Tag: children
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The Circle of Life
You’re welcome for putting that song in your head. Ahem. My partner, Leon, teaches first and second grade at a Montessori school. First graders these days learn about butterfly life cycles, among other things. Leon’s class got to hatch a batch of caterpillars, watching them make cocoons and then emerge as beautiful butterflies. This is a…
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Sheep, Hoarders, and Helicopters: The Piñata Test
You can learn all you need to know about humans when you attend a child’s party featuring a piñata. The good news is that we can stop funding sociological and anthropological research and just start sending scientists to children’s birthday parties, which are known to be–wait, those are as expensive as a university grant. Possibly more expensive. Never…
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Like Putty in My…Hair
I drifted awake this morning, trying to decide if I should get up and hustle us to church or not. One of my kids loves going to church and asks if we can go more often whenever we’ve skipped. Another of my kids hates church, and I have to overcome a lot of unhappiness to…
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I Don’t Wanna Come Up with a Creative Title
I just keep starting to cry today. I’m not depressed. I don’t have PMS. I’m tired. I do feel a little beaten down. I have a child with challenges. School can be terrible sometimes. I yelled at someone in an IEP meeting, and I don’t approve of yelling at people you are trying to work with.…
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Picture Day!
Recently, a small flyer came home in my child’s folder. It said, “Picture day is coming.” I remarked to Leon, “I’ll bet most parents don’t read that as a warning.” But honestly, I know enough of you do. I vaguely remember picture day. They’d line us up, give us a small black comb. (Where…
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“Me Time”
People are always saying how important it is to take time for yourself. “Me time.” You read this in magazines, and people announce that you need this when you look frazzled. It’s not just something that would be nice, but it’s something that’s necessary for health. Just Google it and you’ll find at least half…
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What Love Looks Like: A Comic
For more comic silliness, see First Day of School. For more on love amid the chaos, see It’s Complicated.
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Unsolved Mysteries
My house would be a great setting for a mystery show or book. It’s full of problems, crime scenes, suspects, and evidence. What we seem to be lacking is the Encylopedia Brown, DCS Foyle, or Jessica Fletcher. Here’s a list of heretofore unsolved mysteries: 1) Why the refrigerator smells. 2) Where all the shoes have gone. ALL the…
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It’s Complicated
I know things are better now. I know it’s not like the old days, when women would shun divorcées, assuming they were out to steal their husbands, or keep their children from playing with the children of divorced parents. Blended families, gay couples with kids, it’s all the new normal, right? But where I am,…
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Grace: It’s Good for You
Have a little grace. Today I was wounded by an online implication that human beings in poverty are animals (thanks, Facebook). I almost immediately stumbled on an article about nine women who have dedicated hundreds of thousands of hours and dollars to anonymously helping people in need and random strangers, reminding them that they are…