I not only belong to, but I am the co-leader of an unnamed mother's group in the Greater Portland area. We have 400 members. As the leader I need to hold my tongue once in a while. But on my blog, I can say whatever the heck I want.

Todays uproar is over our solicitation policy. This has been the bane of many a leaders existence. Basically, when you have the e-mail address of a person you don't know, you must not abuse it. For instance, you do not send along invites to candle parties or the like. We have other venues to put that kind of information. But, we, being human, mess this up on occasion.

Well, just throw that woman up on a cross and stone her to death. You'd think she abused her children, the way members get all hateful toward her. I suppose when you have 400 women on the internet talking about a variety of topics, there is bound to be a few cat fights.

I am of the "keep things in perspective" camp. We are mothers, we have that in common. We are also women. I've never been one of those women that competes with other women. I am very proud of the fact that I have befriended all kinds of women; from my teenage friend who is expecting her first child, to my mom friend who was in her former life an aerospace engineer, ya she was a rocket scientist.

But how we interact with one another, and the mark that this leaves upon our world is indelible, and this my friends is NOT rocket science. We must treat others how we wish to be treated. If you can't do that, then you are out of my group. There are plenty of other groups to join where you can bitch and moan all day long, mine is not one of them.

We have far more important work to do. We make meals for folks staying at the Ronald McDonald house, we are making 250 pies to go into Thanksgiving boxes that will be delivered to families that otherwise would not have a special meal on Thanksgiving. We raised the third most amount of money in the annual Pet and People Walk for the Center for Grieving Children. We donate our time and effort to help many families in need in a variety of ways.

Life is just too short for this sort of thing. Sure we all experience a fellow mother who just gets under our skin, but lets not lose our grace and allow ourselves to fall into cat fighting territory. There are mothers around the globe who would give anything to have enough food to feed their children. I think we could use a little reality check. Let's find common ground and make better use of our time.

In other words, what I wish I could say to them is: SHUT YOUR PIE HOLE AND GET BAKING, we have 250 pies to make by Thanksgiving!

E-mail this entry to a friend