Mary Beth is full-time working, married mom. She is a military brat with southern roots who served in the Peace Corps, survived government employment, and currently works for a Richmond-based healthcare nonprofit. With her 2 kids emerging from the toddler years, she’s here to report that parenting is the toughest job she's ever loved.
Have you caught yourself asking a child (likely your own), “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Where did that phrase come from? When I heard it come out of my mouth I thought… Why am I asking my child a question that I don’t even know the answer to for myself? “When you […]
Legos. Fruit Snacks. Trash. I love and hate the playroom. Dirty-clean, like a broom. All the toilets flushed By someone other than me. This is my day dream. “I need help wiping!” I worry we will hear that Until college years. This boy and this girl, Little and influential, Make us tired […]
It always strikes me when somebody writes, says, thinks or clearly implies that some children (usually their own) are more special than other children. They think some children deserve special treatment, special inclusion or exclusion, or special consideration. It stirs something in me from when I was little, growing up with my brother who is […]
Toys. I don’t even know where to begin. Seven years ago (i.e. before our daughter was born) we had zero toys. Zero. Now we have more. A lot more. If it was up to the toys, the toys would be winning in our house. Thank goodness I have low tolerance for clutter and sentimentality. […]
Our family has rediscovered The Andy Griffith Show, Bewitched and Leave It To Beaver. Opie and the Beaver remind us of our own little guy. While the past wasn’t perfect, these shows make us reminisce about childhood and talk about what we’d like to see change. Here are some ‘old time’ trends that should perhaps make a comeback! […]
First, Happy New Year to all! While the New Year is a magic time for some, you fellow parents know that better than any New Year is the ‘Magic Time’ when your household is at peace and you’re not being asked to stretch beyond your ability to cope with the challenges that little kids bring. […]
tra·di·tion trəˈdiSH(ə)n noun the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way. Last night, my husband and I had an interesting conversation about Christmas traditions in our house. I’ll spare you the details but suffice to say, we had different perspectives on […]
I find myself paying more and more attention to advertisements about wrinkle creams. I haven’t bought one yet…. but I’ve moved from “pre-contemplative” to “contemplative” stage. It’s not a frame of mind I thought I’d ever be in. It is only one of a series of symptoms of feeling…. older, or at least different in a more mature kind […]
Recent issues of national importance have resulted in an interesting feed on my Facebook account. Ebola. The mid-term elections. Terrorism. The list goes on. As you can imagine many of the shared posts were not from reputable news organizations. Many stories contained blatantly wrong information, were embarrassingly inflammatory and negative, or took something so out of context as to […]
I am a working woman and mom. The news this week that two giant tech companies, Facebook and soon Apple, will be offering female employees paid coverage for freezing eggs (yep, the ones from their ovaries) as a “perk” struck me as very concerning. Is it sending the right message? What if, when I applied for […]
