"the naughty list just grows and grows"
Violent Night, Home Alone, and invitations to not one but *two* planning parties for the new year!
Why hello there! I am writing to you from that most glorious space for a writer—the interlude between sending a big project off and having to do whatever work comes next. In other words: the final (ish? there will still be copyedits etc) draft of The Good Mother Myth is in.
I spent all day yesterday baking cookies, and I thought I’d drop in this morning with a couple late-breaking holiday recommendations.
I had the absolute pleasure of getting to be a guest on Sarah Wheeler and Miranda Rake’s great new podcast, Mother Culture, where we talked about my firm belief that Kate McCallister (the mom from Home Alone, played by a gloriously shoulder-padded Catherine O’Hara) is the motherhood model we should all follow this holiday season. I mean, maybe don’t banish your kid to the attic or leave him home alone on Christmas, but one thing we talked about on the pod is how kids are more resilient than we think.
It’s been a great year for Home Alone coverage, actually: the NYT interviewed actual economists to address a pressing question, Just How Rich Were the McCallisters in ‘Home Alone’?, (gift link) and a TikToker figured out What Kevin McCallister's Groceries In Home Alone Would Cost In 2023 (Romper).
So if you haven’t yet rewatched Home Alone this year, maybe that’s your cue.
Two Fridays ago, my younger kid was at a friend’s and my older kid was feeling a little left out, so we offered to let him watch a more grown-up movie and somehow landed on Violent Night, a movie I’d seen previews for and thought who on earth would want to watch that? It turns out the target demographic probably is 10 year old boys, but I found it surprisingly not-terrible. I don’t want to say it was good, but it had a tender little heart, and featured Stranger Things’ David Harbour as a world-weary Santa who’s somehow an immortal Viking warrior (?). It’s also got Beverly D’Angelo (the mom from Christmas Vacation) and a little Home Alone homage baked into the center over it. It’s definitely violent, as the name promises, but I have a very low tolerance for gore and found it basically fine.
On Mother Culture, we talked about movie moms, and I said after much thought, that the mom I want to be is actually a dad, specifically Steve Martin’s high-strung Neal Page from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. He’s barreling around the country having adventures, and when he says mournfully, “I have to stop traveling so much,” all that time away from home is actually proof of what a good dad he is.
What movie mom inspires you?
two nice things, and three more recommendations
🎁 I was pumped to have my Slate piece on the mythology around the “golden hour” after birth included in
’s knockout Last-Minute Mostly-Free Gift Guide for Overwhelmed Parents. (And if you like that piece, I think you’ll love The Good Mother Myth!)✍️ Sarah Paige Rosen’s 7 Newsletters That Will Improve Your Writing, which included Write More, made the list of Electric Literature’s most-read pieces in 2023.
🍪 Melissa Clark’s gingerbread blondies (NYT gift link), with the delicious spice of gingerbread but minus the hassle of rolling them out. (Mine took a lot longer in the oven than the recipe says, just fyi.)
🎶 I loved this David Byrne/Fresh Air Christmas playlist, and if you’re into Sad Christmas, Aimee Mann’s One More Drifter in the Snow truly can’t be beat. (Her version of I’ll Be Home for Christmas is my absolute favorite; we played it at cocktail hour at our December wedding many years ago.)
News for the New Year
I’ll be back on the 31st with a new edition of questions for the close of the year. (You can see last year’s questions if you’re eager to get a jump on reflecting and goal-setting, and this year, I’m also trying out the Year Compass.)
And in the new year, I’m super excited about two planning events I’ll be hosting:
✨ On Sunday, January 7th at 4pm eastern via zoom, I’ll be hosting the second annual Write More vision board party! I’m a very practical, goals-oriented person—but in the last couple of years, I’ve gotten really into the fun (and, dare I say, magic?) of making a vision board for the beginning of each new year. I wrote about vision boards last year here and here, if you need a little nudge. To join us, register at this link. (And if you can’t make that time, I’ll share a recording a few days after the party.)
🗒 And then, on Tuesday January 9th at 7.30pm eastern via zoom, I’m pairing up with planner extraordinaire and Friend of the Newsletter Erin Flanagan for a January Goal Setting Meeting, hosted by the Midwest Mystery Writers Association. If you had so much fun at our fall planning party and want more of that nerdy joy in your life for the new year, I’d love for you to join us. And if you missed us in the fall, you can remedy that and get your writing life started with stickers and/or spreadsheets in the new year! You can register for that event here.
Write More, Be Less Careful is a newsletter about why writing is hard & how to do it anyway. Do you have a favorite movie mom, cookie recipe, or playlist rec? I’d love to hear it. Reply to this email, comment below, or find me on instagram (@nancy.o.reddy).
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Christina Applegate in “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead”! (Shows resilience and capability of girls and women everywhere when we think outside the box!)