{by Sugar Jones from Sugar in the Raw}

Sometimes, we’re so far beyond done. We run out of hope. It’s in those times that we need others to remind us that there is still good in the world. That there is a sun in the sky and that we must lift our faces to it.

The other night, my son cut me to the quick. I had been so busy that I had ignored all his pleas for some family time. He finally looked up at me with glassy eyes, trying to stoically hold back tears, and said, “Sometimes, people say they love you but they don’t really love you if they don’t show you they love you. You have to show people you love them.”

You know that within thirty seconds I was on the floor hugging him and playing the game he had set up hours earlier hoping for a little time together.

His words sat with me all night. While I was nodding off to bed, I thought of a time when I had love, not merely spoken to me, but demonstrated. It was a time in my life that I had not yet realized what you could live through. I was too young to understand that, if I held out long enough, things would indeed change. I was tired and had lost all hope that things would ever be any different.

When I was a young single mother, I had plenty of struggles. Some seasons were tougher than others, but it was during the holidays that I saw the cold, harsh reality of my circumstances. One year in particular, I wasn’t really sure we were going to have a Christmas. During that time, my oldest daughter wore a uniform to her public school. It was a uniform-optional school. It sounded like a good idea until the school year started and I realized that only the poor families had opted for a uniform. My daughter didn’t mind. She thought her dress was pretty and loved the matching bow. Every day, I would dress my younger daughter in her uniform of hand-me-downs. She didn’t mind because she saw her big sister’s clothes as new to her. And every day, I would put on my waitress uniform. I didn’t mind because I didn’t have to worry about what to wear.

{Originally Published on Learned on Women}

To feed both my quick hit Tweets (I’m @AndreaLearned) and longer blog posts, I survey the many marketing-related news stories on a daily basis. Today, I found plenty of food for thought. Two articles in the same MediaPost newsletter caught my eye: 1) a story of Swiffer doing promotions at the much-buzzed Blogher conference, and 2) the story of Target sponsoring “staycation” events. Those news bits brought to my mind the broad continuum of marketing to women (over which the pendulum regularly swings) – from pinky, pink-ness to transparency – all in one place. Fascinating!

The background on those two tales -

(Visibly pink pitch) P&G’s Swiffer appealed to the girly side of female bloggers by sponsoring a pre-event Blogher lounge, SocialLuxe, which was described this way in Karl Greenberg’s MediaPost article:

As part of the partnership, P&G and Swiffer will offer guests manicures, pedicures, something called “clean-tinis,” and the first-ever BlogLuxe Award presentation — awards given by bloggers to bloggers — to recognize outstanding efforts in the blogging community.

(Full-on transparent approach) According to MediaPost’s Sarah Mahoney, Target is leveraging awareness of the bad economy/staycation trend to appeal to women and families trying to have fun with less money this year by:

…sponsoring a long list of local art events, offering 2,200 free days at more than 100 museums, theaters and cultural institutions throughout the country.

One approach resonates with today’s culture and the other seems lost in never-never land. One is relevant to a lot more women for a longer period of time and one is fun for a small amount of women who may well not remember it a few days later. One encourages/embraces a larger trend toward experiencing the wonders of your own “backyard,” and the other is counter to the more sustainable sensibilities that a lot of the members of its target market exhibit in their real and daily lives.

{Originally posted on Mommy Pie}

It’s 2 p.m., I’m sitting in a coffee shop surrounded by people. And the tears, they are streaming.

It’s funny, this community of ours. Call us Mommy Bloggers. Call us the Blogosphere. A powerful, and at times awe-inspiring collective voice. More often than not, a beautiful collective heart.

Our friendships forged over late night Tweets and Comments Sections, we find ourselves bonding with women we may never meet face-to-face. Yet, the invisible ties of the Internet that bind us are, inexplicably, many times, just as strong as the ties we feel with those we affectionately call our IRL (In Real Life) Friends.

Beginning today, I make no distinction between the two.

I’m no less happy for a Blog Friend when she lands a great job.

I’m no less sad when she loses it.

I don’t laugh less when she recounts her kid’s latest antics. (Or more times than not, her own.)

I don’t worry less about her during the tough times.

My heart doesn’t break less when she suffers staggering, unimaginable loss.

It’s 2 p.m., I’m sitting in a coffee shop surrounded by people. And the tears, they are streaming.

{Originally posted on Barking Mad.}

I had a linguistics professor who said that it’s man’s ability to use language that makes him the dominant species on the planet. That may be. But I think there’s one other thing that separates us from animals. We aren’t afraid of vacuum cleaners.” –Jeff Stilson

I knew it was too good to last. It’s been more than a year since I’ve had something go wrong with a domestic appliance, be it a personal hair remover or something not intended for use on the human body. Oh and this one doesn’t count because seriously, it could have happened to anyone! It could!

Yesterday wasn’t any different from most of my days spent around Casa Barking Mad, except that the Little Imp was at Montessori for the day and the groomer had come to pick up Casey after the discovery that the spawn of our neighbour, Creepy Whistling Dude, have been throwing shitloads of chewed gum into our backyard. Alas, a big-ass post about that is forthcoming. So whilst I was sitting here wondering if my dog was going to be returned with any hair or not, I decided to obsessively clean, like I normally do.

I’ll have you know, I have never suffered any sort of injury from a domestic appliance until now. I swear!

The culprit, a Dyson Animal…

{Originally published on SmartWomansGuides}

Today I had an interesting and educational experience. One of the great bloggers I follow on Twitter introduced a friend of his to the community. This friend is apparently well-known by many but, unfortunately, not me. But, since I trust the blogger who recommended him, I went to go check out the newbie’s profile. But I was foiled – the newbie didn’t have a profile! Gasp!

In an effort at brevity, I joked that the newbie’s Twitter profile was a little slim – no website link, no bio, nada. Just his name and a picture (which was a nice picture, admittedly). Frankly, I didn’t want to have to google the newbie to find out about him. Maybe I’m too focused on instant gratification, but well, fair enough, maybe I am. The web is all about instant info and ease and convenience and I’ve bought in.

One of my other Twitter buds messaged that this newbie was already so well known that he didn’t need to create a profile to get followers and he was busy. Wow. Not only did I still not know about this newbie (who now I wanted to know about even more, since he’s so busy and great) but now I felt like an outside, the only one left in the world to not know who he was just on his name and picture. The big capital “L” for loser felt squarely tattooed to my forehead.

After a moment of being stunned, the conversation got me thinking – are you ever so big that you don’t have to introduce yourself? You can guess my answer – a resounding NO.

Being focused on beginners, I try to be aware of the idea that there are people who aren’t living in my personal world, who don’t live in my bubble of experience. Like meeting people who’ve never heard of Twitter, or who have never purchased anything online, or don’t know what RSS is, it’s easy to think that maybe they’ve just been living under a rock. That’s not very kind or compassionate and it’s a bit foolish from a marketing point of view. It gives the impression that you don’t care.

Originally Published on Sally Walker

With all the fuss these days about social media, social networking,
twitter this and plurk that, are all these ‘ways of communication’
actually needed by Mums?

There are a host of social media and networking sites these days,
ranging from simple ideas like Twitter to full on website making
profile page ideas such as Facebook or MySpace.

However, as a Mum, do you need them? Will they benefit you?

As Mum’s we have enough on our plate with housework, being a taxi
for our children, cooking, cleaning, working out the weekly menu, doing
the shopping, washing etc. We might also have a full or part time job
on top of all that, so do we really need endless websites to try and
keep track of too? Well maybe…

(click title for more)