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We spent Labor Day weekend with my parents. We is Nancy and I and Andrew (21) and Hope (17). My parents spend the summer in northwestern Wisconsin, so the weekend included twelve hours of driving each way from our home in Indiana.
A few days before our trip, my mother left a message on my phone. […]

September is as natural a month as January for making resolutions. Summer wraps itself up and the sun is softened by cooler mornings and the rumbling bus pulls to the stop and whisks the school-aged Punks away for hours of “reading streets” and “everyday math.”
And Mom walks back to the house holding […]

Let me start out by reminding the reader that I am a StepDad. My kids’ father is firmly in the picture and a fine father. So when I am referred to, it is as the StepDad. Now, I call ‘em “my kids” or “my son” or “my daughter,” but when they refer to me, it’s […]

I rehearse situations in advance with my kids.  Does that qualify me as a little batty?
Never mind.  Don’t answer that.
Okay.  So here’s what I do.  Any time I notice that there’s an opportunity for the boys to make a bad decision, I outline briefly what the situation will be and ask them if it would […]

I’ve heard that first borns tend to develop leadership qualities. Right now, I’m wondering if that will be the case for my daughter Miss K. She is the first born, by 10 minutes, but her “little” sister bosses her around. Miss A is taller and appears to have developed leader qualities at the prime age […]

When you are the parent of twins you experience some benefits of having two the same age as well as some drawbacks. I won’t get into how traumatic my girls early arrival was and how having two infants was more stress than I could have ever imagined, so maybe another time. What I’ve noticed, though, […]

You know that gut-wrenching yet relieving moment when you hand your child over to strangers?
Well, I don’t.
Along with the storied advantages to being a stay-at-home parent (read: “Let’s go to the beach on Wednesday!”) comes one great drawback: Boobaby, my brave little girl of nearly 30 months, has never learned to be babysat.
My wife and […]

I spent part of last weekend with my family (two sisters) and part of Mother’s Day with Nancy’s family (twin sister and two brothers). As I look at our relationships, I am curious about what the relationship between Andrew and Hope will be in 30 years.
We have two children. Andrew is 21, Hope is 17. […]

A few weeks ago I wrote about my relationship with the older boys and how I feel like we’re getting closer to one another over time. This summer I want to build on that with some fun activities. My list includes time at the beach, a possible service project for senior citizens […]

My middle child is my most challenging child. It is the way Dash was born. His personality seemed to be embedded, long before he arrived, two weeks earlier than scheduled. He was the loudest baby in the hospital. When the nurses took him to bathe him we […]