Because sometimes being a parent means doing what’s hard.
Posted in education, family life, mothers and work, school, summer, vacation on Aug 24th, 2011
Those of you who know me won’t be surprised to hear that I’ve entered my usual, hair-tearing, mid-to-late-August, why-is-summer-vacation-so-long phase of the summer. We’ve actually had a nice summer this year, even given that last year included our Disney vacation and this year we’re not doing much in the way of leaving town. The boys [...]
Posted in family life, parenting research, play, summer on Jul 21st, 2011
Last summer, we met our friends Sally and Mike and their kids in a nearby harbor town to let the kids play on a playground, walk around a bit, and get some dinner. Typical late-weekend-afternoon-in-the-summer stuff here on Long Island’s bucolic North Shore. I’d been to this town many times before, but not with my [...]
So. We just got back from our first family vacation to Disney World, in Florida. OK, it was our first family vacation, full stop (at least, our first that didn’t involve visiting family members), so it was portentous in more than one aspect. But for sure, hitting Disney at this stage of the boys’ lives [...]
Posted in family finances, family life, learning, summer, vacation on Aug 10th, 2010
So, last weekend my family and I were up in the Catskill Mountains, in upstate New York, at a family-style resort we’ve been going to, on and off, my whole life (my dad used to go there as a teen, that’s how long we’ve been patrons of this particular spot). By “family” I mean a [...]
Posted in family life, humor, parenting, school, summer, Uncategorized 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, [...]
Posted in family life, humor, summer, vacation on Aug 5th, 2009
For many Americans, and famously for much of Western Europe, August is vacation season. Everyone who’s anyone decamps for mountains, lakes, beaches, theme parks, the family cabin, the campground… you get the idea. We’re not going anywhere; in fact, we haven’t gone on vacation in any real sense (that is, for more than a few [...]
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 [...]
