Japan's Exclusive Mom Clubs Lead to Murders

Mie Tanaguchi, 34, mother of a 5-year-old daughter, felt unbearably lonely. Her only friends were the mothers at her daughter's kindergarten, and lately she felt they had been excluding her. They were distant and cold, and she worried that their behavior would extend to her daughter. She couldn't stand for her daughter to be an outcast.

On this morning, it was Mie's turn to drive the children to school. Wakana and Jin, the two girls sharing the backseat with her daughter, might have been tired, or moody. Whatever the reason, they didn't speak. In her emotional state, Mie took their silence as an affront to her daughter, and she completely lost control. Pulling over to the side of the road, she pulled a slender knife from her purse, yanked the girls out of the car--and stabbed them repeatedly, leaving them for dead on the side of the road. Although both girls were barely alive when she sped away, they died soon after.

When Mie was found, bloody and in shock, she confessed to everything, detailing the loneliness and estrangement that led to her horrendous acts.

In Japan, most mothers are expected to stay home, and moms form close friendships with each other that last for years as their children grow. They form close-knit cliques, with a distinct pecking order. Women wear their finest clothes to the neighborhood park, entering into a series of "highly ritualized" behaviors in their attempts to be accepted: bowing deeply as a sign of respect for the dominant mom boss, they wait for signs of acceptance, turning to the next clique and the next with the same behavior until one group has allowed them to join.

When a woman is excluded, she worries for her child's future. And not without cause. Competition among the children is rampant. Getting your child into the "right" school is a must. Some schools require the children to take entrance exams when they are as young as two years old.

When Mitsuko Yamada's daughter did not pass an entrance exam into an exclusive Otawa kindergarten, she cracked, strangling the girl who did with the girl's own scarf. She was sentenced to 15 years in jail after turning herself in voluntarily, shocked by what she had done. Amazingly, one newspaper reporting on the case received over 1000 letters of support from sympathetic Japanese moms.

Miwako Nakajima, who wrote a novel about Japan's mommy cliques entitled Park Debut, opines, "I think these women have simply never grown up. In many ways, they seem to be locked in their own youths-the way they still bully through ostracism and have a 'leader' of the group."

source: marieclaire.com

Review: Skin MD Natural Shielding Lotion

I'm one of those people who has to put lotion on every day. My legs, especially, get very dry after I shave them (which I should probably do more often!).

Recently, I was sent a sample of Skin MD Natural Shielding Lotion and asked to test it out, no strings attached, and give my opinion on the product.

Now, I will be honest with you: when I saw "MD" in the name, I thought maybe this was a gimmick. What made this lotion any better than any of the other over-the-counter lotions at my store? A lotion is a lotion, right?

Anyway, I put the shielding lotion on my legs after I shaved them, and it felt good, the skin looked moisturized, and all was fine. That's pretty much all I expected.

So, the next day, I get out the lotion again--and I don't need it. My legs look great (if I do say so myself!). Even that dry area around my knees looked good. So I smoothed some lotion on my arms, especially around my elbows, and went on with my day.

The next day, my skin was still looking great. I was out driving around quite a bit, and since I live in Florida, I am always in the sun when I am outdoors. But this lotion just kept right on working.

To make a long story short, I went an entire week without having to apply any more to my legs (yes, okay, I went a week without shaving my legs, sue me), and they looked great every day. Plus, my elbows weren't, you know, pebbly looking. That's when I decided that this lotion deserved a closer look.

I went to the web site, looked through the literature, and here's what I discovered: this lotion is different. They call it a "shielding lotion" for a reason. It doesn't just go on top of your dry skin to moisturize what's already dry. It bonds with your skin to keep it moisturized all over. It actually helps your skin create a natural seal to hold the moisture in and keep drying irritants out. And there were numerous reports from dermatologists on the site (where the MD comes from, I'm guessing) endorsing the way the shielding lotion protects your skin.

Now, I don't see a dermatologist, and I bet a lot of Moms are like me. We have limited time and limited budgets and a lot of our effort goes into keeping our kids and our families happy, and so things like our skincare tend to sift to the bottom of the pile. I know mine does.

