Oh Mom!

"Postcards From Yo Momma is one of those Web sites that makes you slap your forehead and say, "Why didn't I think of that?" It's such a simple idea: invite people to submit unintentionally funny, and sometimes sweet, e-mails from their mothers. You know the ones--the naggy notes, the worried pleas, the guilt-grams, the ALL CAPS missives, the technologically panicked cries for help and the e-mails from moms who compulsively forward dire health warnings to their kids. (Munchausen's by Internet anyone?)

"Call me. I suffer," writes one mom.

And another: "tell me about face book. do you have a page on it? can anyone look at your page? I am worried about this type of thing."

Then there's the short, but direct variety: "std's are on the rise. love, mom."

These are the kinds of e-mails that a lot of us already forward to our friends for their amusement. In fact, that's how the two women who started the blog came up with the project. Doree Shafrir and Jessica Grose, both young journalists and bloggers in New York City, had been exchanging their own mom mail when, at the end of March, they decided to solicit material from the public in a blog. "We put up the site in five minutes," says Shafrir."

(For the rest of their story go here.)

"Here are excerpts of some of our favorite e-mails and IMs submitted to the site:

Mom: hi kid. on the way to jumble java, i started crying. the kids are moving in to the dorms today and i saw a dad hugging his daughter goodbye and i lost it. that feeling never goes away.
Me: don't be lame, mom
Mom: i hope i live long enough to see you experience the same feeling. and i'm not lame.
Me: well at the rate i'm going, i doubt you'll be around to see my kids go to college. even if i do have some, they'll have three heads because i won't have them until i'm 50.
Mom: well then it will be three times as hard to say goodbye
__________________________________________
me: mother?
mom: Hey Jenname: Look at you on Gmail! How did this happen?
me: How did what happen?
mom: How did you know I was on Gmail?
me: I am something of a genius, mom.
__________________________________________
Me: Do you read my blog? I can track who is reading it and I think you may be. Me no likey mother.
Mom: What's a blag?
Me: It is a sin to lie. Don't play coy with me!! Are you reading my "online journal"?
Mom: I barely have time to call you! I don't know how to do my space or whatever it is. You may recall that when I asked you about how it worked, you never showed me."