“It’s probably best to leave Jack alone for a little while,” I hear Colin tell his dad in the other room. “He’s in a pretty bad mood. I bugged him just a little bit and he picked me up and threw me.” Although not encouraged, these kinds of demonstrations of Hulk-like strength are not terribly […]
Hang on, there’s cake?
We’re driving somewhere a couple weeks ago, all of us together, when there’s an NPR story about how parents are generally less happy than non-parents. As usual, I’m daydreaming during most of the article until it dawns on me what they’re talking about and I look at Mike. He’s driving, and has probably been daydreaming […]
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Did I say I was ready? Yeah. Ignore that.
“Why do you want to go on exchange?” I ask my kid. “Well, I like to travel, and I’m into learning new things.” Good answer. Just the night before, Jack had told us he would be interested in going on exchange his junior year in high school. Now, I’m putting him through a mock interview. […]
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Matthew Broderick might disagree
My kid has been telling me for about a week about some study that shows video games might not be bad for you. “Did Mario Brothers commission it?” Mike asks, but Jack can’t remember his source. I’m thinking it’s probably something he heard from school or else he’d be dragging us over to the computer […]
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Freedom and the Vomit Comet
“I’d like to come up here sometime on the bus with my friends,” Jack said, giving me a sideways glance, “just, you know, us.” We were loading up the truck after an afternoon skiing. Everyone was wet and tired and happy, full of burgers and fries from the lodge. My fourteen year-old’s tone told me […]
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A Manic Mom’s Book Year
2013: the year the boys stopped letting me read to them. Well, it was probably time. Silly how I would still be reading to kids aged 11 and 14, right? Thing is, it gave me insight on what they were reading, let me foist my favorite authors on their little ears, and gave me an […]
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I didn’t actually have to elbow any adolescents
On Friday I shared how I should have been anxious about an impending Sunday afternoon workshop with comedy writer and actor Lauren Weedman, but wasn’t, and why that should have been a sign of impending doom. Or not. I suspected the whole afternoon would serve as confirmation that I should never be on stage, but […]
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A little fear would probably be a good thing
When I was in high school I took a community theater acting class. I figured I’d do a couple local plays, maybe a commercial. Then someone would discover my ginormous talent as well as my singing ability and it would come in handy that I knew all the lyrics to my double album set of Grease: […]
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Sleep and the slow journey to justice
I’m a light sleeper. So one wee hour not so long ago, when pint-sized Colin stood at my bedside, he only had to softly clear his throat. I opened my eyes. Oh, hello little person. Then I was wide awake. What the? The fact that this kid was here meant he had climbed from his […]
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Closed doors | happy mom
I have long been of the opinion that kids should be able to keep their rooms the way they want. Or maybe it’s just that I rarely feel like cleaning up their space, nor do I feel inclined to yell them into cleaning it themselves. There’s enough other stuff to yell about during a normal […]
