Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh
So, it is summer, and some of you are probably planning to send your children to camp for the first time. I have three words of advice: Don’t do it. Summer camp is hell. Separation anxiety. Your world turned upside…
Part of the Plan
In our society, one way that we express love is by planning. We plan birthday parties, picnics, family reunions, holiday gatherings. You probably had this month’s Fourth of July itinerary worked out well in advance.Most likely, the plan included fireworks…
Grand Advice and Creative Play Stations
Q: We have a 3-year-old with a typically short attention span.Both my husband and i work outside the home. The hour before dinner is so hectic, we are trying to get the meal on the table, return phone calls, check…
Soak It Up!
People often say that kids are like sponges, effortlessly absorbing all the information they encounter. How true!Consider kids who are exposed to two languages in their home and are bilingual before kindergarten, or the children of sports enthusiasts who can…
Dreams Come True
We were done. As in, we had decided on two kids, and I knew we were done. Yet, there I was, pregnant as all get-out, swollen with impending motherhood – smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer. In…
Fare Thee Well, Cassidy
You were just a trembling pup all those years ago, only eight weeks old when we picked you from the litter. We brought you home in a box filled with blankets and put you to bed that first night surrounded…
Be Right Back…
About two weeks ago, I pulled up to an ATM in Carytown, left my car running, hopped out to withdraw cash, and jumped back into the air conditioned vehicle. And yes, my daughter was in the backseat the whole time.…
HelpIng Kids With Summer Socialization
Q: My daughter is nervous about summer as many of the neighborhood kids go to a different school than the one she attends. She is worried about how she will fit in with the children on our street and what…
Notes to a New Dad
A little while ago, the younger of my two children, an eleven-year-old girl, let me know it was time to remove her booster seat from the back seat of my car. Though she is a small kid, so small that…
Ode to a Rookie Dad
My mother will turn eighty this summer and whenever we're together, I try to tell stories about what it was like growing up. It's good for my mom and it's important for the girls to hear that it was alternately tough…
