Nutgraf

Kristen Chase has been around the block – and through a number of careers. As the author of Motherhood Uncensored and the Mominatrix column at The Imperfect Parent, Kristen also has a new book out: The Mominatrix’s Guide to Sex: A No-Surrender Advice Book for Naughty Moms.  Check out the book’s shiny new Web page with saucy avatar.

As the publisher and COO of the supremely popular CoolMomPicks and one of the founders of  Blog With Integrity, in her spare time, she’s also the mother of three. It’s safe to say she’s got a lot of irons in the fire. Which, frankly, is one of the things that I admire about her. As someone who is constitutionally disinclined to do just one thing all day, I love to meet people who have crafted varied and interesting careers – think of it like diversifying your intellectual investment portfolio. Or like attention deficit disorder. Whichev.

But back to Kristen. She’s a joy to read, and handles sensitive and (ahem) ticklish subjects with unvarnished candor and good humor – which is so important. Want to know which vibrator to bring on a family vacation? Or how she really feels about her husband’s colleague who called in sick, mucking up Christmas morning? She’ll tell you. Also, she likes saying “balls” a lot, which I just find endearing. And she has been kind enough to share her insight here about work, play and parenting.

How do you know when you’re in the right job?

I think jobs are a lot like shoes. I’ve rarely found a good shoe that doesn’t feel right the second you put it on. It took me a while (and a lot of shoes) to figure that out. But now that I know, it makes it way easier for me to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Same goes for jobs.

What’s the best piece of professional advice you’ve received?

Know your worth. And know when it’s appropriate (if ever) to compromise it.

What’s the number one piece of advice you’d give to set someone on the path to a sexually fulfilling life? I’m no expert (really), but guess that mine would be two-fold: Know your mind and be kind. The rhyming is totally accidental.

You first, sex next. Fulfillment rarely comes from the act itself, but more so from a person finding, loving and knowing themselves.

If you could give the world one sex tip, what would it be?

The Golden Rule – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Any advice for parents on how to discuss sex with their kids?

Worry less about what you’re saying and more about how you’re saying it. Most of the time, you can answer their questions and share the information without even rehearsing it. But if you look like you’d rather be eating raw goat balls, it won’t even matter what you say. Your kids will key into that and register the look on your face into their brain, so the next time they’ve got a question about sex (or anything related to sex), they’ll be pretty hesitant to ask you. If you’re not completely comfortable with the subject matter, then pretend. You want to send the message that you are the person they should talk to if they have questions and not the kid sitting next to them launching spit balls across the room at the teacher.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.