Calling All Cards!

As I was dropping off my daughter at preschool, one of the other moms—one who remembers everyone else’s name and is always stylishly dressed—even 48 hours after nearly dying following a, um, challenging C-section—asked me if I wanted to join her for coffee soon. Eager for new local mom friends (especially one who might also loathe maternity clothes), I figured I’d wait a bit before revealing myself to be one of those annoying (especially in Seattle) pregnant women who can’t go anywhere near a coffee shop.

“Here,” she said, handing me a small rectangular piece of cardstock with her name and contact information on it.

How ingenious, I thought.
I flashed back a few weeks to an image of me writing down my name and email address and cell phone number in another woman’s notebook so that she might contact me and we, too, might be friends. (She never did get in touch—perhaps because my handwriting was illegible, or perhaps because she realized how freakishly intimate it was for a total stranger to lean over and write in her notebook.)

“Thanks. I’ll, uh, text you and then you’ll, uh, have my number, too,” I stammered.

She asked me, not at all unkindly, whether I’m currently “Working.”

Busted.

My preschool-mom-potential-friend’s card was real—in addition to being a super sweet, super friendly mom, she’s some sort of fancy business investment venture capital tres chic/tres chere person—but it occurred to me that I could have cards, too, even if I am only a freelance writer and sometimes teacher. I recalled from my indie filmmaking days that one can have decent business cards made for the cost of shipping.

My plan was to get some made in a businesslike capacity—a Wilson Diehl | Writer & Teacher | Here’s my blog sort of thing. But then I looked on Etsy and learned of “Mommy Calling Cards.” Must they?

It makes sense to have a small piece of cardstock with your name and contact information on it even if you’re not “Working,” and why not bring back the calling cards of old? But why infantilize it with the word Mommy? How about just “calling cards”?

I looked around for some cheaper options rather than hand-cut, letter-pressed, super beautiful Etsy ones and learned that Mommy Calling Cards are real—not just a mythical creature that lives in Etsyland. Whereas in a business card online order form you fill in the blanks with your name, email, URL, fax number, etc., for a Mommy Calling Card you fill in your name and email and phone number and the names of your children, under the words “Mom of—” and an image of an owl/teddy bear/pacifier. My personal favorite is a card featuring a cartoon peanut holding a “No” sign. At first I was all Huh? But then I got it—this card announces I’m the mom to a kid with a peanut allergy, and henceforth THIS is how I shall l be known.

Wilson Diehl

Mom of one

Pregnant with another

No known allergies, though Parmesan cheese

does exacerbate #1's eczema

& she's not that fond of spinach