The Mamifesto!

I thought of this blog the minute I wrote my tagline one year ago today. I toyed with it but never actually started putting finger to keyboard until a few months ago. Tonight, after a playdate with the frog princess the last of it spilled out of me easily and without much trouble, kinda like her farts. A year ago today, I sat on my couch and looked through this thing called WordPress for a template I liked.  I had watched the movie Motherhood the Saturday prior and it had inspired me to finally create a blog (if you haven't caught the movie, check it out, you'll love it too).  I posted my first blog a few minutes after midnight so, I guess that means my official blogoversary is 9/29.  I'm not sure if I'll make it to midnight tonight.

So, here it is.  A year in the making! Thank you for all of your love and support.  T-shirts will be coming shortly (let me know in the comments if you'd like to purchase and what size you'd like so I get an idea of how many to order).  One will read: The Mamifesto and the other will read: Welcome to the 'Hood!  I look forward to many more years of having the privilege to write for you.  Will you sign The Mamihood's Declaration of Independence?

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the mami cliques which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of mamihood and of God entitle them, a descent respect to the opinions of other mamis requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all mamis are not created equal, though we, at heart, are all the same.  That we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Maminess.

That to secure these rights, friendships are instituted among women, deriving their just powers from the consent of the mami'd.  That whenever any form of maminess becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of other mamis to remind, support, nurture, understand, love one another and occasionally, kick each other in the ass for the betterment of our own future.

We have inalienable rights regardless of race, creed, color, marital or job status. Among them are:

• To not feel guilty when we are at work because we are not with our children
• To not feel guilty when we are at home because we are not at work
• To be okay with the house looking a mess because our children won't remember a clean kitchen but will appreciate our undying love
• To be okay with our friends who have perfect houses and not try to get to the deep down secret of how they do it all (because we are all guessing it's a maid)
• To cut ourselves some slack when we have to run through the drive thru (yes, I want to feed the child organic food too but, sometimes it can't be helped)
• To not fret over having to sit the kid(s) down in front of the television when we have to make a phone call/answer an email/tweet/blog/poop or call our girlfriend to cry on the phone about what big failures we are
• To not criticize or judge stay at home mamis because sometimes they work even harder at home as there is never a break
• To not criticize or judge working mamis because we get a certain joy and purpose from our careers and though some certainly wish we could afford to stay at home with our children, the rest are perfectly happy trying to find a balance that will bring them fulfillment and happiness
• To keep an open mind with regards to other mamis. Regardless of the parenting choices they have made because we do not wish to be judged either
• To support fellow mamis even if we don't 100% agree with their methods
• To befriend, support and show compassion for other mamis and to do away with the S cliques that those that are still insecure from high school insist on creating

I, therefore, the author of My Mamihood (of the Universe), along with my fellow bloggers, mami and non-mami readers alike, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of this internet solemnly publish and declare, that this mamihood is, and our right ought to be free and independent free thinkers that support one another and shed positivity to each one; that they are absolved from all allegiance to cattiness, BS and negative thinking and that all political connection between us and the negative/little people is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent mamis, we have the full power to change the world, bring to it peace, raise our children in community, contract alliances, establish commerce and to do all other things that we so choose in peace and with a general understanding that the women around us are there to support our decisions. And to support this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor (and occasionally, our dirty diapers).