Giving New Meaning to Parenting

Last week we traveled to Durango, CO to spend a week in the mountains with my husband’s family. This is the fourth year we have vacationed with the in-laws for 1 week during the summer. It is a good opportunity for our children to spend some quality time with the grandparents. We travel to a [...]

This is my essay from Father’s Day 2009. I’ve gotten a few emails asking me to run it again, so here it is.
If I drank, Father’s Day is definitely a day I would spend in a bar, drowning my every emotion. You see, I’m a stepfather. And being the stepdad on Father’s Day is like [...]

My daughter has been having some trouble getting along with one of her girlfriends in her preschool class. She makes friends fairly easily and has a large group of girls she likes to play with. Some of them are her age, and based on the structure of the preschool room, some of them are [...]

One of the advantages of having a twin brother is the built-in friend. If you need a companion, a yin to your yang, a cheerleader, or even (shudder) a partner in crime, he’s right there.
Of course, there’s also a disadvantage to having a twin brother. There’s always someone your same size in your [...]

The first time I held each of my children, I fell in love like I never knew. With each one, I didn’t think I had the capacity to love another as much as the first, but I did and I do. Having said that, like any relationship, I get caught up in the [...]

My twin girls get along great. Sometimes it concerns me that they play together so well. They rarely have fights and if they do they are resolved fairly quickly. They recently started telling each other that they love each other. Out of no where, they will say “I love you” to one another. Pack Rat [...]

There are a lot of times when I am busy and my kids want my attention.  I sometimes have to triage which gets attention first, how important is it, etc.  Sometimes I don’t give them my full attention even when I am allegedly listening, because I’m worried about the 27 other things on my plate. [...]

This is a cliche phrase that we all hear, and we say it when we feel slighted to console ourselves.  We say things like “Karma is a b**ch”, but anyone who has felt holier than thou knows there is nothing worse than what seems like an inevitable fall from grace.  The other shoe seems destined [...]

We all know someone we care about who is (or has) dating or is married to someone we don’t care much for. When I was a teenager (in-between high school and college) I dated a guy my parents hated, and for good reason. I didn’t know that they knew he pushed me around and was [...]

I have two children. One boy and one girl. I love them both with all of my heart. I have written here a few times about dealings with my son, but have seldom written about my daughter. I was thinking about why that is and believe that in a lot of ways, I [...]