Category: Parenting

Alex’s defiance has been escalating since middle school and is no longer passive. In eighth grade he said, “I’ll take out the garbage as soon as I go up one more level.” At 17, he says, “I hate this house and everyone in it; on my next birthday, I never

One of my running buddies has a neighbor who gives her endlessly sincere advice about her workouts. He has insights into her weekly mileage, speed work, the long run, recovery, cross training, you name it. Her neighbor pontificates about the newest training schedule he has heard about. Jennifer is a

My wife says I could have an extramarital affair. But that I would have to go north of Orlando. Because there is no out of the way restaurant, no hotel, no aisle in Publix, no hospital waiting room where I don’t run into friends or old students or someone whom

Feeling fairly confident that the children were old enough to take a walk in Myakka River State Park by themselves, but not confident enough to actually let them leave the campsite unattended in the dark, I accompanied them down the trail into the woods. Before we had walked a hundred

Harry Zuckerman was a big part of my life growing up. He drove car pool to Sunday School and had been my dad’s best friend in law school. Harry married LaVona in late December 1954, two weeks after my mom and dad got hitched. “For tax purposes,” they said. The

That Miami, my cherished hometown, has only two seasons is well known. “Construction and hurricane” rather than the traditional four enumerated in the James Taylor song is what we have in South Florida and I’m used to it after almost 60 examples of each. What the tourist brochures neglect to

Remember the best teacher you had in high school, the one from whom you learned so much? Ever reflect on why she never had any discipline problems? Was it because your classmates were more respectful in those halcyon years? That teacher seemed so relaxed, in control, no behavior management issues.

It is coming increasingly clear that “we are who we are.” I didn’t choose to be a happily married heterosexual male any more than any of my gay friends and relatives chose to be who they are. “Straight Camp”-okay, there’s no such thing as “Straight Camp”, somebody made that up-doesn’t

1) Four-year-old Liam picks a wooden train out of the toy box. His six-year-old brother, Colby, comes over and grabs the train from his hand. Undeterred, Liam gathers a bag of blocks and starts to build a tower. Colby knocks over the stack of blocks. Undaunted, Liam selects a puzzle.

One of my running buddies found out a few years ago that a distant relative on his wife’s side left the couple some $6000. Malcolm wasn’t close with his wife’s aunt’s second husband so he was equally pleased and saddened by the news of his passing. “He had a good