Since I am a contrarian at heart and everyone and their brother is doing the “Let’s talk about what we’re thankful for” bit, I’m going to offer up something completely different. Because as important as gratitude is, I also know that on Thanksgiving there are an awful lot of people for whom the answer to “what are you most grateful for?” is “that I don’t … Continue reading Thanksgiving Family Survival Guide
According to infalible me! Ha! I’ve done more writing than reading this week, so this is a bit light, but here goes: How children’s play is being sneakily redefined. I totally agree with this from Alfie Kohn: 1. Play is being redefined to include things that are clearly not free, imaginative play. 2. Younger and older children ought to have the chance to play together. … Continue reading The best of the week . . .
So, I have my kids in the local public schools which has real drawbacks and benefits. One of the things I am struggling with is when – if ever – to push back over some the homework issue. Like has happened at a lot of schools, homework has creeped down into earlier and earlier grades. So, my 1st grader has nightly homework and my kindergartener … Continue reading Homework in kindergarten
Note: A few years back I did some writing for a now defunct Christian magazine. I never put these articles up here because the magazine owns the rights to them, but now that they are defunct, well, I’m going to share! In the early ‘90s Salt-n-Peppa famously sang “Let’s talk about sex, baby” and boy, oh boy do we take their exhortations to heart. Sex … Continue reading Let’s talk about sex, baby!
This afternoon, I strapped Olivia into her stroller and headed out the door for a nice, long walk. I was going to fetch the dog to come with us, but my darling Hobbes had somehow managed to escape off his non pull dog harness where I had left him to pee and bark at deer 20 minutes earlier. Again. Not to worry he wasn’t lost. He’s … Continue reading My Dog’s an A-hole
I have 2 copies of a New-York Times Bestselling book on “love languages”. Which is odd because I really don’t like the book. Since it’s a major bestseller, I guess that makes me odd. The reason I don’t like the book: it spends all its pages convincing you and teaching you to learn the love language your partner speaks. Yet the book says nothing that … Continue reading Lookin’ for Love
The more kids, the harder it is to keep the house clean. When you live in areas with Western levels of prosperity, there’s a lot of crap for kids to make a mess with! So to have more than a couple of kids, either you have to be a super organizer or you have a very high tolerance for mess. Or I suppose you could … Continue reading The real reason prosperous humans have fewer kids
Want to drive yourself crazy? Do what I do: have a set of kids, wait 5 or 6 years and have another set. Try to figure out if you screwed up the first set so you can better parent the second set. It’s a terrible pastime, really; going back and revisiting every parenting decision you made along the way to try to judge the outcomes. … Continue reading Mom’s Going Crazy Recipe
Here’s a question for you parents: your kid does something boneheaded. It wasn’t necessarily intentional, but it was entirely preventable. You discuss with him what went wrong and what needs to be done about it. At the end of the conversation the kid asks, “are you angry with me?” What’s your answer? Is there a place in parenting for holding anger over our kid’s head? … Continue reading Question for Parents: “Are you angry?”
It’s a very long story how it all came to be this way, but I am having the odd experience of raising a 16 year old and a 1 year old at the same time. I say odd not so much because it’s that unusual. But often I feel like I’m starting to get a sense of what sort of person my oldest son is turning out to be and … Continue reading Is it my fault he smells like cumin? Thoughts on parenthood
The Upside Down World 