Since we’re about to launch the first annual CrankMama ManCandy Contest, I wanted to make sure the nice ladies didn’t feel neglected. The ladies, after all, are primarily who I love in blogland. Here are some of my absolute favorite reads:

Pundit Mom — Because Joanne is smart and incredibly insightful and also very cute

Redneck Mommy — Because she likes to talk about wild monkey sex and is real pretty

O the Joys — Because when you have a grillion blogs in your feedreader and pack a mean Photoshop while raising 2 kids you’re my kind of girl

Dooce - Because say what you will, this girl is farkin talented and hilariously funny

City Mama — Because Stefania is a great writer, mother

Arkie Mama — Because Bill Clinton isn’t the only good thing to come out of Arkansas

And the contest?? Details coming soon, my kittens.

Daughters. Beloved daughters. Even as young as mine are do you know they still get more compliments on their clothes than boys of a similar age? Do you know that little girls worry about being fat now more at a younger age than ever before? And if you know either of those facts, you of course know all about the sexualization of little girls. Long long long before they’re mature enough to defend themselves, or carry and operate a can of mace.

So it is with a certain studied pride that I observe my daughters complete lack of concern for any of the following:

1. Personal hygiene - Including but not limited to dirty faces, sticky hands, and rats’ nests in hair

2. Clothing that matches or looks cute and bippy - They have not once (not once I say!) asked to wear either this outfit or that.

3. Clothing gifts - T-shirts and skirts and shirts are passed over with the same glazed expression that I have when someone gives me a vacuum cleaner or kitchen utensil as a gift. When a grandma sings “See? It matches!” she might as well be calling out “fjkdsl;jfdsklfjdskl;j” for all the excitement that is translated to the dim unimpressed eyes of my daughters.

On the other hand, out in the wilds of unstructured hippie child-rearing land (my domain), I sometimes wonder how my little darlings will ever make it through school (given that when they see me carrying a brush they run away screaming like wild monkeys facing a blowtorch)…? One imagines some sort of Hygiene Training will be necessitated, lest they send the girls home with notes and signs or (worse) some sort of stigma.

I love little girls that are allowed to be little girls. Who run wild and free and dirty and completely carefree for as many years as this weighty world will allow. I wish for my daughters total freedom from cares about body image and beauty and lipstick and heels.

But since I can’t be sure they’ll have that. I can at least encourage their total disregard for looks.

Went out to dinner tonight looked around and saw the future!! Mine and theirs. The prom girls were walking around in just about nothing I tell you (and looking damn perky while they were at it). The 50 - somethings were all blessedly child-free and fabulous in their laughing martinis and tables full of stories. What a strange evening to see these two extremes and to wonder what it will be like to be in my 50s with beautiful daughters wandering around restaurants oblivious to the horny drooly stares of the men in the room?