Bunchland

What we’re reading today:

1. It’s been a while since we talked Tiger Moms, no? And while there’s been no shortage of rebuttals, we think this one from an American dad living and working in Beijing is worthwhile. Alan Paul, a freelance writer who can therefore work from home and be around the kids, is the Panda Dad: “Happy to parent with cuddliness, but not afraid to show some claw” Via New York Times

2. One feminist new mom, who hadn’t been feeling super attractive, is, however briefly, totally into a certain acronym she’d previously found really gross.

3. Her Bad Mother, Catherine Connors, talks to Russell Brand about the Easter Bunny and the nature of infinite space, like you do.  Read more...

A family skating outing

Today’s Postcard from Bunchland comes from Superdad Chris Shulgan, who seems to have bundled up both kids without any trouble… unlike the tobogganing outing.

Do you have a Postcard from Bunchland? Send photos of family fun to meghan@bunchfamily.ca or find us on Flickr.

What we’re reading on the blogs today:

Over at GeekMom we saw a book review for the Mommy MD Guide to Pregnancy and Birth. Judy Berna writes, “There’s something very comforting about knowing the person giving the advice has actually been in the trenches themselves. review of the Mommy MD Guide to Pregnancy

Just so you know, today is National Coffee Break Day. Grab a mug, folks. (Although we kinda figured National Coffee Break Day would be the day Starbucks fills your travel mug for free or Tim Hortons Camp Day or something.) What sort of coffee will you be drinking today?

Did anyone in Montreal participate in the Nurse-In? Bunchland reader Rina tipped us off to this great comic about a similiar situation in Montreal back in 1994. *Sigh*  Read more...

A look back at the month when dads took over Bunchland

We declared October Superdad Month here at Bunchland, in light of last month’s guest editor, Christopher Shulgan and his recently-released book Superdad: A Memoir of Rebellion, Drugs and Fatherhood. And you know what? It was fun having some dudes around Bunchland HQ. We spend so much time emitting high-pitched squeals over pictures of puppies and gossiping about last night’s episode of Glee that it was refreshing to get some male perspective.

Chris wrestled with the question of whether or not to buy his 4-year-old son a Wii during Videogame Week, and also looked at the portrayal of dads in pop culture. We were also treated to posts from “hip-hop pop” Dalton Higgins, author of Fatherhood 4.0. Dalton blogged about hip-hop music videos inspired by fatherhood.

Here’s are all of the posts penned by pops last month, in case you missed any of them.  Read more...

Guest writer Dalton Higgins shares hip-hop music videos inspired by fatherhood

In the realm of pop culture pops -  with a hip-hop twist – who really appear to support their seedlings, Will Smith stands tall above the rest. Pre-Willow Smith hoopla, Will was cranking out songs and accompanying videos with all kinds of parent-friendly subject matter.

Genuine hip-hop heads remember Will Smith when he was considered a credible rapper amongst the rapperati.

Then once the acting gigs started pouring in (think The Fresh Prince of Bel-air, Six Degrees of Separation), it was all about the happy raps.

I don’t mind the less hardcore, more happy cheeseball raps. It’s the daddy in me. It happens when you get old(er), softer and most definitely chubbier.

There’s hardcore pro-poppa rap, and then there’s softcore. I anoint Will Smith the King of Softcore Rap. Here, he flips a beautiful Bill Withers sample and celebrates Hip Hop Poppahood, in all its Fatherhood 4.0‘ian glory.  Read more...

My twice-a-month parenting column for Eye Weekly posted today…

I was talking to an old friend about the unwrapped Dentyne gum pieces my kids got last Halloween, when the offer came: “Why don’t you trick-or-treat with the kids up in our neighbourhood?”

Which bugged me. I’d been in the midst of complaining that too few homes in my area gave out candy. Last year, I took the kids out — my son dressed as a jogger, my daughter as Max from Where the Wild Things Are — and conducted a six-block loop. Barely a third of the homes we passed yielded candy — not a great batting average. Turns out my neighbourhood sucks for Halloween. More…

Christopher Shulgan is Bunchland’s guest editor for the month of October and the author of Superdad: A Memoir of Rebellion, Drugs and Fatherhood.

Photo by Carlos Osorio.

So like seemingly every other writer in Toronto, I’ve been reading Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, and last night around 1:30 a.m., I finished it. Was it the masterpiece it was hailed as in this review by the New York Times? Naw, I don’t think so. Its excellence follows an upward curve; it starts rough, then gets steadily more captivating until the concluding pages are approaching brilliant. But there was too much backstory for me—too much going back in the narrative and recounting past events, “He had done this,” “She had done that,” rather than recounting events as they happened—”He did this, she did that.” Recounting backstory is always less captivating than chronicling story, if only because, by recounting the past from the point of view of a future narrator, we have a clue to the end; that is, that the narrator remains alive to tell us the events we’re following. Nevertheless I thought it a fascinating depiction of a North American family, one with some problems I found particularly disturbing—and which may disturb other Bunchland readers, as well.  Read more...