OFFICIAL BLOG

Fieldnotes

Mommynomics 101: If Privileged Manhattan Moms are Lazy, I'm Missing Something

Published by Wednesday Martin
In the cultural imagination, wealthy Manhattan mom = Marie Antoinette
In the cultural imagination, wealthy Manhattan mom = Marie Antoinette

In a recent article for the New York Observer, Richard Kirshenbaum wrote about Upper East Side parents "outsourcing" their parenting duties — to their drivers. It's an amusing and insightful piece that follows on the heels of Tara Palmeri's New York Post piece about moms (and dads, c'mon!) who send nannies to do school volunteer work in their stead. Nannies acting as crossing guards and bringing school snack are rubbing many the wrong way.


Season Opener — the Hamptons

Published by Wednesday Martin
Manhattan habitus, summer months
Manhattan habitus, summer months

The annual great migration is under way. The parking lot at King Kullen at Bridgehampton Commons is crammed to capacity and good luck finding a table at LT Burger in Sag Harbor village. Hope you signed up in advance for your Physique 57 class in the Barn this weekend. Soon there will be women out for the season with their kids, and husbands going back and forth, a bizarre, inside — out reprise of immigrant husbands toiling in Manhattan and sending money back to the old country at the turn of the last century.


Disney Guide Reveal Hits a Nerve — but It's Just One Example of Many

Published by Wednesday Martin
I am interested in primate social behavior — particularly parenting practices–in Manhattan
I am interested in primate social behavior — particularly parenting practices–in Manhattan

During my research for my book-in-progress, Primates of Park Avenue: an Anthropological Memoir of Uptown Motherhood, I discovered a startling practice among the privileged parents of Manhattan I am interviewing and observing for my ethnographic look at raising children in one of the wealthiest areas of the country, the Upper East Side.


Happy Mother's Day

Published by Wednesday Martin
photo courtesy of Katharine Moser
photo courtesy of Katharine Moser

Happy Mother's Day! This is a photo from the Church Rock archeological site in Shasta County, California, a site where the native Wintu people lived and performed various religious and cultural ceremonies. The vulva sculpture was part of a birth altar. Thanks to my  stepdaughter Katharine Moser, an archeologist in training, for this image.


What We're Doing — the Ring in New York

Published by Wednesday Martin
If you steal my cab and make me late for pilates I will kill you
If you steal my cab and make me late for pilates I will kill you

Have you ever done The Ring? Or considered it? You should. And not just because the Metropolitan Opera needs you. The Ring is mythic and epic, yes. But it's also about couples and families, parents and children, love and ambition and betrayal.


Dad's getting wed? How to cope as an adult stepchild

Published by Wednesday Martin
When Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles married eight years ago, these royals did something utterly common: they formed a uniquely modern stepfamily.
When Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles married eight years ago, these royals did something utterly common: they formed a uniquely modern stepfamily.

When Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles married eight years ago, these royals did something utterly common. They formed a stepfamily of a particular sort - one uniquely modern, every day more widespread yet significantly “under the radar.” Each had adult offspring - the now-Duchess’s son was 31 and her daughter 27, while Princes William and Harry were 22 and 20, respectively.