I gave Tommy some suggestions on making his politics paper’s topic more substantial. He went to his grandfather’s and they “discussed” the paper. Tommy called me and whined for an hour that he can’t write a paper without offending someone. I told him that it doesn’t matter what his topic is as long as he […]
Yesterday, Noah brought home a note that none of my children have ever brought home before. He handed it to me nervously and before I had finished reading the first sentence, Noah started to beg. “Please don’t sign it Mom.” His reasons not to sign it ranged from practical to pitiful. I signed it anyway. […]
I say: “It’s not just the rain that makes driving dangerous. It’s also oils that come out of the asphalt when it first starts to sprinkle.” They hear: “Mwah, mwah, mwah, you are a terrible driver, mwah, mwah, mwah.” I say: “When you are texting while doing something else, you are missing out on part […]
Even with a drum saving Sarah’s boyfriend from being squished by a teen driver, I forget that we’ve been doing band camp for three years now. It has poured rain every day this week, but the band is still marching, every day, in the monsoon, from 8 in the morning until 8:30 or 9 every […]
Me: “Sarah, how many pages have you gotten done in your summer sketchbook so far?” Sarah: “I did a lot of other art stuff today.” Me: “Such as?” Sarah: “I decorated my sketch board.”
Dear Katie, You have given your children love and support since before they were born. You have done NOTHING to warrant any kind of guilt inflicted upon yourself. Stomp that feeling into the dirt and keep doing what you were already doing. Love, Cathy When we first become parents, we have prepared by reading 5 […]
As I drove Noah to his middle school band concert, he talked about the songs he was going to be playing. No. That’s not an accurate description of our conversation. It would be more accurate to say that Noah spoke sheet music slang and I nodded my head while saying “mmhmm.” “So then, during the […]
teen: “Can I spend the day at the park with my boyfriend?” me: “The park? That sounds like fun. We’ll bring your little brothers and sister and make a day of it.” tip-tap sounds of texting on phone teen: “We changed our minds. We’re just gonna hang out at the mall.” me: “The mall? We […]
We frequently have people tell us, “We can certainly tell that Amy has older siblings.” Doug hears: “Amy is so bright.” I hear: “Amy has a teenager’s mouth.”
When life was so simple that I could get worked up over things that don’t matter, I complained about the evils of putting small children in beauty pageants. I made sure everyone knew I was boycotting the televised pageants for 18-year-olds. I was very confident and uncompromising in my brilliant pre-parent years. Then, I had […]