Tag Archives: children

Great Expectations

In the dark of predawn I lay in bed, tucked snugly beneath my downy comforter, sleet pinging against the windowpanes in soft yet fitful waves. Against all odds associated with parenthood, no one under the age of eight burst into … Continue reading

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Filed under Love and Other Drugs, Ode to Embarrassment, The Natives are Decidedly Restless

Necessity is the Mother of Clean Closets and Tidy Drawers

I used to be obsessed with neatness—a strange sort of child who, completely unprompted, would devote an entire Saturday to the rearrangement of my bedroom furniture, organizing drawers and eradicating dust with wild abandon. Much to my parents’ chagrin, I’d … Continue reading

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Filed under Home for Wayward Toys, Welcome to My Disordered World

Captain Underpants

As I type, I’m envisioning the disjointed discussion likely taking place in my brood’s fifth-grade classroom right about now, spawned, of course, by the events surrounding Saturday’s cleaning fest at our home. Like most frenzied attempts to rid my world … Continue reading

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Filed under Home is Where the Weirdness Lives, I Pretty Much Suck at Parenting

The Value of Permanence

Lots of things in this world are disturbing to me. Greed, poverty and heinous crime. The demise of the planet and the pervasiveness of mediocrity. Mismatched socks and the death of Gilligan’s Island. Oddly enough, I include technology on that … Continue reading

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Filed under Love and Other Drugs, Welcome to My Disordered World

Hands Upon My Heart

When I was nine or ten, I remember well my enthrallment with my mother’s hands. They were delicate and slender, sweetly scented and rose petal-soft—so completely unlike my own nicked and scraped, callused and chafed boy-like hands that were better … Continue reading

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Filed under Love and Loss

2012: The Year of the Dragon

According to the Chinese zodiac, 2012 is the year of the dragon. I know this to be true not only because I googled the bejesus out of it, but because my brood became riddled with delirium upon learning they had … Continue reading

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Filed under Home is Where the Weirdness Lives, Lizard Lips

And on the Eighth Day, God Created Tactless Children

“Mom, do you have any clothes that are snug?” one of my brood tossed out as she snacked on a slice of pizza the size of Connecticut. “Snug?” I asked. Could a wispy second grader fully and completely grasp the … Continue reading

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Filed under Kid-Speak, Ode to Embarrassment

A Kinder, Gentler Sort of Holiday Madness

It’s the eleventh day of Christmas and finally it’s safe to venture beyond one’s home out into the Land of Wares. At least it would seem so. The tired, the poor and the frenzied masses have all gone home, lugging … Continue reading

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Filed under Holiday Hokum, Home for Wayward Toys, The Natives are Decidedly Restless

A Decade of Enlightenment: Ten Things Parenthood Has Taught Me

I’ve been a parent for some 8,286 days. A stunningly imperfect parent, I hasten to add. During that period of time I learned more about sleep deprivation, sibling rivalry and teen angst than I previously considered humanly possible. However, the … Continue reading

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Filed under I Pretty Much Suck at Parenting, The Natives are Decidedly Restless, Welcome to My Disordered World

Jingle All the Way

It’s possible that I might be slightly smitten with jingle bells—more specifically, with the completely delicious and decidedly hypnotic sound they emit. A feast for the ears. A balm for the soul. A window into the past for people like … Continue reading

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Filed under "N" is for Nostalgia, Holiday Hokum