OSFO just told Smartmom that she can write about her as much as she wants.
Everybody hear that?
OSFO is home sick today and she and Smartmom are having a great time eating cinnamon toast and reading nasty comments about Smartmom in the Brooklyn Paper.
OSFO is even writing back to some of Smartmom's most vehement detractors. That girl is fearless and she says exactly what she thinks. Oy, Smartmom is very proud of her girl.
The Paper is definitely milking this so-called controversy for all it's worth.They even ran this story:
After posting Smartmom’s piece last week — the one in which Smartmom wondered whether she should stop writing about her children in her tell-all column — The Brooklyn Paper asked readers
whether our popular parenting columnist should stop invading her kids’ privacy.
The overwhelming response? Yes.
Some readers even blamed Smartmom for the widespread perception of Park Slope as an island of self-obsessed parenting.
“Smartmom’s no small part of why Park Slope parents have become the
target of so much derision,” wrote “Advil Please” from Park Slope.
“Perhaps The Brooklyn Paper has allowed her to babble on for so long in
hopes of keeping the ‘controversy’ alive, but when even her kids are
telling her to shut up, you’d think she would finally get the picture.”
Tough luck, Advil Please — in this week’s column, Smartmom says she’s sticking to her guns!
In that case, most respondents said that Smartmom should prepare for
some hefty therapist bills as her tots grow up. And what’s worse, she
might even lose some of her readers!
“If your kids and neighbors won’t talk because they fear being
written up, think of something else creative,” wrote RK from Park
Slope. “It’s run its course. Bring it to the next level.”
“If Smartmom doesn’t stop, I suspect that she will find out many
years from now that the resentment on her children’s part will grow,
not diminish,” added Andrea from Gowanus.
Bottom line: few (except for Dumb Editor, of course, but he poses in the nude!) defended Smartmom’s decision to put her life — and the lives of her children — on display.
“These are her children — the heart of her heart — she’s playing
with,” added “Another Mother from Downtown.” “Maybe if she gets in
touch with that reality, she’ll reconsider her career imperatives, find
a more meaningful, less hurtful way to express herself and wind up a
much smarter mom (and wife, neighbor and friend, too).
Kids recant lots of things when they realize they’re causing disruption in their households. OSFO’s position on the matter is, to my mind, less important than Smartmom’s having put herself first in all of this. Adults can decide to air their own dirty linen in public, but there’s a reason why social networking sites limit the amount of personal information children can disclose: it just doesn’t belong out there.