Apr 17
Before I had kids, I never thought about what kind of parent I would be. It seems almost inconceivable to me now, given what a defining role that motherhood would come to play in my life, but it’s true. It simply never entered my mind. Until the very moment my first son was born, I …
Mar 26
I’m very tired. I don’t mean that I’m tired right now as I write this (even though I am), but more that I’m sort of perpetually tired. I’m not complaining either. Just stating facts. I think that between being a full-time mom for 16 years, and having 4 busy kids, and a Mike and a …
Jan 23
About a week ago, somebody sent me a link to this article, titled Please Don’t Help My Kids. As is typically the case, over the next several days I saw it everywhere… it ran across my newsfeed and my inbox dozens of times. Let me end any suspense and just say: I didn’t like it. …
Jan 18
I grew up playing with Barbies. In fact, some of my favorite childhood memories involve being out in the yard with my sister, with nothing but a big bin of Barbies and our imaginations. These were not dainty, sedentary Barbies either. These were badass Barbies. We’d create these elaborate and far-flung adventures for all of …
Dec 18
What a year for parenting. Between Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, there was no shortage of avenues for crazy ideas. Laptop-shooting dads, public shamings on Facebook, and negative and anti-kid “pins” were all the rage this year. As I went through my stats for the year to get this post together, I realized that once again …
Oct 10
“Hold me!” I could tell by the grin on her face that she wasn’t sick or sad, just needing to be held by mom. We were in the kitchen, and I was loading the dishwasher, up to my elbows in last night’s dinner. “Hold me!” There were a million reasons why I couldn’t pick her …
Oct 06
A week or two ago, I got the following email: I’ve been reading a lot of Sandra Dodd’s stuff on rules vs principles. I understand the concept that there’s a difference, but I just can’t imagine how it works. I came from a family where there was literally a new rule every week. My dad’s …
Jul 05
Earlier this week, another Pinterest gem went all crazy viral on Facebook. It showed a photo of a large tupperware type bin with a poem taped to the side. The poem informed the kids that they’d left their stuff out, so mom’s confiscated it. If they wanted to get it back, they had to do …
Jul 04
It was the first day of a new session of swimming lessons, and the girl next to my smiling daughter was screaming. Not just crying, but screaming. She was petrified, literally shaking from head to toe, calling out for her mother in between gasps. When her mother approached her, I at first thought …
Jul 02
One of my very favorite times of day is early in the morning, sometime between 4:00 and 5:00 AM. That’s around the time that Tegan usually wakes up and makes her way into our bed, to sleep for a few more hours snuggled between us. Like her three brothers before her, she slept exclusively …
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