Our very FIRST SocialMom of the Month: Meet Melinda Wentzel!

Although I’ve been privileged to feature 50 other amazing moms as TwitterMoms of the Week/Month, this is my very first SocialMom of the Month post – and my very first of 2011!

As such, I thought it fitting to choose a woman whose wit and humor has not only propelled me off my chair and onto the floor in fits of laughter – but who’s also given me a healthier perspective on how fleeting are the days of life with small children. We could all do well to start the year with some floor-rolling, mixed with appreciation for our special roles as mothers.

Introducing Melinda Wentzel, a.k.a. Planet Mom, of Williamsport (“Billtown”), Pennsylvania. Melinda, who shall remain ageless (that’s the one bit of information I couldn’t forcibly squeeze out of her), is a married mother of three girls, ages 22, 9 and 9. Yep, twins!

If you’ve read her blog posts on PlanetMom, it won’t shock you to hear that Melinda is also a newspaper columnist, writes for various parenting magazines, and has been featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul and other books. Plus, she's starting a gig with ParentDish, doling out advice to other parents of (almost) ten-year-olds.

(Of the latter, Melinda says, “It’s slightly disturbing in and of itself, since I routinely fly by the seat of my pants when it comes to child rearing.”)

The good news is, you can read her for free whenever you want, without killing a tree – just type in the magic combination of letters, like so: www.melindawentzel.com. Her latest post, A Decade of Enlightenment: Ten Things Parenthood Has Taught Me, is fabulous. Here’s a favorite passage that speaks to my own somewhat chaotic parenting style:

“… I’ve fed my charges dinner and dessert in a bathtub more times than I’d care to admit, I’ve used a shameful quantity of saliva to clean smudges off faces, I’ve suggested a broad range of inappropriate responses to being bullied and I consider the unabashed bribe to be one of my most effective parenting tools.”

I’d also note that Melinda’s writing is blissfully error-free and well-punctuated -- on top of being funny. A writer’s trifecta! And somehow, she’s even hilarious in under 140 characters… be on the lookout for her rueful, often naughty Twitter hashtags, alone worth the price of admission.

How long have you been a humor columnist?

“I’ve been a slice-of-life humor columnist since 2003, two years after my twin daughters were born (i.e. I’m guessing my desire to write had more to do with a desperate need for therapy than income).”

What’s it like, having a grown-up kid and a set of much-younger twins?

“Pretty amazing, actually. I’ve had the benefit of raising one child as a young woman, gleaning as much as I thought humanly possible, fumbling and bumbling my way through much of the journey (that’s code for: I made a shitload of mistakes but everything turned out fairly well). And I’ve been able to draw upon that experience, applying what I learned a decade or more ago to my nearly 10-year-old twins in the here and now. That’s a priceless gift for which I am exceedingly grateful.”

How has your parenting style changed in your second go-round as a mom, and how has having kids changed you?

“I’d like to think I’m more relaxed and flexible with the whole thing (i.e. I didn’t FREAK OUT when their umbilical cords shriveled up and fell off, nor did I bat an eye when they announced they had once ‘tasted’ the dog as well as tropical tuna-flavored cat treats). Comparatively speaking, while raising my oldest, I was on edge and consumed with self-doubt much of the time.

“That said, I’m hoping that by some standards, I’ve improved over time. Maybe a little less self-centered, a little less anxious, a little more willing to listen to the smallish beings who make my world so complete – when they aren’t robbing me of my lucidity. And although the endeavor of parenting my twins (a.k.a. Seek and Destroy) is slightly exhausting on occasion, I think I’m having more fun this time around.”

Where do you get your sense of humor?

“I have absolutely no idea. To my knowledge there is no Erma Bombeck lurking in my family tree and for that matter, there are no writers of any sort. I honestly think I began the craft as a method of coping with all that parenthood entails. I had no particular audience. Just me. So it was a fluke that a local newspaper picked me up and I couldn’t be happier about that fortuitous turn of events.

“I must add, however, that [my husband] Captain Quirk exudes a persistent litany of humor-isms while seeing life (as many who know him explain it) ‘through different eyes’ (i.e. his approach to much of what is experienced in this world… good, bad or indifferent… is unique and ever-amusing).”

Lea Curtes-Swenson is a happy, Twin Cities-based freelance copywriter and HVAC marketing consultant, ringing in the New Year with her family from snowy northern Minnesota – “where caribou roam free but wireless service is not.” She narrowly and expertly averted death in the posting of this article, as it involved snow-shoeing, killing a grizzly with her mittened hands, and hitching a ride with a snowplow into town… and she wouldn’t at all mind getting a medal in recognition of this feat. She is also known for her gift of exaggeration. Find her at Lea Writes and Lea’s Blogging Life.

Tags: Melinda, PlanetMom, SMFC, SMOTM, TMFC, TMOTM, Wentzel

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Comment by Dnbuster on January 7, 2011 at 5:20pm: Great post Lea!

Congrats Melinda!

Comment by Beth H LeWarn on January 7, 2011 at 3:02pm: I, too, have a large gap between my kids. It was like being a "first-time" mom all over again. I loved the feeling of not "freaking out" over everything with my younger ones.

Great to meet you Melinda. I look forward to hearing more from you.

Beth Once Upon A Puzzle

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Comment by Sherri Raftery on January 6, 2011 at 6:08am: SO inspiring!

As a MoM of a teen - I just completed the Incredible Years Parenting Program Series and learned lots of good tips and tricks that are actually working! I recommend it to ALL MoMs/DaDs and caretakers!

The Incredible Years parent training intervention is a series of programs focused on strengthening parenting competencies (monitoring, positive discipline, confidence) and fostering parents' involvement in children's school experiences in order to promote children's academic, social and emotional competencies and reduce conduct problems. The Parent programs are grouped according to age. Babies & Toddlers (0-3 years), BASIC Early Childhood (3-6 years), BASIC School-Age (6-12 years) and ADVANCED (6-12 years). Descriptions of these programs are on this page below

http://www.incredibleyears.com/program/parent.asp

Comment by Stacy Galiczynski on January 5, 2011 at 4:57pm: Great write-up, Lea! You did a good job choosing your first SocialMom, too! Melinda is a hoot!!

Comment by Lea Curtes-Swenson on January 5, 2011 at 1:51pm: Thanks, Tomi -- thanks so much for reading, and have a great day!

Comment by Tomi C on January 5, 2011 at 1:36pm: Congrats Lea!

Comment by Lea Curtes-Swenson on January 5, 2011 at 1:23pm: Thank you, Mallory! I can't tell you what an incredible pleasure it is for me to feature the amazing women in our community. Glad you enjoy them... let me know if you have someone to nominate, too!

Comment by Mallory O on January 5, 2011 at 1:09pm: Lea has some great blogs! I really enjoyed reading them and am glad to be a follower of her stuff!

Comment by Tomi C on January 5, 2011 at 1:03pm: Congrats Melinda!

Comment by Susan Heim on January 3, 2011 at 5:39pm: Melinda is hysterical. I love her columns, and I'm still amazed that she lets me feature one of her columns every month on Susan Heim on Parenting. She's not only funny, but she's wonderfully nice, too!