With Mother’s Day this weekend, I am thinking about my mom and how she has shaped the mom I am myself. I remember my own teen years (sometimes with embarrassment) and marvel that she handled them with such calm and dignity. I now live too far away to spend the […]
Columns
Defining Degenerative Disc Disease In Motherhood
What I never could have prepared for, though, was the impact DDD was going to make on the way I parent. How the slow and methodical progression was going to interfere with the image of motherhood I had envisioned….
The Empty Laundry Basket- Sending the Firstborn to College
My oldest has just a handful of days of high school left. He announced that to me this morning. And then he left for school, wearing dark wayfarer sunglasses, the kind we wore when I was in high school, which according to my mental processing, was just last month- right? […]
I’m A Slave Driver
From the time D-dude was able to walk I have asked him to do small chores. As he got older the chores increased and the difficulty increased. He’s eleven now so of course he is doing almost the amount of chores I do. Almost. The amount is close but […]
Are The Volatile Teen Years A Repeat of the Toddler Years?
When I was expecting my third child, I read that children enter a new stage every three to three and a half years, where they assert their independence and challenge the status quo. At the time, my first two were seven and three and a half (I wish I had […]
Searching For My Silver–Finding Beauty Within Tragedy
How can there ever be a silver lining to fighting a deadly illness? There can’t be, right? These were the questions swirling somewhere in the back of my mind that cold November when my always healthy and strong mom was very unexpectedly diagnosed with stage three cancer. I was trying […]
I Don’t Always Want To ‘Go Hug My Kids Tight’
What I am about to say probably won’t sit well with some of you. Some of you will even feel the need to immediately point out all the circumstances in which this could make me the worst person to ever walk this planet. Let me clear the air before we […]
Dear Pre-Baby Me: Parenting Advice from the Future
Dear Pre-Baby Me: Hi, it’s me. You. I mean, it’s not you, but it is you, because it’s me and I’m you. Anyway, um, hi. I’m writing to you from the future. Neat, right? Pre-Baby Me, right now you’ve got it pretty good. You have a great job, a cool apartment, a bitchin’ […]