Author: Patti Webb

Child(ish) Review: Win Or Lose

| Patti Webb

Leave it to Pixar to effortlessly explain complex situations to kids. In the new long-form animated series Win or Lose, their animation team delivers the concept of “Everyone is going through something you have no idea about”.

The show centers around The Pickles, a middle school co-ed softball team in the week leading up to their big championship game. Each episode focuses on an individual character’s point of view and how their personal lives shape their perception of the team, school, and home. Laurie, the coach’s daughter, stresses over how to contribute to the team and make her father proud. Kai, the star player, pushes herself to the limits to avoid her dad’s criticism. Rochelle does whatever to make money so she can play next season. The series explores how different characters grapple with pressure and insecurity – whether it’s to seek approval, perfection, or stability.

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Summer To-Do List: 2025

| Patti Webb

Happy Last Day of School (for us, at least)!

Since I loved our Summer To-Do List lessons from last year, we’re doing it again. Each summer as our kids get older, they become more and more capable. I also feel more and more determined as a parent to stretch their comfort zones. Both Mary and I have something new up our sleeves for our kids this summer.

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Our Panda Fest Playdate Review

| Patti Webb

For this play date review, we’re tweaking it yet again. We’re sharing our first ever girl date!

Once Mary and I settled our spring break plans, we got tickets for the brood to go to Atlanta’s first-ever Panda Fest, an Asian food festival with dates in multiple cities across the country. Panda Fest vendors are mostly local and they specialize in Asian street food and snacks.

Attending were BOTH sets of twin girls, so no boys this round. My husband Troy also came for the food and to be an extra set of hands. H&K are two years younger than A&Z, so now we’re factoring in age gap for this play date.

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Things We Loved: May 2025

| Patti Webb

I’m not sure about Mary, but I’ve always liked the time between Spring Break and the end of the school year. It goes by so fast, the weather warms up, and the crush of the all the spring sports and activities start winding down. It’s busy for sure, but busy with end-of-the-year parties, award ceremonies, and bridging to the next school year. It’s also festival season in Atlanta, so we’re getting outdoors and switching up our weekends.

So for this last stretch of blog posts before our annual June blog break, we’re switching gears toward the summer and sharing Things We Loved.

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Child(ish) Reads – The Good Mother Myth

| Patti Webb

Right after I gave birth to my girls and we got into somewhat of a routine, it was time for me to return to work. Yes, it’s working from home but my job at the time still included about 10-15% travel. I was planning on tampering off pumping and ending just in time for my first work conference; about 2 months away. I was explaining my travel plans to my mother (who was living with us) and told her that my MIL and SIL were also coming up during that time to help with the babies. She said, “I thought you said you weren’t going to be doing that [traveling for work] anymore. Who’s going to take care of them when you’re gone?”

I was super confused. I had NEVER said that I was going to stop work travel. It was one of the things I loved about my job. In fact, my mother was confused as to why I was even going back to work at all. Keep in mind, I was only going to be gone for 4 days.

First of all, homie’s got bills to pay including student loan debt. Second and this is where I dug deep, the babies have an entire second human who is able to care for them: their father (along with three other people I had already recruited). Of course, she was going to give me the typical he’s-the-one-who-has-to-work spiel, but I hit right back with this:

“I could be a sh*t mom and abandon my kids altogether and I still wouldn’t worry about them because Troy is an amazing father. If he needed to, he would be able to figure it out on his own and be able to raise them just fine without me. That’s how much confidence I have in him.”

She didn’t take too well to that, but having that conversation really made me double down that I would never be the full default parent. That I would reject any societal expectation of a mom because they are in fact bias and full of sh*t. 

Enter The Good Mother Myth: Unlearning Our Bad Ideas About How to Be a Good Mom by Nancy Reddy. I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley.

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