This should not be a women’s issue. It should be a parents’ issue. And it should recognize that different children will need different things, often impacted by the circumstances of their birth. Our first night with our son was spent in a hotel in Seoul, South Korea. Sudden parents to an almost-4-month-old, despite months of […]
If, indeed, we are seeing a rise of Mean Boys who will join the Mean Girls we’ve already heard so much about, what is causing this and how can we change it? When my son was 3, his preschool teacher called me aside to tell me a story. My son went to a tiny school […]
I question what message we, as women, have internalized when we spend thousands of dollars to alter our bodies for the sake of a selfie. My husband and I got engaged in the spring of my senior year in college. I was 23. Just days out from graduation, I defended my thesis on a Tuesday afternoon, came […]
Men fear man boobs and cankles just like women fear cellulite and back fat, says swimming instructor Sydne Didier. Every morning of the week, a different man comes to my house at his appointed time. Keith is my 7 o’clock on Monday mornings, Otto is my 9. Brian comes on Thursdays, and James on Tuesdays. […]
Sydne Didier wanted to teach her son that men are caregivers too. Trevor was 12 years old when I hired him to take care of my son. The same age my son is now, it was his first time babysitting and he was nervous. He lived across the street and I’d asked him to come […]
Every year on Mother’s Day, Sydne Didier sends her own message of thanks to her son’s birth mother and foster mother. The last time I mentioned her, we were playing badminton. As so often happens when I watch him move, so smooth and confident in his body, I think of her. “I wonder if your […]
Rather than dealing with an issue upfront, Sydne Didier wrote about it here, and in the process, the problem only escalated. Last week, I wrote something for Role/Reboot—about the parent cliques at my son’s school—that struck a cord. And I’ve been on the verge of tears ever since. Nauseous. Sad. Worried. Anxious. And at the […]
Parents at Sydne Didier’s son’s school treat her with disdain for challenging the status quo. Turns out, the parents have cliques too. When my son started school nine years ago, I walked him to his classroom every morning. Hand-in-hand, we skipped like a television version of what parenting and childhood should be. I smiled and […]
