Yesterday, I took SquiggleBug (7) and Smunchie (5) to a friend’s birthday party. While another dad and I were struggling through our first tentative and awkward interactions, he abruptly called out to his son, as parents rudely but appropriately do when they spot their child doing something they probably shouldn’t. His son bounded over, brandishing…
Tag: parenting
A Conversation With My Younger Self
“Thank you for your concern. My name is Jeremy, by the way.” he said as he extended his hand. “That’s interesting.” I said as I shook his hand. “My name is Jeremy too.” We exchanged a friendly smile and parted ways. As I walked away, my mind was whirling with questions: Did our conversation…
Poop and Snot- MY PRECIOUS!
For all you who have toddlers, had toddlers, or will have toddlers, I’m here to comfort you with a story of one of my parenting fails. I fail daily but always with style. Epic style it seems, straight from Mordor. At any moment I will have destroyed at least one of my children’s hopes…
Fighting Alongside Our Children
Parents are teachers. How many times do we say the same thing over and over in the same exact way and the message just doesn’t seem to get through? As a private piano teacher for 20 odd years, it has been my job to find the exact formula that would reach my student; the metaphor,…
A Bedtime Song for Daddy
Singing has been a part of our bedtime routine for as long as we’ve had children. It provides a moment to quiet down with one last shared experience for the day. Jessica and I each have our own selection of songs we tend to sing, but they are always slow and calm. Our kids each…
My Favorite Part About Parenting Alone for Days
My wife is away on a business trip this week, extended to a week so she can spend a few rare moments with her parents, and her brother’s family. Lucky her, she gets to hang out with them where they live in Florida – in mid-August. Lucky me, I get to parent alone for a…
How a tattoo helped me heal my mothering spirit
Ever since I was a child I have admired tattoos while finding them scary and thinking the people sporting such body art were a combination of confident bad-asses who were insecure about their body and felt the need to modify it. It was confusing. For a long time I thought only a certain type of…
Why We Stopped Spanking our Children
“This hurts me more than it hurts you.” I never once believed this to be true when I would use a spanking or a hand slap to discipline my young children. I believe that dealing with the reality and implications of being hit is way more difficult and painful than the feelings associated with hitting…
Mommy, what’s a dildo?
Yesterday one of our children walked into the kitchen and casually asked “mommy, what’s a dildo?” I paused in what I was doing and looked at her, my eye brows raised. This was unexpected just a few minutes before company was expected. She hastened to add “is it bad? You don’t have to tell me…
The REAL mommy wars- exchanging the pretend war to take on the real battles
In our Western context, where we have access to more information than we could possibly process, parenting can be an overwhelming journey. The pressure to do it just right is intense but opinions and even professionals disagree on what constitutes right in the first place. Supposed experts can’t even agree on what equals healthy but…