Because sometimes being a parent means doing what’s hard.
Posted in Uncategorized, family life, humor, parenting, school, summer on Jul 7th, 2010
My second son, James, is bewildering and bedeviling in shifting measures, like all offspring, but I have been feeling for a while lately that, while he’s as capable as his big brother of winning or crushing my heart, I understand him better. To put it in actorly terms, I have flashes of brilliance and insight, [...]
I’m a big fan of daycare. Not just childcare (as in, having someone other than a parent taking care of a baby or child), but daycare. My journey, as a working mother, to daycare, took me a year and a half and five nannies. Our first nanny, Maggie, was found only after I let go [...]
Posted in discipline, school on Apr 6th, 2010
Like any parent, I’m appalled and saddened and horrified in equal measure when I hear stories like the one about Phoebe Prince, the Irish girl who, after moving with her family to South Hadley, Massachusetts, was so mercilessly teased–both in the halls of her high school and online–that she committed suicide. Like any parent, I [...]
Posted in discipline, family life, humor, school on Mar 24th, 2010
Over at Mommasaid.net, my friend and colleague Jen Singer lists some of the reasons parenting teens is harder now than it used to be (exhibit A: sexting. Shudder). Jen actually has a newly-minted, real-life teenage son. I do not, yet (though I do sometimes stare at the welter of kid-size sneakers, boots, and soccer cleats [...]
Posted in babies, family finances, humor, school on Oct 7th, 2009
The other day, both boys came home with the familiar order form and info sheet in their backpacks: Gear up, mom and dad, it’s almost Picture Day! I hate picture day. To be precise, I don’t hate the day itself, since I’m not, literally or otherwise, in the picture. True to my meanness and aversion [...]
Posted in school on Sep 22nd, 2009
My mom recently told me a funny (well, not funny-ha-ha, more like funny-hmmmmm) story about the time she got a peek into my younger brother’s kindergarten classroom. Seems that one day, my brother missed the bus, so my mom drove him. After leaving him inside the school to be walked to his class by the [...]
Posted in kids and food, school on Aug 13th, 2009
“Mom, what should I do with my applesauce cup?” I sigh. I’ve explained this before–the applesauce and yogurt cups are recyclable, so bring them home. The plastic utensils? They’re dishwasher safe, my son, so tote ‘em on home. What I say is, “You know what, Daniel? Just put everything in your lunchbox and bring it [...]
Posted in family life, school on Jul 1st, 2009
Last fall, a new family moved into our neighborhood, and on the first day of school, there was a new girl at our little bus stop. They’d arrived at their house literally the day before school started. From Israel. That first day, the father took his little girl, Hadar, 6, to the stop. She wanted [...]
Posted in family life, school, summer on Jun 24th, 2009
The sign at the entrance to my son’s primary school reads, under the school’s name, “A First-Class Experience.” And it is, truly. So much so, that I wish he could stay there all year. And why not? I love school, and my son does, too — he just finished first grade, and this year we [...]