Category: Parenting
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Dear Children
Dear children, It is evidently still a mystery to you how the world works, so I’m going to let you in on a secret: We do the same thing every day. It’s the way the world works. It’s the human condition. People have been bemoaning this since the dawn of time. That’s why the movie…
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Great Expectations
I think of myself as a reasonably good parent in general. I certainly have good intentions, though I hear the road to hell is paved with those or something. But every now and then I bump up against something that I still need to grow in, and parenting my “spirited” child forces me to recognize…
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The Wrongest Mommy
I recently had the pleasure of seeing my story, “The Wrongest Mommy,” published on Mamalode.com. Here it is! The Wrongest Mommy Eight-year-old Selah loves it when I retell stories of ridiculous things she did—or when I retell stories of ridiculous things I did. Perhaps her second-favorite story is about the day that I stormed…
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No-No
I call my youngest son No-no. His name is Noah, so it’s short for Noah. But at this age, not quite three, it’s also no coincidence, really. No-no (also goes by No-ee) is really a very sweet baby. I say this about him at an age in which I would already have been calling my…
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But When Will She Dance?
My friend just had a baby. When I spotted them across the courtyard at church, I did what I tend to do when I see babies I know: I swooped in and asked if I could hold her. My friend was nice and indulged me in my desire for baby hugs. We were at the church’s…
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Scientific Chart of Literacy Stages
An exciting thing is happening: my nearly five year old is learning to write! This is the second time I’ve had the privilege of watching the process unfold, and so you might call me a bit of a literacy “expert.” Thus I have developed standards to determine what stage of literacy your child is currently…
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Oh Nooooo!
So, let’s say you have this red punching bag, the balloon kind. It originally belonged to your brother, but now it’s the only surviving one of three, so your mom said you have to share it. It has lost a lot of air over the course of the weekend, but it still remains somewhat balloony–it just has…
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This Is My Circus; These Are My Monkeys
This morning I brought my kids to church with me. Whew. Somehow I have always found getting my children to church very difficult and tiring. I’m not exactly sure why, since we don’t have to leave as early as we do for school, and there is no need for lunches or anything–but it’s possible that…
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50 Ways to Enrage Your Mommy
For the last couple of days, my blog was down. This was because my blog, like me, is caught in transitional divorce land. You see, back when my blog was a baby, my ex was kind enough to set it up for me and make it pretty, and I have to admit I’m unsure how…
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Night Crawlers
The other night, I was sleeping. I would say this was unsurprising, but in a way, when you are a parent, it’s kind of surprising, because you seem to wind up with a lot of nighttime visitors, people who need to tell you they are about to go use the bathroom, and people who really…