Bunchland

Gavin McInnes says the suburbs are great for kids

My brother-in-law was in town recently and he was talking about “the intense fun” he and his big sister (my wife) had playing hide and seek in the suburbs with the other kids. “That’s something you don’t get in the city,” he added and my wife shut him up with some quip like, “That’s why we have a place in the country,” because that’s what big sisters do.

But our place in the country is so secluded, the only hide and seek our kids could play is with each other and there’s only two of them. Besides, you can’t really play that game in the forest. It’s way too hard.  Read more...

Meri Perra blogs about the challenges she and her partner face in trying to raise their girls with feminist values

Here’s one to bring us down a notch. Just as last weeks’ Globe article told us lesbians are better parents than straight moms and dads, the New York Times ran a piece in their Lives section by writer Benjamin Anastas about growing up in early eighties suburbia with two lesbian moms.

It wasn’t pretty. Anastas’ older teenaged brother rebelled in a bad way and left home as soon as he could. Referring to his moms as pioneers, Anistas says: “We were pioneers, too, but only by proxy. We were not prepared for the savages behind the hedges and the front gates, their radar for what was different about our house.”  Read more...

What we’re reading today:

1. Those pesky competitive moms! What’s one mom to do when her friend yells at her kid’s coach and other parents? Sister needs to take a time out!

2. The Onion published an article telling you you’re a bad parent and whatever you’re doing, you’re definitely screwing up your kids. It’s the Onion, but man did this story catch on.

3. Grownups get more exercise when they live in urban areas, walking to work and the grocery store and such, but it’s the opposite for kids. Do your kids have easy access to running around areas? We can think of at least a few downtown kids who manage to find a suitable road hockey zone on weeknights.

4. Is the work-life balance thing a myth?

5. Yeah, we’re loving basically any Jason Segel interview these days. If only Phineas and Ferb had let him talk about his Muppet purism.  Read more...