The Mom Weekly Volume 2
Welcome to Volume 2—week 2— of The Mom Weekly! I really enjoy having this accountability and having a semi-captive audience to talk to. 🙂
You may remember that I shared these with you on Instagram from a mother/daughter account that was “recommended for me.” Sometimes IG recs are odd, but sometimes there are some real gems, and this was one. I’m going to paraphrase the content since I can’t capture the entire post, but I’d like it here for posterity.
Messages my adult children may need to hear:
- I’m so proud to be your Mom.
- I’m sorry for any parenting choices I made that hurt you. I’m here to listen, if you want to talk about it.
- You are incredibly precious to me.
- I’ll always love you no matter what.
- My life changed for the better because you are in it.
- Your worth is not determined by your productivity, job title, or relationship status.
Even writing down those things is making me a little teary-eyed, because of how much I love each of you! And I truly mean all of those things.
Remember how much I love you,
Mom
An interesting read:
What Kind of Villain Doesn’t Clean Up After Their Dog?—The Atlantic Monthly
A fascinating look at how “pooper scooper” laws came to be, and how to get people to be more compliant with them. I plan to share this with the HOA here, as many neighbors complain about people not picking up poop!
An interesting listen:
“Barbie is a conservative movie”
I saw Barbie on Friday with a friend and her adult daughter— so funny and so enjoyable. This video (I wish it were an article) making the case—well, lots of spoilers—but from St. Thomas More’s “Utopia” to Homer’s “Odysseus” —there is much to ponder here.
I have mostly refrained from reading social commentary reviews about the movie, whatever the type of social commentary, but I found this less a “culture wars” in-the-moment hot take than a philosophical approach to the themes of the movie.
An action item: Open a Roth IRA !!!
Time to make sure you have a Roth IRA. This may seem really complicated, but it is not. We’re not going to do anything with the Roth or contribute anything to it, just open it up.
In future weeks we can talk about contributing or what investments to buy in your Roth. Let’s just get the Roth opened and set up. That’s it—it will take you 10 minutes, or less!
Why should you have a Roth? I think it’s one of the best no-brainer investments, especially the younger that you are.
I don’t need to reinvent the wheel, so take a moment to visit this article from Krista at Ready to Roth. She’s great, and this is a very thorough walk through of why you should have one.
The easiest place to open a Roth is through a low-cost brokerage—the “big three” are Vanguard, Schwab, and Fidelity. It’s completely free to open a Roth at any of those firms. I’m going to share a couple of screenshots to show you where to go, and how to do it.
Fidelity home page. Click the orange box that says “open an account”
That will bring you to the screen, and you can click on “Roth IRA”
And this page begins the walk-through.
Here’s Schwab. Click on “Roth IRA” in the middle square under “retirement”
This page explains the costs ($0) and more.
Vanguard, Click “open an account” from the top menu.
Vanguard: click the 1st: “open a new account” and select “Roth” on the next screen.
What are you doing this weekend?
The Mom Weekly schedules to post on Tuesdays. One of the reasons for this is to encourage you (and me, too!) to think about weekend plans. All too often, I have let that go until Friday, and then it’s hard to get people together, or make plans for coffee, or figure out when you go to Mass (other than the default, which is what we typically do).
So, now that it’s Tuesday, what are you planning for the weekend? I’m going to suggest trying to cover four “F”s to get ideas flowing:
*faith—when are you going to Mass? We went to a Sunday evening Mass—unusual for us this week. I am a creature of habit, so I didn’t love the change in schedule.
*friends—what friends will you see or connect with?
*food—any fun recipes you plan to try, or restaurants you plan to visit?
*fun—anything interesting you are going to play, watch, or do this weekend? Now’s the time to think it through, and put it on the calendar (even informally).