Category: Parenting

How frequently do you enjoy being told that you’re wrong? By whom? Under what circumstances? You need to change; you are not okay as you are; you’re ugly and your mother dresses you funny. Nobody wants to hear that. I bet you’re pretty happy with your religious beliefs, for example.

 Needing to be up at oh dark hundred the next morning, I improvidently began Ira Levin’s The Boys from Brazil, a mesmerizing thriller involving “creating” a certain type of child by mirroring his environmental and genetic makeup. No spoilers–the plot twists and turns like a racetrack–just this advice: if you’re

What I know about finances can be written on the back of a postage stamp with a shaving brush. I know nothing about stocks, bonds, hedge funds, and derivatives—whatever those are. Indeed, I have the Midas Touch when it comes to speculating: everything I invest in turns into a muffler.

“Maggie,” a middle school child, has repeatedly forgotten to bring a pencil to math class. After the fifth infraction, Maggie’s teacher has given her a “lunchroom detention“ whereby Maggie must sit alone to eat and is not allowed to interact with any of her classmates. Which of the three parenting

Turns out one of my Running Buddies has an actual “job“ of some kind that involves her doing “work”. Apparently, part of her grown-up life entails given lectures about the widgets—or possibly grommets—produced by her company.  We’ve only been sweating together in the dark for the past 20 years so

No matter how thin you make the pancakes, they always have two sides. With the possible exception of family game night–always fun–pretty much every other parent-child interaction is double edged. What about encouragement?  Could there be a dark side to being a supportive parent? Consider the following seemingly uplifting statement

Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of man you are remarked Thomas Carlyle. We don’t pressure our children suggest parents 150 years later. Yet breakfasting with my running buddies recently, I wondered if these two statements might impinge on one another. After our seven-mile

To be fair, I have not read More. I did read several paragraphs of a review though. Here is my understanding: a couple is dissatisfied with their marriage. So in addition to chatting with a counselor, they engage in ethical polyamory. Having additional intimate partners who are also grouchy with

In this corner… in the blue trunks, just back from a six-month stint in a third-world country digging irrigation ditches and setting up micro-loans for a women’s sewing cooperative, Ms. Attitude-of-Gratitude! This competitor drives her younger siblings to school, mows the lawn without being reminded, takes grandma food shopping every