Category Other Writing

Aug 5 2014

New Post on NY Metro Parents!

Jerry Mahoney, Mommy ManSorry about the lack of posts lately. I hope you’re all enjoying your summer as much as I am. If you’re a parent anywhere in the NY Metro area, as I am, you’ve probably flipped through a copy of NY Metro Parents in one of its many incarnations. (I pick up Westchester Parents at my kids’ summer camp… or their gymnastics class… or their art class… or….) Well, be sure to check out this month’s issue, specifically page 12. That’s me! I’m very flattered to have been able to contribute the August 2014 Voices column.

Those of you outside the area can read my post on their website. I’m really proud of this one. It’s about trying to raise a daughter to be an awesome, self-assured woman without a mom in the family… and the gay dad guilt that sometimes goes with it.

And if that’s not enough for you, maybe it’s time to order my book! (Hint, hint!) That’s enough reading to carry you through Labor Day!

Nov 26 2013

My Secret to Getting My 4-Year-Old Twins to Do What I Want

photo (10)Are you curious? I’ll give you a hint. It has something to do with a certain public figure I’ve ranted about before.

You can read the entire post over at WhatToExpect.com. I’m very flattered to have been asked to contribute for them. Hopefully, my schtick will fit in nicely alongside their revered prenatal advice and breastfeeding tips. There goes the cyber-neighborhood!

Read the whole post here.

Jun 13 2013

Lifetime Moms Post – and Twitter Party!

 

Mens Room Sign

Mens Room Sign (Photo credit: mrkathika)

I’ve written a few posts for this blog that I just can’t bear to reread. I think I’ve pointed out before that #1 on that list is this one. Just remembering that hospital episode turns my insides to instant slush. But I think this post about a bathroom nightmare I went through with the kids may be a close second on the ones I’d rather not revisit.

 

I want to say that our public bathroom experiences have gotten better since then, but it’s more like the horrors have morphed and now manifest in slightly different ways. So, in thinking about what I wanted for Father’s Day, I tried to imagine what the dream dad-friendly public men’s room might look like. That became my new Lifetime Moms post, My Dream of the Ultimate Dad-Friendly Mens Room. Check it out… but I’ll warn you – it’s not pretty.

Also, it’s kind of last-minute but I’ll be taking part in a Father’s Day-themed Twitter Party with the Lifetime Moms crew, tonight (Thursday, June 13, 2013, that is) at 9pm Eastern Time. Make sure you follow my new Twitter account for this blog, located @MommyManBlog, because that’s where I’ll be partying. You’ll also want to follow Lifetime Moms, as well as my fellow partiers Melissa Chapman, John Kinnear and Doug Latham, as well as keeping an eye on the hashtag #lifetimemomsdads

Did I mention there will be fabulous prizes? I’m assuming I’m not eligible for these prizes, which makes them a little less fabulous, but just for me. They’ll still be fabulous for you.

 

May 23 2013

The New Guys In Town: My Westchester Magazine Article

Westchester Magazine, New Dads, gay dads, Jerry MahoneyI realized yesterday that Drew and I had let our subscription to Westchester Magazine lapse — both of them, in fact. When we first moved here, two different people gifted us with the magazine. (We also get two copies of Parents magazine, but one is for babies and one is for toddlers, or something like that. Pretty much the same magazine, but the kid on the cover of one is a little older than the kid on the other.) It was easy to imagine that Westchester Magazine would just keep arriving forever, one or more copies at a time.

Then yesterday, everyone else but us got the June issue in the mail, and Drew told me that we never renewed. Oops. It figures the first issue we didn’t get would be the one we were in. One of their editors asked me a while ago to write a column about being a gay dad in the area, then they decided to run the piece as part of a Father’s Day special feature, with two other dads. (Both of their pieces are great, by the way.)

They sent a photographer, who took some gorgeous pictures of the kids, even though they were sick and tired and cranky when he showed up. Now we have this great keepsake, with a full-color glossy shot of our family (see above), that we don’t have. Good thing for the internet… and for Barnes & Noble, which is where I’ll be schlepping the kids this afternoon to pick up a few copies.

In the meantime — and for you non-Westchesterites — you can read the column here. (Please note that Drew takes issue with being labeled a stay-home dad. As he puts it, “I work a lot less hard.”) Also, I worked very closely with the copy editor to make sure all our names were spelled correctly… and then the online editor went and called me Jerry Maloney. Oops.

Whatever, I’ll still be renewing.

May 8 2013

5 Ways My Kids Have It Better — and My New Twitter Account!

kidshaveitbetterMy new post at Lifetime Moms was inspired by the last time my kids got sick. It was awful, of course, because it’s always awful when kids are sick. But it wasn’t nearly as awful as it was supposed to be, because their medicine came in delicious candy flavors. (I guess someone at the drug companies finally took Mary Poppins to heart.)

It was a relief to me as a parent, because who wants to deal with giving their kids medicine? But as a former kid, I was kind of pissed off. Lucky little squirts don’t know how good they have it! So I came up with a few other ways my kids are living the sweet life, at the risk of being labeled a grumpy old man. Check the Lifetime Moms site to read the whole thing.

And as always, if you have any of your own to add, leave me a comment over there.

Also, I’ve started a second twitter account, @MommyManBlog. In theory, it’s going to be the place where I post anything specific to the blog, so it’ll be lighter on my personal “jokes” and observations. (I’ll still link my blog posts on both accounts, though. I’m no slacker when it comes to self-promotion.)

If you want to choose one to follow, stick with @WhyJerryWhy. That won’t be changing. The big difference is that I’m going to follow all the @MommyManBlog followers back. I’ve seen enough of these “I follow back!” people to wonder if I’m the douchebag who’s been twittering wrong all this time, because I’ve tried to keep my feed to a level I can actually keep up with.

So now I have one feed I’ll actually keep up with and one where I just follow whoever is nice enough to give me a follow. Hey, I get it. I like getting that “new follower” email notification, too.

I started writing a whole blog post about my impressions of Twitter etiquette, but I decided to scrap it, because trust me, that one really made me sound like a grumpy old man.