When my son was just a tot, I referred to myself one day – out loud – in the third person as "Mama". "Mama's going to do blah, blah, blah..." or something like that. What was curious about this was that my child was not even there. I was struck by two things: First, I seemed to be talking to myself a lot more. Hmm... Second, my name had apparently changed to "Mama", as this is what I was calling myself in an absent-minded state. All of you parents out there know the profound shift in identity that accompanies having children. I am mama. Plain and simple. At 102 I will continue to be Mama and, as such, I vow to sweat ALL the small stuff, big stuff...in between stuff, because...it works? It's great for my health? I don't know. It's just what I do. (I'll bet it has something to do with survival:)

 

But what a powerful muse parenthood is! I started making cartoons when I realized I absolutely had to record some of the rich moments of baby life, to which no other media could do justice. These were often extremely bizarre situations that resulted from my inexperienced and ridiculous parenting solutions. I describe this period in my laugh-out-loud parenting book entitled “The ABC’s of First Time Parenthood: Tips, Tricks and Insights from an Overanalytical, Anxiety-Prone, Hyper-Empathic, Forty-Something Mama of a First-Born Child,” which will be out for publication soon.

 

There are so many universal experiences that connect us in this amazing journey that is the result of one of the most basic things we humans are hardwired to do: procreate. Momwarp Cartoons shares some of my own experiences through my craft. Maybe some of the moments captured in these doodles might feel familiar and elicit a smile. Or you might just think “whoa this woman is a little...” The Cartoon Collections galleries are categorized by life stage and rotate periodically. As of now, these galleries include the baby and tot years (Babywarp), the kid years (Kidwarp) and mom-specific topics (Momwarp). The Babywarp gallery is made up of a selection of artwork from “The ABC’s of First-Time Parenthood”. Kidwarp is a work in progress, and Momwarp is now especially “interesting” given the recent onset of Perimenopause. Oh, good times! Also, don’t forget to check back periodically for The Biweekly Warp, which usually features my latest cartoon and is updated every other Monday.

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Keep up the good moming (or dading)! Ok, “good" most of the time. Some of the time? A fair amount of the time?

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