Berkeley moms Heather Flett and Whitney Moss (pictured left) are all about debunking a few myths, most notably that new motherhood is a bed of roses.
Indeed, as any new mother knows, it can be hard work and, well, boring too. With their blog Rookie Moms the pair, who met when 15 years ago through their then boyfriends, and each have two young children, offer practical help as well as the more standard mommy blog fare of shared wisdom and product reviews.
“Parenting magazines can be very trite,” says Whitney (on the right in the photo). “They tell you to kiss your baby’s belly button, but you can’t do that for 10 hours.”
The genesis of the blog was Heather’s “geeky spreadsheet” of activities that were feasible to do for a sleep-deprived parent and a newborn baby. The main objective is to get new moms out of the house. As they point out on the blog, babies never suggest anything interesting to do. “They never say, ‘Mom, let’s go buy you some new jeans and a latte.’”
Ideas range from having a potluck dinner with friends, or taking an arty photo of your child, to merely leaving the house at least once in a day.
Rookie Mom posts which have proved particularly popular include craft-based ones such as how to make pants for a toddler out of an old T-Shirt, and tips on what you really need to put on a baby registry, versus what the store will say you need.
Flett and Moss, who live within two miles of each other in Berkeley and speed dial or tweet each other constantly, have also co-written a book spawned by the blog: The Rookie Mom’s Handbook: 250 Things to Do With (and Without) Your Baby.
