TouchstoneZ

I have an addiction to my Google Reader. So to justify it, I’m sharing some of my favorite blog posts and articles that I’ve come across. I’m joining it up with Authentic Parenting’s Sunday Surf.

PhD in Parenting talks about how we don’t necessarily talk about parenting young children when things are going well. We wait until we can’t take it anymore and then we look for the magic silver bullet to fix it all for us. She shares the truth about those days when we’re challenged. We don’t need advice or criticism. We need to be heard. We need space and time to heal…well, I’m going on about it when you can just go read and resonate for yourself.

One of the main reasons I do not appreciate the current trend of over-gendering of children in the USA is that it limits choices. I feel that adults interrupt the natural flow of creative play too often because of their own discomfort. I try to avoid the overtly gender-fied toys, which I am often avoiding already because they are made on the other side of the world with questionable environmental and safety policies. But, there were two plastic toy companies that I loved because they invite open-ended, non-gender-specific, imaginative, creative play: Lego and Playmobil. So, imagine my disappointment that both of these companies are deciding which gender should play with which toys. These two posts sum up the issues beautifully: Achilles Effect wrote this piece exploring Lego’s “Girl Problems” And Princess-Free Zone has this post, Lego and Disney are Lazy

Is it wrong to have freedom of choice to educate your kids? I mean, does it undermine society? Many people think so. They find homeschooling, or even worse unschooling, to be against the interests of an ordered society. Again, I wonder about the dissonance between freedom of choice and upholding the status quo that seems to be the crux of many issues societies are wrestling with. This idea is eloquently explored by Kelly Hogaboom with Question: Is Unschooling a Form of Anarchy?

Adventures in Mommyhood: Mommy Outnumbered, like so many parents, was deeply moved by the pain that mothers feel after a loss. She said she felt strongly about writing, but didn’t know if she could since she had never experienced the loss of a child. She was upset about the criticisms being heaped on a certain mother of many in the public eye after she announced a recent loss. So, she wrote this insightful post about it: Now It is Acceptable to Bully Grieving Mothers?

I was involved in two Carnivals this past week that could fill Warm Link Hugs with fabulous reads. The first, of course, is the Mindful Mama Carnival that I run with Kelly of Becoming Crunchy. The second was the Safe CoSleeping Carnival, organized by Jenn from Monkey Butt Junction. Please check out the links from those posts to see the impressive writing talents of the many participants. I’m still enjoying reading my way through the posts.

Adventures in Mommyhood: MommyOutnumbered has also been running a fabulous month-long spotlight on individual bloggers. It encourages de-lurking. She is asking everyone who appreciates a blog post to give comment love. It means so much to bloggers. If you haven’t checked it out, please do so: You Rock! Blogs.

And, yet, again I have no time to proof-read this post before publishing. My apologies for errors.

So, warm up your clicking fingers and please share your comment love to my warmest link hugs:

Looking for more great reads? Please check out my Facebook Page, Follow me on Twitter (and of course, surf on over to Authentic Parenting. She’s always got something good to read)

Did you make to the end? If you’ve got a List of Favorite Links that you blog, feel free to link it up below in the comments section!

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• Letter to Littles: November 2011 (touchstonez.com)