A story about a school district that rated parents for their level of cooperativeness got us thinking where we'd fall on that 1 to 3 scale, and whether we'd feel bad if our kids' school gave us a U for "Ugh, it's That Mom" or wear it as a badge of honor. We discussed our various phases of accommodating and unaccommodating behavior, whether "cooperative" should really mean the same thing as "willing to do whatever school personnel want," and the importance of finding administrators who are willing to budge themselves out of their own uncooperative rut.
From schools rating parents, we turned to parents rating each other, as happens so often on the playground and the schoolyard. Using "the types of moms you see on the playground" articles from Cafe Mom and Huffington Post as our guidebook, we identified our own particular types, the types we steer clear from, and a few types we'd add to the list, including "Know-It-All Mom," "Playground Spy Mom," "Grouchy Mom," and "Nobody Wants to Talk to Her ‘Cause She’s a Pain Mom."
Finally, we shared our recommendations for the week: Catherine identified with an article on The Mid entitled "The 9 Circles of Youth Sports Hell"; Amanda mentioned an article she just wrote for Undertood.org, based on recent vacation experience, on "9 Tips for Taking Kids With Sensory Processing Issues to Theme Parks"; Nicole directed you to Meetup.com to find groups going on in your area (including, perhaps, a group of like-minded playground moms); and Terri invited you to take a quiz to determine your own level of advocacy orneriness and read some tips on starting your own playgroup and having a happy time at the playground.
Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our episode and Kristin Eredics for our happy in-and-out music. (If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)