Being a parent is always tricky. 2020 made it even more so. And 2021 has started off with yet another kick in the teeth. While I cannot begin to tell the wide variety of parents who read my words on social media which choices to make for each of your individual kids on most […]
Emergency Contacts to HELP Our Kids
We don’t want to think about it, but we need to. If your tweens and teens have phones, I encourage you to add some Emergency Contacts. Not just the neighbors whose houses they can pop over if they lock themselves out, or Grandma to come pick them up from practice in a pinch. I mean […]
They Are Listening
I have a happy story to tell. If you’re like me, you’re tired of women and girls feeling ashamed of their bodies. What they look like. What they do. How they change. So you’re raising your kids of all genders to love, respect, appreciate bodies of all kinds—theirs and others—and the changes those bodies go […]
No Means No. Stop Means Stop.
Much of my life—especially the first 25 years—has been spent having people not listen to my “No”s when they mattered the most. Showing respect is a very easy thing to do, but you have to believe you are equal to the other person to show it. Believe the other person’s wishes are important, valid. Every […]
People Who Should Not Have Kids (According to the Internet This Week)
I learn a lot from comment threads on the internet. Helpful things, like recipes, books my kids might like to read, how I shouldn’t be a mother. Stuff like that. I figured you might be busy today, so I scrolled through some of the things commenters have said in various comment threads on articles about […]
The Two Words I Say to My Kids Every Day
It was a cranky morning. I hustled my kids out of bed, into breakfast, into clean clothes, into backpacks, into the car, the whole while on a diatribe of epic proportions about not listening, being late, how they’re old enough to understand what’s expected of them. Blah blah blah. Nag nag nag. I was sick […]
The Treasures They Hold
Most parents spend their days collecting moments. Like multi-tasking beach combers, we keep an eye on the waves crashing towards us as we reach down to grab big, rippled clam shells in perfect form; bits of bleached coral; rare folds of smooth green sea glass; tiny delicate pink shells the size of our fingernails. We […]
Homework I Can Actually Help My Kids With
I can’t be the only one who thought she was of at least average intelligence all her life, only to be bitch-slapped with the cold harsh reality of elementary school homework. Once my kids are in middle school? I. Am. Screwed. Like what you see? Subscribe today & follow on Facebook!
A Message for My Beloved Children Who Insist Their Lives Are Really Really Hard
Dear Beloved Children Who Insist Their Lives Are Really Really Hard, Oh, my sweet pups. You have no idea what you’re talking about. The two of you live with both parents in a lovely home in Suburban New Jersey that has a snack selection that rivals the average Whole Foods store. I was the sixth kid […]
The Hard Conversations with Our Kids: Sandy Hook
Last week was humming along smoothly, and then–out of the blue–my 8yo son started asking about the school shooting in Newtown, CT last year. This is how parenting works: you have to talk about the hard stuff, eventually. Usually with no notice that the conversation is about to happen. You don’t want to, but it’s […]