At Least I Don’t Wear Mom Jeans

Gamma rays

I’ve always bemoaned the lack of short (chin-length not cropped) hair images in magazines. I just like having something to reference when I’m getting a haircut (as I did the week before last in order to take off more brown as the gray starts appearing. No, I haven’t given up my experiment in geriatric coiffing yet).

But I just realized where short hair thrives: TV commercials featuring moms. Sensible, sexless (at least in comparison to luxurious cascading waves) and low maintenance. These ladies are nurturing but no nonsense.

Sometimes these moms can be carefree. But often they’re scolds like the uptight mommy in a high fructose corn syrup ad.

My hair currently looks like a mom who rents from Alamo and reads her teen daughter’s text messages.

So, I have mom hair. But I don’t think I would ever be any of these kinds of moms. I did have a few realizations while watching A Woman Under the Influence last weekend.

First, I realized that I really like Cassevetes films and then it struck me that as much as I’m anti-parent there is a mothering style I find oddly compelling, at least in cinema: the‘70s working class mom. It’s the only parenting style that seems inoffensive to me and by that I think I mean the accidental no rulebook style, kind of melancholy and winging it.

More Ellen Burstyn in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (I suppose TV show Alice, too) than That ‘70s Show’s PTA-ness that’s more a product of nostalgia than of the era. Bonnie Franklin’s Ann Romano in One Day at a Time might fit this mold. I keep thinking Shelly Duval in The Shining but I don’t think that’s quite right. In a more current vein, Sarah Connor might qualify as this type of mom, though she’s not quite carefree enough. You know, staving off Armageddon and all.

They shouldn’t be confused with “cool” moms. Lorelai on Gilmore Girls, Hilda on Ugly Betty, Nancy on Weeds. These are regular moms who might let their kids walk to the corner store or semi-freak out if their husband or boyfriend was giving the children sips of his beer but just for show. They might not baby the kids as much as they should because they’re busy, preoccupied or possibly have an under control addiction or mental problem. Family just happened with no foresight to the future.

Somewhere in the Regan era moms got all controlling and high strung and never stopped. From the child's perspective, I recall lot of ridiculous fear in the ‘80s like the war on drugs, obsessions with kidnapping, latchkey kids, nuclear threats and so on. I have no idea what drives the moms of the fertility-obsessed ‘00s.

7 thoughts on “At Least I Don’t Wear Mom Jeans”

  1. I love Cassavetes films, too; I’ve seen WUtI several times (thank you IFC/Sundance).

    i guess i have a slacker/grunge mom ‘do–I refer to it most often as “wash and swear”. It’s straight as a board, won’t take a perm and is sprouting silver strands overnight here and there. My daughter, by stark contrast, has curly thick hair (when she was born a month early, my Jamaican OBGYN gently stroked the tiny waves/ringlets on her head and shot me a knowing glance). I still wonder if they gave me the right kid at L&D… Dad has thick wavy hair, but our kid is curly/unruly… maybe it was the mailman after all? Anyway, I think i fit in with the 70s w/c 00’s cool mom mode, although currently I’m concerned with her eating more vegetables….

  2. Campagne de communication et théâtralisation en magasin montrant la photo intrigante d’une femme en long déshabillé portée par des joueurs accompagnent l’initiative. Une façon d’attirer l’oeil sur un segment stable dont la marque est le leader. maillot de foot pas cher,maillot de foot personnalisé,maillot football france
    Profitez de votre séjour pour vous détendre un petit peu grâce aux installations de loisir mises à votre disposition, y compris un centre de fitness.
    L’ancien capitaine de l’équipe d’Angleterre a suscité l’enthousiasme et d’importantes retombées commerciales dans tous les clubs où il a joué, de Manchester United en passant par le Real Madrid et l’AC Milan. maillot de foot pas cher,maillot de foot personnalisé,maillot football france Ryan dut passer en voiture sous cette banderole pour se rendre à son travail. Cela n?aurait pas été bien grave si la ” fièvre J. T.
    qui risque d’atteindre ses limites
    “La tête et les poings”Si le CIO s’est mis sur le chemin de l’égalité, un combat difficile reste à mener: contre les clichés. Vincent Rigaud, le coordinateur général de l’équipe de France d’haltérophilie, le reconnaît: “Les gens ont l’image d’un sport d’hommes gros. Pour les femmes, c’est difficile d’en sortir”. maillot de foot pas cher,maillot de foot personnalisé,maillot football france Un texte inapplicable a été signé par téléphone par des gens pressés qui ont aligné leurs noms de personnalités qualifiées sans prêter attention à ce qu faisaient, preuve du prix qu y attachaient.

  5. Hi my name is Olivie and I just wanted to drop you a quick note here instead of calling you. I discovered your At Least I Don’t Wear Mom Jeans | Project Me! Part 2 page and noticed you could have a lot more visitors. I have found that the key to running a popular website is making sure the visitors you are getting are interested in your subject matter. There is a company that you can get targeted traffic from and they let you try their service for free for 7 days. I managed to get over 300 targeted visitors to day to my site. Check it out here: http://garye.co/6y

  7. I just want to mention I’m beginner to blogging and site-building and seriously loved your blog. Probably I’m planning to bookmark your website . You surely come with tremendous articles and reviews. Thanks a bunch for revealing your blog site.

Leave a Reply