Grasshopper New Media Presents...

While our children lived in the orphanage in Russia, they were baptized Eastern Orthodox (Christian). The walls of their apartment had small icons on them, and the children’s caregiver wore a cross at her throat. We were pleased that our children had spent a year and half of their lives in a place where God […]

I came across this video via BoingBoing - I couldn’t make it through the first minute. I don’t want to judge this guy, ’cause, y’know, glass houses, stones… But, wow, this seems like something worth talking about. I would never do what he’s doing, but as a dad, I’ve taken my share of risks with […]

I have a news-junkie/political wonk side of me, and as a result, my kids have heard hours of political news while in the car or hanging around the house.  They’ve developed a sense of where my husband and I sit on the political spectrum, and while I think they largely have adopted many of our […]

Rob and I were friends for a year before we started dating. Good friends. Best friends, even. Last weekend we celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary and at dinner we resurrected a game that we began when our friendship began. Over the years it’s reared it’s head time and again. It […]

Whenever I go out in public with my twin daughters I get lots of stares and lots of questions. Most people are polite and smile at my girls. Some will make eye contact with me, others won’t. If they ask me silly questions, I respond using a pleasant tone and non-sarcastic reply (most of the […]

Parenthood Statistics
• There are 4.25 million new mothers each year in the US.
• 425,000 are teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19.
• 100,000 are 40 or older.
• About 40 percent of all births are the mother’s first; 32 percent are the second.
          - U.S. […]

My thirteen year-old son, who I adore, seems to be in a funk lately.  Instead of swimming being a fun activity, it’s now "stupid and we do it all the time."  He would love to go to an amusement park, but that’s not an every day activity, to be sure.  When asked to come up […]

My four-year-old son M asked this question yesterday. Like many of his friends, he’s into superheroes, and when they get together they pretend to shoot bad guys. M has probably seen fewer bad guys than most of his friends because his television-watching is closely monitored and discussed. But he has seen good guys catching bad […]

My wife and I are having an open-ended, open-minded, gloves-off discussion about our son. Specifically, the debate is whether or not he is, at 16, old enough to get a job.
I won’t give away whose position is what. Instead, I’m going to implore you to weigh in. What’s the right age for employment? Does girl […]