Babble's list includes such archetypes as "the bragger parent" and "the obsessed parent." (Still mired in the mostly-childless morass of people's snack updates and song lyrics, I can only yearn for a time when anyone will have anything as actually important as a baby to discuss, but I can only imagine that for the more restrained parents amongst us, such exhibitionism might grate - and, apparently, worse.) What the author seems to be really objecting to, though, is the assumption of equal fascination that characterizes both many Facebook users and many new (and newish) parents. For a new parent, Facebook and its ilk are a boon - both a connection to the world and to those doting relatives who are hungry for info. But these same qualities might have others reaching for "block status."

And that, of course, is ultimately the point: Facebook, Twitter, they're all optional - you don't need to see or hear anything you don't want to, and the truth is many of us love being annoyed. Facebook giveth, and Facebook taketh away. (Mostly it giveth, and giveth, and giveth, it's just that sometimes it's giving you "Jack-o-lanterns" and witticisms and invitations to join groups of middle-school-level irony.) We all love to grumble about the vagaries of various populations, be it the enthusiasms of our parents' generation, the narcissism of our own, the absorption of new parents. It's silly to complain, but it's just as unreasonable for the article's readers to huff, "then don't join!" All of these are part of the fabric of modern living, all necessary and vital. How anemic would life be with only restrained reports of moves or New York Times links? It's the Great Conversation. With pictures.

Facebook's Five Most Annoying Parents [Babble]

She's had to learn to draw boundaries on what she writes, to avoid hurting loved ones. An "aching and bleeding diatribe" she posted a few years ago against her parents' faith, Mormonism, alienated them so badly that "it was like a bomb had gone off in my family," she says. "My dad didn't speak to me for several months, and my mom was devastated." She took down the posts, thinking, "OK, this is a little bit more powerful than I'd thought it would be," she says.

Maybe because he's been taking Prozac, or maybe it's because of all that HOT HOT SEX, but when I told Jon what I wanted the wall to look like, he said something like, why aim for perfection when approximation is so much easier? Which is the most romantic thing that has ever come out of his mouth, so I pushed him down on the floor and ripped off all his clothes.

The Blogger Mom, In Your Face [WSJ]

While...simultaneously...trying to get hits for their blogs? Okay, something, whatever. Here's what we know about Steve Almond: he has spent a lot of time bemoaning the merciless, nuance-less unrelenting meanness of the blogosphere. He has spent a lot of time doing that because his editor alerted him to the fact that Gawker had posted a bizarre collection of emails he had written to Oprah. He wrote a book called Candyfreak. Full disclosure: I read Candyfreak because my old literary agent suggested I model my own book proposal on that book. Candyfreak was about candy. My book proposal was about capitalism. It's all the same shit, right? Packaging and cool fonts and satisfactillicious content? Cause we're all just tryin to get the hits? But wait, it can't just be about the hits? I mean, as you yourself wrote, Steve:

By appealing to our most childish impulses — and with the cowardly consent of the left — the right-wing of this country has managed to Gawk the political discourse. This is why matters of policy go uncovered, while gossip and gaffes and cleavage and haircuts and (most of all) emotionally convincing ad hominems determine the outcome of elections. If this country ever hopes to rouse itself from the moral torpor marked by the Bush years, we are going to have to end our addiction to Gawking, and face up to the common crises of state.

Boring Squared [Babble]
Why I'm No Longer A Fan Of Baby Daddy [Babble]

Leave it to the Japanese to make a simultaneously adorable and creepy cartoon about pooping (see also: Everyone Poops). The video above — seen today on parenting blog Babble — shows a little tiger named Shimjiro. His tigerents are trying to potty train him, and is he ever excited about weeing in the toilet! I'd probably be super psyched about my excretions, too, if they came out in little animated droplets and exclaimed "Yahoo!!!" on a regular basis. Anyway, the video is supposed to help toilet-train human children, and at the end of the video there's a real live kid atop a toilet that is equipped with a handrail (WTF is that rail for? Extra leverage?). While the animated portion of the video is amusing, sensitive readers may want to wait until after lunch, as the kid's semi-realistic poop-pushing groans are fairly disturbing.

[YouTube via Babble]