Open post of the week + life at MMHQ

I’m having a great week. Feeling grateful that my kids are better after 10 days of sickness, enjoying spending time with them in the school holidays and work is firing me up in a good way. How’s your week going?

Welcome to our regular Wednesday re-cap of what’s going on behind-the-scenes at Mamamia, where you can comment about anything at all you like – ask a question, confess a problem, make an observation about anything. At all.

So my week…….

I’ve been gearing up for the second season of Mamamia TV on Sky News and I’ll be honest with you here, I’ve been a bit…uncertain about it. The format we gave a whirl the first time – me and three guests sitting in a line on the Sky News set –  just didn’t work for me.

I thought I’d love it and I hoped I’d be great at it but I didn’t and I wasn’t!

I wasn’t good at all those linking bits (so clunky) and I found it a bit too newsy, not intimate enough to embody Mamamia and what we do around here.

Sky News have been fantastic and very keen to work with us to find the right format. And this week, I think we have found it.

I got busy with iMovie and made a little sizzle reel – a mash up of a bunch of different interviews I’d done with various people – funny, sad, political, girly…..lots of light and shade which to me, is what Mamamia is all about.

I showed this (a bit shyly) to Sky News and they loved it and got it and came back to me with some great ideas for the new format of the show.

I’m going to do one interview per show and we’re going to have some behind-the-scenes footage of Mamamia and what goes on in the office during our often bizarre editorial meetings.

There will also be some panel stuff but not sitting in a line like on a bus, actually sitting around a table. No doubt eating some sugary baked good and drinking tea. Because come on, I’m involved and I can’t do anything without tea.

Finally, I’m really excited about it. It’s clicked in my brain. I can see it now and I couldn’t before.

So that’s been a big thing this week.

First show will be Friday August 5th and you’ll also be able to see it on the site.

Watch this space – more to come.

News Of The World saga rolls on…

As it emerged that News International Executive Rebekah Brooks called the former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to tell him her newspaper (The Sun) had obtained confidential medical information (believed to have come from hacking) that his son had cystic fibrosis and was about to splash it across the front page, I read this beautiful piece in The Guardian from journalist Dea Birkett whose daughter is disabled and who brands the phonecall – and the publication – unforgiveable.

She writes so poignantly about what it’s like to learn your child has a disability:

I can imagine what it felt like to get that call – that horrendous, invasive, unforgiveable call Rebekah Brooks made to the Browns to say their baby’s diagnosis would be splashed across the Sun. My daughter is disabled. In that first year of her birth and my coming to accept her disability, my family was so tender, fragile and confused that such a call could have crushed us.

I now know the greatest challenge in having a child with a disability is confronting the world’s assumptions about her and us as a family. But I didn’t know that in those early days. I only knew my family was branded different, that other mothers shunned me as if my daughter were infectious, that no one bent down and tickled my baby’s chin.

Brooks invaded that world of learning and sorrow. She should be ashamed.

Yes, she should.

Random thought of the week

Michelle Duggar – mother of 19 – hasn’t been pregnant in the longest time – at least a year. Did having a premature baby with serious health problems finally convince the Duggars that it was time to use contraception and not just ‘leave it to God’? Or did her poor uterus get long service leave?

There was some pretty heated debate last year when I wrote a post reacting to the People magazine interview Michelle and Jim-Bob did where they said they wanted more kids. I said I believed it was irresponsible. At the time, their 19th child – who was born at 25 weeks – was still in intensive care, fighting for life after Michelle suffered from the life-threatening condition pre-eclampsia and went into early labour.

Baby Josie has since gone home – her condition is unknown because the Duggars (understandably) have been lying low since then and not done any press that I have seen.

At the time, I wrote:

When the whole fuss was made about Octomum, I did find myself wondering how the Duggars had always managed to escape scrutiny about their choices to have such a large family. As many MM readers have pointed out in the comments on this post, they are debt-free and manage to raise their children and do charity work without any government assistance (before you ask) and seem outwardly like a very lovely family.

But how many children is too many? I know many women with dozens less children than the Duggars who weigh up the consequences very carefully about the impact of a future child on their current family. What affect would Michelle’s death or the death of a baby or the responsibility of a child with severe health problems have on the other Duggar kids?

I find it difficult to understand (is it a faith thing?) what could make anyone risk that when they must already be pretty stretched emotionally, mentally, financially and PHYSICALLY.

Or is it really just nobody’s business?

There were 192 comments on this post with a pretty mixed spectrum of opinions. I don’t think I’ve changed my mind. And with no pregnancy announcements this past year (the longest I can remember without a Duggar pregnancy), here’s hoping Michelle and Jim Bob have decided Josie will be their swansong.

The Simon Baker Ad

I got into a mock-fight on Twitter with a couple of male mates about Simon Baker’s ANZ ad and the fact he has an American accent in it. Some find it odd. I find it….who cares, it’s Simon Baker.

The Original Ad:

The Australian Accent Version:

Frankly, he could be speaking Swahili and that would be AOK with me.

The Crocheted Bits

What every self-respecting person needs: some crocheted reproductive parts: sperm, penis and uterus.  What a terrific gift for a new mother – in case she ever forgets how she became one.

The Flowers

A beautiful delivery of flowers came this week – a thank you from Zoe for writing and raving about Amazing Face. Which I have and will continue to do with or without floral tributes. The best part is that they arrived in their own vase. That’s so chic. Especially because we have no vases in the office and I would have had to somehow stuff them into a giant tea cup.

The Slippers

These arrived from Lifeline – they are slippers which were only big enough for my feet (score) to promote their Stress Down Day. Lifeline only do one fundraising drive per year to fund their brilliant free service and this is it: on Friday 22nd July, wear something silly, comfy or really anything that will help you ‘stress less’. A batman costume perhaps.  Find out more about it here:

Finally, if you have just a couple of minutes, could I ask you to pop over HERE and take our first Mamamia Body Image survey? We’re really really interested to know what you think about body image, the media, your own body and the pressure you may or may not feel to look a certain way. We’ll be sharing the results as soon as we have them……..

So how was your week? Any comments on what you’ve just read? Anything you’d like to discuss or get off your chest? Speak up…..