Category: Parenting

My request last week for vignettes about your children was met with an overwhelmingly pleasant response. Here is one of my favorites: On the first day of school, the teacher noticed one of her new first-graders packing up and starting for the door at noon.  The teacher asked him what

“Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed” suggested Samuel Johnson, father of three 18th century children. And indeed parenting can be viewed as a slog from 2:00 am diaper changes through 9:00 pm, “can we go to the store

You are about to enter another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop, the Twilight Zone! Or possibly a location much closer to home, the school down the street. The school where your children attend

It took a while, but she looked in the mirror Then she glanced at the license for my name A smile seemed to come to her slowly It was a sad smile, just the same… suggested Harry Chapin in his lyrical and poignant 1972 “60 % biographically true” song about

A buddy of mine did some amateur boxing before his laid up his gloves and devoted himself to plodding along in the dark with us. Our exercise—running—admittedly doesn’t have a great deal to recommend it, but we do manage to avoid being punched in the face on a given day.

I could not help but overhear one of my neighbors having a lengthy dispensation with their 40-pound, brown, boxer mix: “We’ve spoken about this before, Ignatius,” she began. “How many times do I have to tell you not to pull so hard on your leash? You know I hurt my

“I wasn’t sure what book you might prefer so I picked a book I was certain I had enjoyed” suggested my high school English teacher who has been blessed with the exquisite task of describing an enticing read to the 11th graders. For younger participants of this blog, I hasten

Five adolescent friends in thigh-high waders are standing in a shallow river in Montana. Allen is focused on the gear, fascinated by the lures he has spent hours creating. He marvels at the flies he has fashioned, how realistic they look. He wonders how the trout perceive his handiwork, whether

One of my community college students cheated on my take-home writing assignment. Rather than penning 500 words about a 20th century short story as I had asked, he wrote about a 2000-year-old drama. Another clue that he was trying to hoodwink his instructor was that he copied the critique of

“Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in” suggested Robert Frost in “The Death of the Hired Man” during a time in our country’s history when family residences changed infrequently. “I live in the same house where my granddaddy was born” is