We all appreciate positive feedback – especially if it comes from, say, the First Lady.
This was the recent experience of two former DC veterans turned SAHMs, Andrea Candrian Reeve and Brittany Candrian Richman. They recently launched a civics blog and got a like from Laura Bush on their introductory Instagram post.
“So we feel like we’re on to something good here,” Andrea said.
Their website, The American Moms, focuses on being more civil, civically-minded Americans and passing patriotism onto the next generation. Combined, the two have contributed five children to America’s future and dwindling fertility rate, but this blog will be able to reach many more parents and children.
“We’ve talked about blogging together for years, but on Election Day we realized it needed to happen ASAP,” said Andrea. “The way so many people reacted to November’s election was horrific – all common sense and decency went out the window. We knew we needed to spread something positive about politics, patriotism, and politeness. We want our children to be big proponents of all those things. They go hand in hand, or at least they should. We’re trying to teach that to our kids.”
Informed by their years on Capitol Hill and the White House, the two carve through the spin of the day, showcasing a partisan-neutral passion for politics, patriotism, and American history – plus ways for parents to involve their kids in civics.
“We want to keep posting our spin on hot topics in the news,” Brittany said. “We want our trademark to be that readers can come to us and get both sides of an issue, as well as suggestions for how to talk to their kids about these issues. If parents don’t discuss with their kids what’s going on, who will?”
Millions of Americans follow “mom blogs,” but the Reeve and Richman née Candrian sisters want to be a voice on things that really matter.
Andrea is a former CBS news reporter who graduated from the press to the US Senate where she served Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan) Brittany worked in President Bush’s speechwriting office at the White House and then for Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va). The two are both graduates of Brigham Young University and Utah natives – their hometown paper, the Desert News, profiled their blog about the refugee crisis.
Joined at the hip (figuratively) since birth, the two are a perfect team.
“After I’m done writing a piece, I’ll call Andrea up and say, ‘Hey, can you take a look at this? It’s okay but I know it can be better,” Brittany said. “She’ll spend a few minutes looking it over, work her magic, and bam! It’s immediately ten times better. She knows I’ll do the same for her.”
Subjects covered so far include a profile of Thomas Jefferson, how to contact your representatives in DC, and how to keep your cool online.
“We are both level-headed and it drives us nuts when people don’t use common sense or common courtesy and it is flabbergasting to us when people are completely ignorant about what goes on in our country,” Brittany said. “We realized that we could be that voice, that our culmination of unique political experiences made us the perfect team to do it.”
Brittany’s specialty is writing about historical, meaty content-filled posts while Andrea is more of a reactionary writer to the news of the day.
“I think it’s the reporter in me that wants to jump in on all the excitement when big stories break,” Andrea said. “I plan to keep writing posts about current events and hopefully give both sides of the issue in a way that is easy enough for people to understand so they can in return relay it in an understandable way to their kids.”
They are planning a series showcasing other inspirational moms around our country who are teaching their kids the importance of patriotism. The two live in South Dakota and Washington state respectively.
“My favorite thing about blogging with Brittany is that we actually get to create something together that we are both passionate about, even though we live so far apart,” said Andrea.
“We’ve wanted to do something together for years in part because we know we’re such a great, unique team,” Brittany said, then joked, “Mary Kate and Ashley beat us in the acting/fashion world, so we thought what else is there?”
And if you’re wondering, Andrea is two minutes older than Brittany.
Website: theamericanmoms.com
Instagram: @theamericanmoms
