Grasshopper New Media Presents...

Somethin’ I’ve been thinking about lately: Cussin’. Cursing. Talking blue. Foul language. - A lot of us participate in the use of what most folks would deem “off-color talk” - There are many of you reading this right now who, with some frequency, use terms that the FCC would find objectionable.
Sometimes it happens in front […]

It is not without a sense of loss that I write this, my final column for GNMParents. For more than a year and a half now I’ve contributed some of my favorite blog posts to this community. I still refer back myself to my five part series on “The Littlest Naturalists” — activities for parents […]

I am overwhelmed. It happens this time every year. Stress and anxiety roll down the snowy mountainside gaining in size and momentum. It sets in the same week every year. This week. It means I am always tired but never able to sleep. It means I put off the […]

As parents, because we strive so hard to do right by our kids, we sometimes focus on all the things we could do better and overlook the things we do right.  And sometimes the things that we do right seem to happen by magic.  But, parenting is not magic, it is hard work trying to […]

Dearest Child of Mine:
I know how upset you were earlier today, when I refused to buy you that video game.  I know you really didn’t believe me when I told you that it was because I love you, that sometimes I refuse you the very THINGS that you so strongly WANT.
As a Mom Person, I […]

Every once in a while, most often when she’s sick, my five-year-old daughter K behaves like someone who once didn’t have enough to eat. She piles food onto her plate in mounds much bigger than she can eat. She eats very slowly, examining and savoring each forkful. She take forever choosing treats such as fruit, […]

The snow has already started piling up outside and children here have begun practicing one of the traditions of winter: checking the weather forecast in hopes of a blizzard and subsequent snow day off from school. I remember many mornings (both as a student and as a teacher) squinting in the dark at the […]

As a break from the heaviness of parenting advice, I thought I’d initiate a conversation where we could share good parenting jokes and funny stories. Here’s my opening gambit:
I was listening to Paula Poundstone being interviewed on NPR this weekend and she told a hugely funny story: “I’ve been having trouble with my 10 year-old […]

Last week I got together with a friend of mine who is expecting her first child. After talking about various baby care products, birthing stories and who knows what else she turned to me and said, “Friends told us that with kids instead of getting anxious about too far into the future, you should […]

Today is my father’s 78th birthday.  I am forever writing about my father and the sadness that’s taken up residence since the cancer came.  He died when he was 66.  Today he would be 78.  Today,  we’re celebrating his birthday.
I look at this photo, the one I scanned for this post, many times every day.  […]