Giving New Meaning to Parenting

My younger son Seven has something of a crush on Barack Obama.  He can rattle off the President’s favorite food (chili) and favorite sport (basketball).  He takes great pride in the fact that the President’s daughters are the same ages as he and his older brother.  And when he found out that we would be [...]

My nine year-old is a smart boy.  He loves to read and write.  He is a fantastic artist.  He watches videos on cartooning on the internet and replicates the drawing exactly.  He scored a perfect score on the language portion of our state standardized test, this past fall.  But, to him, school is something that [...]

Asking for help is one of the most difficult things to do, because it gets tricky. First, you have to admit to yourself that you are in over your head. Second, you then have to tell someone else that is the case, and third, you have to ask them for their time and [...]

It’s a statement that is made often without a second thought. My father-in-law said this often after we’ve had a nice dinner out with our twin girls. “You should be so proud that they are so well behaved in public places,” he’ll say. And, yes, we are very proud that MOST of the time they [...]

7 years later,

I am in the zone. You know what I mean, don’t you? I have my headphones in. I have the kids all in bed. I have the house quiet and now I’m moving as fast as I can to make up for all the damage done to my house during the day. There’s laundry to [...]

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 [...]

Every time someone asks me how Max is doing, I say the same thing: “Fine; talking like crazy.” Which is true – that kid of mine, he’s a talker. Then again, I’m a talker, so maybe it’s one of those things where the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree.
The thing is, I am amazed, [...]