Monday, June 13, 2016

On being five & not wanting to die: Playing through the serious questions



Hobo Mama wants you to know she's a professional blogger! Look at how professional she's being!

Alrik recently turned five years old. Maybe this engendered a sense of impending mortality, because he's been talking daily about how he doesn't want to die, and doesn't want me to die, and doesn't want family members or pets to die, or really anybody.

I think there are two types of people in this world: those who fear death constantly, and those who kind of push it out of their minds to think about occasionally but not obsess. I am one of the former group. Apparently so is my son, despite my efforts not to pass along the useless anxiety.

I didn't realize it would start so young.

Alrik, being young, though, came up with a great idea: I'm a scientist, or so he tells me, and I can make a potion to keep us from dying. I'm not sure if that makes me more a witch than a scientist, but I'll take either unearned title.

Friday, June 10, 2016

Best solutions for thigh rub under summer skirts, shorts, & swimsuits

Hobo Mama wants you to know she's a professional blogger! Look at how professional she's being!

Perhaps strangely for being a parenting blog, one of my most enduring and popular posts is the one I wrote bemoaning "chub rub" or inner thigh chafing in skirts. Apparently we are not alone, sisters (and/or brethren), in having our thighs touch!

If you're irritated by your bare thighs rubbing together and producing a rash while you walk, be irritated no more. Do not mourn your lack of the elusive thigh gap: Just figure out the best thing to wear to stop the rub. Here is my best roundup of (now) tried-and-tested ideas for preventing and treating the dreaded thigh chafe.

Best thigh-rub solutions for SKIRTS and DRESSES, knee-length or longer:

My current favorite under-skirt solution (I'm wearing it while writing this post!) is cheap and comfy and available in a large range of sizes. Good on all counts, right?


They're Danskin Now Women's Bike Shorts from Walmart. I'd resisted bike shorts because I was imagining sweaty, shiny spandex horrors (no offense, biking folks — that's just not what I want encasing my nethers every day), but these are cotton jersey so they're breathable. They're just compressing enough to feel smoothing, but they don't press on my folds or make me feel like I'm being sausage-rolled. The cuffs are just tight enough not to roll up, and the length is great to prevent all thigh rash.