I don’t know if I’m the best person to review this zine: I am not, nor have I ever been (contrary to what you may have heard) a mother, and this is, as the title suggests, a zine for mums. I do, however, visit the doctor. In the waiting room of my doctor’s office there is always one week-old issue of the National Post and then a ten-foot-high stack of Today’s Parent magazines. I always forget to bring a book, and, as such, usually opt for the magazines. None of the stuff in waiting room magazines is particularly useful to me either, but I’ve always found them sort of depressing; reading them, it feels like being a mother automatically means you’re relegated to the stressed-out, obsessive-compulsive, desperately uncool Stepfordwife-y kind of lifestyle all their articles espouse. Which is why I like Indy Mum (and, come to think of it, why I love zines in general). One of the first things Olivia mentions in her editorial is that she never identified with the women in those magazines, and, upset that she couldn’t find any resources for “punk rock non-conformist” moms like her, she decided to make some herself. Indy Mum has articles about putting your child in playgroup, getting a C-section, staying creative while living with kids and making a puppet theatre. A lot of this stuff seems like it would be useful for the punk rock/indie hipster mums among us who, like Flavia and Olivia, don’t want to be Today’s Parent. (Emma Healey)
zine, Flavia & Olivia, $2, [email protected]