Tonight, I was telling Olivia, my sweet just about 2 year old, to keep her grubby mitts off the food that was waiting to go into the oven. She got frustrated with me, grabbed a piece of paper and pretending to read it, said, “shut up, mommy” and handed it to me with a humph. Oh goodness. I just laughed at her and moved her away … Continue reading “Shut Up, Mommy,” Saith the toddler
The best parenting analogy I have heard compared having a child to being given a plant. Some plants are more demanding to grow than others. Some are more sensitive to change. Some must be nurtured for many seasons before they will show their flowers and bear their fruit. Others are easy and sunny and thrive on neglect. We create a lot of trouble when we try … Continue reading What sort of garden do you grow?
Michaela is my oldest daughter. After having 2 boys, I really wanted a daughter and somehow, I wound of with 3 of them (yes I do know how it works!) but Michaela started it all. And although this might sound like a strange thing to say about a not-quite-7-year-old, I admire Michaela a lot. She really is the most naturally positive, determined person I know. … Continue reading What Michaela is Teaching Me
I started to do these “Best of the Week” posts a few weeks ago and it seems that my week is consistently 8 days long. Which I have no doubt that people who have to deal with me would agree is pretty much how I work! But hey – it’s my blog and it’s free! (Although you can make a donati0n to support the site … Continue reading Apparently My Week Has 8 Days In It
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!
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 