But that's why I think that 21st Century Formulations, the company that makes the Skin MD Natural shielding lotion, is on to something here. Because I didn't have to spend a lot of time, or use a lot of different creams and lotions and such, to keep my skin looking great. They made it nice and easy for me.

I just put on the Skin MD shielding lotion and forget about it. That's my kind of skincare regimen, right there. And since it lasted a long time, I really didn't need to use much of it at all, which means the expense is minimal, as well.

So, this product gets a definite thumbs-up from me. I am keeping the container in my car, where, like many chauffeur Moms, I spend a lot of time, so that I have it handy when I need it.

OVERALL RATING for Skin MD Shielding Lotion: A+!

This made me laugh...

...and so I thought I would share it with all of you! Melanie Lynne Hauser, over at The Refrigerator Door, has a very imaginative teen on her hands. See what he and his friends are up to over here:

The Refrigerator Door.

Building Better Bedtimes

I remember the days when my children didn't want to go to bed at all, let alone settle down and go to sleep once they were there. We always got an early start with the pajamas, teeth-brushing and bedtime stories, because inevitably would come the stalling: "Can I have some water? I'm thirsty!" "I have to go to the bathroom!"

After about the fiftieth time, you just start bringing them a water with the bedtime story, and then make them go potty.

And of course the room can't be too dark, but the night-light can't be in their eyes, and close the closet door, but leave the bedroom door open and, and, and!

Now that my boys are older, bedtimes are much more relaxed. Pajamas are a thing of the past. Most summer days find them in the pool until just before bedtime, so they just sleep in their clean under-clothes after they've read for a while.

Boys being boys, we still have to monitor that they've actually, really, truly, in fact brushed their teeth, of course.

Moms nowadays, though, they have it easy.

Of COURSE I'm just kidding!

But you new Moms do get some help: Colgate-Palmolive and RIF (Reading is Fundamental) are bringing back an award-winning program from last year, "Healthy Bedtime Habits for a Lifetime."

You can log on over at Colgate Healthy Habits for lots of helpful tools for building healthy bedtime habits with your kids, like a Bedtime Rituals log with a customizable theme to track hand-washing, teeth-brushing and the like. Families compete for points by filling out their logs each week, and they can win fun rewards. There's an interactive message board for parents to share ideas for making bedtime easier. For the first time this year, the Colgate team has added an online storybook feature that lets your kids star in a book all about healthy habits, along with characters like Dr. Rabbit, Riffington and Handy the Octopus. And you even have a chance at winning books for your elementary schools library, with the Library Gift valued at around $1000!

Last year, more than 55,000 families participated in the program, and this campaign earned a Gold Halo Award from the Cause Marketing Forum.

Since 2004, Colgate-Palmolive has contributed more than 58,000 books to more than 82,000 children in need through its partnership with RIF.

Now, if they could just find a way to let us Moms get more sleep, we'd have it made!

I did it! I signed up for PayPerPost!

Well, everybody, as you can see I took the plunge and signed up for payperpost"!

While at BlogHer '07, as you all know by now, I met some wonderful people, including other Moms like me who blog. A lot of them write occasional posts for PayPerPost, and had lots of good things to say about them! In addition, I spoke with the PayPerPost exhibitors at BlogHer (where I picked up this HUGE pen that my son assures me is "awesomely cool"), and I like them, too.

So I decided to try PayPerPost out for myself.

Now, what does this mean for you, my readers? Well, don't worry, first of all, that my product reviews will be biased. Those will NOT be sponsored posts. I am still sticking with my policy of accepting items for review and reporting on them after they have been tested out, with no other compensation.

But, especially if it was something I have been planning on posting about for a while, I will be writing the occasional sponsored post for PayPerPost. And I feel good about my decision.

Why? Because it's services like these that allow bloggers like me and my Mom friends to keep on blogging, attend conventions like BlogHer (that's how I intend to budget, anyway!) and just keep chugging right along.

I'm very excited by this new opportunity, and we can see where it goes together, okay? I welcome your comments. And, just so you know, this is my FIRST offical PayPerPost post!

Viv