Nouveau Mom

Nouveau (adj) : new and different, often fashionably so
Mom (noun): me, for example

Nouveau Mom: not me, for example...

Just yesterday I was unknowingly watching an episode of TMZ - sometimes channels just come across my screen for 50 minutes and I can't seem to change the channel if my life depended on it! Weird, I know. In any case, Kerri Russell was strutting her Nouveau Hollywood Mom-ness amongst the crowds of the "lower lifes", chatting it up with the co-op checker, than piling she and her reusable grocery bags full of organic foods into her Toyota Prius... SHE, for example, is nouveau and I realized that I am NOT nouveau... although a large part of me wishes I was. But I wouldn't want to work at it. I would just want it to be natural for me... and its not.

For example, I wish I could NATURALLY be excited about these things: no TV, no cable, no internet, no processed foods or preservatives, no plastic toys - only wooden and sold in small boutique shops, organic cotton clothing and reusable diapers such as Fuzzy Buns, exclusively breast milk and no drinking or soft cheeses during pregnancy, artistic dance classes that teach my child flexibility and coordination...

But instead I'm excited about these things: TV - LCD and HD, to be exact, cable where Curious George teaches my children to speak "monkey" and Maya and Miguel teaches them to speak Spanish, and how would I process thoughts without being able to get online and blog, "meals in a box" and other processed foods, preservatives and although I'm not excited about plastic toys I have nothing against them, organic clothing is expensive and hard to find and though reusable diapers could be my contribution to the "green" movement they sure take a lot more work and not to mention the stains that I would never be able to get out so why not poop and throw, when do I leave the house without my newborn or needing the forethought to pull the frozen pumped breast milk from the freezer, Italian babies are beautiful and a glass of red wine is nutritional, and last but not least, my children wrestle all the time as well as have taken rolls down the stairs, head dives off the couch and other awfully painful landings and I honestly believe they're better off than any of those kids I see dancing and stretching on Sesame Street. With a couple black eyes, broken teeth and welts, they walk straighter and are more careful with their bodies than any nouveau children I've seen... you should see them body slam each other - there is so much thought put into how and when to let go. Its quite impressive.

So, in short, I do wish I was excited about being "nouveau" -- but I'm not. I guess I just don't care as much as some... about a lot of things. But I care a lot about a few things... and that's where I put all my energy. My children's love for the Lord, my close circle of girlfriends, time away with my husband and the time to be at home as a family... I'll toast an Eggo or whip up a box of Macaroni and Cheese if it means I get to invest in what matters to me.

Cheers to all you nouveau and non-nouveau Moms out there -- I hope you love what you do.