Grasshopper New Media Presents...

Hope went to a party on Saturday night. It was a dress-up party. It was a dancing party. It was a birthday party.
Her friend turned eighteen. Her friend is a dancer. A liturgical dancer. And a ballroom dance lesson taker. And her friend had a party.
I walked Hope into the subdivision clubhouse, where guys in […]

I’ve written about my concerns over screen time in the past. The boys are still as interested in playing computer/video games as ever, although I’ve noticed that television time has decreased significantly. This pleases me. I think we have a healthier balance going on in general.
Both of my younger boys are very, […]

Last night at dinner, my wife and I turned to each other and couldn’t contain our grins. We understood each other without speaking our feelings: “This totally rocks.” What revolutionary event in our parenting lives sparked this tsunami of warm satisfaction?
We had kids over without their parents.
Two kids, to be exact — a brother and […]

My Oldest child just turned 14. 14 seems so old. 14 seems just a few steps away from freedoms of driving and dating and graduating from high school.  And yet, 14 is still in 8th grade. 14 is not allowed to date yet, but has had boys who have liked her for years now. 14 is responsible […]

Stu Mark wrote a great article about a Dad trying to understand the mysteries of being a girl and connecting with a daughter who shares itnerests so different from his.  I feel similarly mystified about men, and the mysteries of boyhood I confront every day as the mom of two boys, ten and thirteen.
Being a […]

Six is a strange age, an age that straddles a line between early and middle childhood. Six can be by turns timid and cuddly, or brashly bold and confident. It’s difficult to predict which Six you’ll get at any given moment. Six is the perfect age for trying on various selves and […]

I’m in charge of the house, and by default, in charge of the family. I didn’t ask to be in charge, nor do I enjoy being in charge. But my kids are, well, kids, so they’re not mature enough to be in charge, and my wife works 60-80 hours a week, so she doesn’t have […]

Even though this will post after “Independence Day”, I thought it was important to talk about the hardest part of being a parent- walking the line between dependence and independence.
One of our jobs as parents is to take small people and gradually prepare them to be independent people, just like us. Yet when you […]

My youngest son turns ten this week.  He made the transition from Toddler to Little Boy to Boy a while ago, but now that he is “hitting double digits”, as he puts it, it’s time for me to admit he’s no longer a little boy anymore.
As the youngest, and also being somewhat small for his […]

Time is passing all too quickly and my boys are growing up. The little guys are 5 now, while the older ones just celebrated their 10th birthday this week. (Happy Birthday again, sweeties.) It suddenly hit me the other day: I don’t have little kids anymore. They are all […]