Last week, an old friend of mine from college posted on social media about an experience she had taking her two little boys to the park. She let them run and play, and ordered some lunch while she watched them. They ran around the small lake nearby, laughing at the ducks swimming in the lake, and excitedly picking flowers along
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The first time I remember thinking about my future family was in the third grade when a new girl named Katie joined our school. I thought to myself, “Wow, that is the most beautiful name I have ever heard.” For the next few years, I named all my dolls and favorite Barbies Katie. I couldn’t wait to grow up
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We’ve all heard the expression “the dog days of summer,” those long, hot days when all you want to do is lie around and become one with the swimming pool. I’m here to propose that winter, too, has its “dog days!” The long, gloomy, frigid days as we inch slowly closer to spring tend to seem much longer than 24
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Nature versus nurture: it’s a question as old as time. Why do people do what they do? How does a child’s personality develop? Is it something they are born with or can a child be parented into being this way or that? Scholars, parents, and everyone in between have been asking this question for hundreds of years and the
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By the time my husband gets home from work, I have worked a full day at my full-time work-from-home job while also taking care of my 11-month-old and five-year-old. By 5pm every day it looks like a tornado ripped through the house and I am overstimulated to the point that I have, on occasion, stuck my face under ice cold
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A How-To Guide for Moms, Holiday Edition I find myself walking the tightrope this holiday season. On one side of the tightrope is stress: I am stretched thin. My wallet, and calendar, are stretched thin. We are dodging the flu, RSV, and HFM left and right. Sometimes I just want this season to be over so we can all go
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“Why is that flag only halfway up?” I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw my seven-year-old son tapping on the glass and pointing at a flag pole outside the retirement community near our house. “That’s called ‘half-staff,’” I said. “They do that when something sad has happened.” He stayed quiet for a few beats, leaving me thinking that maybe
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A week ago Saturday, my husband, son, and I came home to something no family ever wants to see: The window to our backdoor smashed in. Couch cushions tossed around the living room. Bags dumped out on the floor. Every cabinet, drawer, and closet open and ransacked. While we were at a baseball game that evening, someone–three someones, we came
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