Moms Who Inspire & the Non-Moms Who Support Us!

A bouquet of thanks to all of the mothers out there who are sharing their knowledge and tips for making the world a better place for kids, including favorite visionaries and parenting communities…

Such as? The bounty of mom bloggers at BlogHer, the EcoMom Alliance, Literary Mama, CityMama, SafeMama, Green Mom Finds, Eco-Child’s Play, Anti-Racist Parent and new community neighborhoods like The Motherhood (started by BlogHer’s Act faves Cooper & Emily) and new beta sites like Education.com and Parenthood.

There’s also Shaping Youth’s favorite social change agent gal pals, Lisa at Parents for Ethical Marketing, Beth Kanter’s blog for social media magic, Britt Bravo’s Have Fun, Do Good and of course the Two Angry Moms who work tirelessly to make the planet more inhabitable for the future of children…

I’d also like to thank ‘non-moms’ who know the world of youth inside out and contribute to the conversation by helping parents ‘get it,’ sometimes by helping us step out of our own skins and see through the lenses of kids themselves…

…Folks like Vanessa Van Petten with a “Gen Y” perspective on Teens Today, doctoral gaming research pro and virtual worlds guru Sara M. Grimes of Gamine Expedition, online community digital maven Izzy Neis, Anastasia Goodstein, publisher of YPulse, Courtney Macavinta at Respect Rx, and Dr. Robyn’s Powerful Parent blog…all practitioners working with youth on a wide scale, serving up tips for the times with grounded wisdom.

In fact, Elisa Camhort at BlogHer has a great post about the power of mom-communities NOT being contingent upon being a mom! Brava!

I’d also like to give a special ‘shout out’ to the single moms who write about their world like Christina at SoloMom, MsSingleMama, and specifically to my own daughter’s godmother, Kathie Steinwinter, who taught me early on that judgment and protocol has no place in a child’s healthy rearing and worldview of what constitutes loving parenting.

And speaking of ‘judgment,’ don’t miss marketing maven Susan Getgood’s insightful deconstruction about media’s handling of mom bloggers on the Today Show.

The miniscule mention of pre-taped interviews with Jill Asher of the popular Silicon Valley moms blog being buried into ‘C-list’ priority along with Kristen Chase of Motherhood Uncensored, CoolMomPicks, PBN, etc.) and Mir Kamin of Woulda Coulda Shoulda was a bit of a missed opportunity for dialogue…

But the distorted Kathie Lee Gifford live interview with renown, long time blogger Heather B. Armstrong of Dooce (who self describes she’ll be “forever branded” as making KLG “uneasy”—video clip here) was bolluxed at best. (see more on Heather’s history as a hipster matriarch blog goddess at: The Dawn of Mommy Blogs)

The curt, clipped Today Show blip leaving viewers a bit befuddled at the lack of erudite commentary or the community-building aspects of social media makes me wonder if ‘mainstream press’ will EVER remotely begin to understand ‘nontraditional media’ as a powerful Web 2.0 force to be reckoned with…

A quick TweetScan shows Kathie Lee Gifford’s cluelessly dismissive positioning of mom bloggers as exploitive opportunists in a vanity gambit rather than an information resource and tightly woven community managed to offend, rile and belittle much of the ‘wired world.’

Kathie Lee Gifford deftly managed in a few swift seconds to judgmentally (and hypocritically) spew vapid ‘internet safety’ tripe to further the fear-mongering misperceptions of the digital dialogue overall, while simultaneously admitting she knows very little about the digital sphere! Yowza.

Scary stuff giving talking heads the power of a media microphone without teaching them how to use the platform in question…sheesh.

Ah well…TV is still the mother of all mediums, but with that type of reckless, superficial blather and those broad-sweeping, misguided generalizations, my guess is it won’t be on the top of the heap for long.

I’ll hush in a jiff, as I want to post a very special Mother’s Day message to my own mom, Beth Jussel, who can write circles around me with her wry wit and wisdom, and who is clearly my role model and rockstar for strength, random acts of kindness and handling all kinds of adversity with a keen sense of humor.

Meanwhile, for all of you looking for lists and links, here’s a 100th anniversary Mother’s Day round-up of RSS feeds (definition here) and MOM resources from Quick Online Tips, which manages to cram in just about every list consolidation of gal pals I either know or want to know in one tidy short post…

And no, I didn’t look to see if we’re on any lists, because Shaping Youth is not a ‘mom blog’ per se, even though I AM ‘a mom who blogs.’

Our media/marketing analysis as a nonprofit entity certainly isn’t ‘rakin’ in the dough’ like some of the mom bloggers either, since we’re purposely ad-free to remain beholden to none as the voice of the massive middle…but hey, those monthly rev gen incomes sound like we need some ‘mom-bloggers’ onboard as nonprofit consultants! Interested anyone?

A few mom blog networks/aggregators/resources, more at QuickTips:

Moms@Alltop – A collection of RSS feed headlines from the top mom bloggers in the blogosphere on one page. Make this your starting page for tracking the best content from moms who blog.

Mommys @BlogHer – BlogHer is a top guide to blogs by women, via annual conferences, a Web network. Check the Mom Bloggers List.

Ultimate Mommy Blog List – Guy Kawasaki has compiled a list of Mommy Bloggers and attempts to be the definitive list of blogs for moms.

Blogcatalog: Mom Blogs – is a collection of mom bloggers. There are over 900 mom blogs there!

The Mom Salon – where women gather to find smart mom blogs through a category-based directory. Join their Mom Bloggers Club – their social networking space for mom bloggers.

Happy Mother’s Day to one and all from Shaping Youth!

Some Great Cinematic Mom Links, Just for Fun

Rotten Tomatoes: Best & Worst Movie Moms

LATimes: Top 10 Worst Movie Moms (photo gallery)

Associated Content: Top Positive Portrayals of Moms in Movies

Associated Content: Top Ten Best TV Moms Ever

Visual Credits: Edible Arrangements