Giving New Meaning to Parenting

Our own Whitney Hoffman wrote an essay last week, one which got me to thinking. In her post, “Other People’s Kids,” Whitney relayed her feelings about the sensitive nature of dealing with other parents’ children. One section stuck out for me – she wrote: “How do you feel about disciplining other people’s children? That’s [...]

We’ve been having some weather here in SoCal these past few weeks. Interesting to get weather here, as we normally have a steady 72º and Sunny. This new weather consists of gentle rain, with the occasional gusts of wind. The past 24 hours brought us more of this new weather, expanded, with heavier rain and [...]

Not too long ago, my 17 year-old son realized that he had forgotten to keep up with his laundry, and with the day drawing to a close, started rushing to get it done (especially as he needed a clean soccer uniform). So there he was, slightly agitated/freaked, when I walked up to him and offered [...]

I’d like to get your response to a question that occurs to me: What constitutes child abuse?
My question stems from a news item about a father and his daughter. They were at home, he asked her to get off the computer, she refused, he restated his request, lacing it with profane insults, she got angry [...]

It was a rare quiet weekend evening, and my husband, TW, and I turned on the local news.  The very first story stopped us; a teenager had died in an accident.  In our town.  Just down the road from our house. The victim’s name wasn’t being released, but he was 15 years old, and a [...]

We haven’t made a big deal of Valentine’s Day. It may be that Nancy and I had our first Valentine’s Day together after we had been married for 11 months. Somehow, when we were broke, it seemed to make sense to wait for our anniversary.
Our celebrations with our kids have been small as well. A [...]

President Obama won the presidency on a campaign of hope. In addition to hope, he talked about transparency. During the short time since he has taken office we have seen more of the scope of the secrecy, distrust, and outright spying of the Bush administration.
Michael Webster, in his article “Bush/Cheney Administration Violated All Americans’ [...]

I’ve been thinking about this lately: How much parenting is enough? What type of steering do I give my kids? How far do I push my morals? How often do I prostelitize about the benefits of being a good person?
I know my job is to teach them, to raise them, to guide them – but [...]

“wanted to make sure the door wouldn’t be locked.”
That was the text I got from our 17 year old daughter at 12:41am.
She was out with friends. The power was out at our house and the houses of some of the others. The girls of the madrigals group decided to spend the night at a warm [...]

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 [...]