So maybe things were “exaggerated” for effect? Quite probably, yeah. Like I say, _Private Eye_ (a UK satirical magazine) has a recurring spoof column by called “Polly Filler” in which the aforementioned Polly bemoans the hardships of modern life with children while in fact dumping any and all actual work on the _au pair_. It’s precisely this sort of thing that they’re satirising, and the column you linked reads so amazingly similarly to one of these spoofs that it beggars belief, really. I find it hard to tell whether the columnist is really just making up provocative bullshit to fill some space; undoubtedly there are many such vapid arseholes in existence, who take no more interest in their children’s development than is necessary to supply them with bragging material around the water cooler, and it’s quite probable that such people are more likely than others to work at the _Daily Mail_. But equally a _Mail_ “journalist” really wouldn’t be above just making it all up, like they do with their interminable stories about yob culture and “British culture” being “banned”. Like I say; best to pretend you simply didn’t see it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/14 "2006-07-26T23:44:19Z")
[QUOTE=Dead Badger] Like I say; best to pretend you simply didn’t see it. 🙂 [/QUOTE] Great. Now I’ve fed the Troll. Grrrrr… Why would anyone even joke about stuff like that? ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/15 "2006-07-26T23:48:54Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] Great. Now I’ve fed the Troll. Grrrrr… Why would anyone even joke about stuff like that? [/QUOTE] Because it’s so funny watching people’s knees jerk into their eyeballs? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/16 "2006-07-26T23:51:36Z")
She named her kids “Ivan” and “Constantin”? Constantin? No e? Just Constantin? Hansel? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/17 "2006-07-26T23:57:29Z")
This is the kind of thing that makes Ed Anger pig-biting mad. ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/18 "2006-07-27T00:01:12Z")
> [@](#): > > I spent two hours texting friends throughout a screening of Pirates Of The Caribbean the other day. I got this far and stopped. I already hated her as much as I could hate. This is either a fake or we have stumbled upon the world’s dumbest bitch. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/19 "2006-07-27T00:15:20Z")
[QUOTE=Ghanima] I got this far and stopped. I already hated her as much as I could hate. This is either a fake or we have stumbled upon the world’s dumbest bitch. [/QUOTE] Really. What kind of woman gives up the chance to stare at Johnny Depp? ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169/20 "2006-07-27T00:44:11Z")
[QUOTE=DeadlyAccurate] Really. What kind of woman gives up the chance to stare at Johnny Depp? [/QUOTE] Believe it or not, there are some women out there for whom Mr. Depp doesn’t do a thing _shrug_ Troll or not, there are, unfortunately, mothers who are a close approximation to the article. Although my first reaction is “Then why the hell did she ever become pregnant?”, my second reaction wavers between "Because she seems the type to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ and ‘Maybe she thought becoming a mother would change her in some way’. Nevertheless, it’s a sad commentary. There are women who just aren’t meant to be mothers. She’s one of them. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-mother-of-the-year-award-goes-to/366169.md?page=2)