Grasshopper New Media Presents...

I write about my family — a lot. My wife, 2 1/2-year old daughter Fern, and her sister-to-be are fodder not only for my pieces here at GNM Parents and my public blog, Doodaddy, but also quarterly articles for a local parenting magazine, an advice Web site, a private family blog, two Twitter accounts, and […]

I always laugh when I see that on a piece of paper in the middle of a manual or a set of instructions. I sneer at the designer who couldn’t figure out how to make the number of pages line up. I disparage the consumers of the manual who can’t tell that a page is […]

The other day, I was scanning my daughter’s room for dishwasher fodder, when I chanced upon her combination lock for her school phys-ed locker. As I looked at it, I saw that the combination was written on tape attached to the side. I asked her, why? Why put your combination on the lock? Her reply […]

Don’t you love the feeling?
You pour yourself into your child. You teach and touch and train and restrain. You wonder whether anything is working, whether what you are putting in will ever come out.
And then, one day, someone tells you. Unbeknown to you, your child that argues with everything you suggest is an encouraging member […]

Ben is rushing headlong into adolescence, and I’ve realized that I need to stay current and update a few of my time-honored parenting strategies. Let me lay out a recent scenario for you in order to illustrate just how I’m going to need to change things up:
A few days ago, Ben started intramural track […]