Parenting Haiku

Mary Beth's kids (and her photo)

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 […]

All Children Are Special

Photo via Todd Huffman, Flickr Creative Commons

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 is a Four Letter Word

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  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. […]

10 “Old Fashioned” Trends To Bring Back In 2015

Wikimedia Commons

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! […]

Magic Time: A Message of Parenting Hope

@ Kevin Dooley, via Flickr Creative Commons

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. […]

What Should Be on Our RVA Holiday Bucket List?

Otis getting fresh in the Barbie Hotel

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 […]

“Mommy, You Are Beautiful.”

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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 […]

Are we modeling healthy political engagement?

bethechange

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 […]

Freezing Eggs as an Employee Perk?

Image courtesy of Bob Jagendorf / Flickr Creative Commons

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 […]

I’m Sorry, Second Child

photo courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/indraw/

Dear My Second Child, I love you more than you could ever know, but I want you to know that I’m fully cognizant that you being the second child has impacted my life and yours.  So much so, that I feel compelled to apologize for it. I am sorry that I have not memorized the […]