Starting Up

Hi, I'm Miriam Peskowitz, and I'm finishing up a book with the title Playground Revolution. Seal Press will publish it in May 2005, which is great news. Playground Revolution is about parents, mothers and fathers both, who are disatisfied with the alternatives for how to raise our kids and work for pay at the same time. Playground Revolution is nice and fun and warm, but it's also political. It's about the politics of parenting, not in an old-fashioned politically correct way. Not at all. I'm looking at the new ways that families are politicized, and the ways that mothers can think about the problems that ail us--like isolation, or overwork, or judgement, or anger, or even love--through a political lens. I'll also write about the process of getting new feminist ideas about parenting and family life out there in public.

This morning, for example, my husband called in after hearing the NPR report on "Security Moms." It makes me so mad. We've been through this with soccer mom, eight years ago. Seems every time there's a presidential election we mothers get stereocast into a new mold, as both parties vie for our attention. I know, I know, we're supposed to be mothers who are kind of liberal, maybe, but because we're really scared about national security, we'll vote republican, because we believe they will make our lives more secure. I don't think so.

I say, tell the pollsters, and the media, which is turning a pollster's creation into a new female stereotype: we are not security moms. Don't use us this way.

Have a great day, everyone, welcome to my blog, and tell me what you're thinking about.