TwitterMom of the Week: Meet Jillian Livingston!

If you're one of the many TwitterMoms who drive minivans (arguably not the sportiest vehicles), surely you've had moments of car envy. Come on, admit it! Perhaps you've even fantasized about tricking out your super-practical, sticky kidmobile... but have you considered adding flames?

Meet Jillian Livingston, 45, a married mom of 3 boys (ages 4, 7 and 9) and proud owner of a flame-adorned “Vini Man,” living in Aspen, Colorado. “Vini-Man has become famous in our community, and I take full advantage of its appeal when I am racing to pick up the boys and need to cut into the traffic lane,” says Jillian. “Reactions are best at the height of the season when all the Aspen glitz is strutting around in their high heel shoes and fur coats.”

Jillian grew up in Longmeadow, Massachusetts and graduated from Boston University with a degree in Film and Literature. After graduating, she moved to New York City and worked in publishing at Simon & Schuster and then Seventeen Magazine. “When the walls started to cave in on me in New York, I followed my middle sister, Michele, to Aspen and met my husband five years later,” she says.

Now a SAHM and writer, Jillian blogs at Is Dis Normal?, and covers topics as diverse as familyhood itself. A recent post, “My Aunt Remembers: A Story Seen Through the Eyes of an Eight-Year-Old,” features her family’s experience during the Holocaust in Holland. (It’s amazing and truly moving; I encourage you to check it out.)

Jillian’s writing has been featured on mommie911.com and home-and-family.org. She recently wrote a post, “Imagining Life Without Children,” that she says tells a lot about her:

“This morning, capturing the pure essence of why I have children, my little four year old woke me up in bed by whispering in my ear, “mommy, do you see how beautiful it is outside?” When people ask me if I love having children my answer is always conflicted. Honestly, I love having children. It is my vocation, my life, it is what I signed up for. There would be no magic for me without my children showing me the world through their eyes and helping me to understand the value of nature to a higher degree. They also bring back memories of how I viewed the world when I was little. They brought back a memory from when I must have been four of a Christmas tree that actually grew its own candy.

A house without children would be, would be…quiet! I would die in a quiet house. Granted I could play the music I wanted to play without a nine year old DJ changing the songs. I could watch movies, listen to NPR and read without answering any questions. I would barely have to clean the house and my beloved objects wouldn’t “got broke all by itself”. There would be no Koala Bumpers stuck to our new, beautiful wood floors and no boogers or bottoms to wipe. I would not walk into a bathroom and find a dump the size of a large colon curled around the toilet. I could feel sexy and strut around the house in lingerie and lounge in erotic poses on all white furniture when the mood presented itself. I would have no processed food in the house, I would sleep, and best of all I would share more intimate moments with my husband! I would mention more but I know that my little nieces read every blog I write and I don’t want to shock them!

Without children my purpose may shift to something less valuable. I would see things differently and perhaps not so optimistically. I may not care so much about trying to revive our planet to ensure that my children will not suffer when I am gone. If I were asked if I would do it all over again knowing what I know now my answer would be….definitely. My husband, Wade’s, answer might be slightly different.”

Jillian's Faves include the HBO series "Weeds" and movies like "Flirting with Disaster," "Au Revoirs Les Enfants," "Half Nelson," "The Jerk," "My Life as a Dog." "I love good character development, big scenery, good love stories and humor. Doesn't have to be all together," she says. As for books, "Where do I begin? All the Bronte books, the classics and Bill Byron, to start."

"When we watch movies with the kids we put out the splat mat and serve home-made kettle corn. Sometimes they get a soda for a treat but not often," says Jillian.



Lea Curtes-Swenson is a happy freelance copywriter whose homelessness is soon coming to an end. She's now based in Minneapolis, but misses Jillian's mountains somethin' fierce. Find her at Lea Writes.