As much as my heart aches for a mother’s love, I breathe a sigh of relief that I’m no longer enmeshed in her web of manipulation and lies. The last Thanksgiving I spent with my mother, we crowded around my dinner table and toasted each other with wine glasses full of sparkling cider. It was […]
When each side believes themselves to be “the good guys” and all attempts at communication only deepen the chasm of misunderstanding, what is our responsibility to one another? For half a year, the mind of my 3-year-old son has been consumed by superheroes. He prefers to dress in costume, existing as Iron Man, Spider-Man, or […]
Were you invited to a Moms’ Night Out Holiday Cookie Exchange that demanded you bake 72 homemade cookies and don’t know how to say no? Ask a Single Mom. Thinking about divorce and want to know what life is like on the other side? Ask a Single Mom. Have no idea how to make time […]
Boy versus girl may not matter to Bobby, but finding someone to hold his hand in a crowded environment does. So he differentiates people based on their behavior and his sense of their personality. My son Bobby’s teacher recently told me that he can’t identify people by whether they are a boy or girl. I […]
In many ways, a parenting prenup is the true definition of planned parenthood. Even if you don’t pay attention to celebrity marriages and divorces, there’s something about Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s split that parents, or anyone who wants to be a parent one day, should pay attention to. Jolie and Pitt have six children […]
While the concept that a gaggle of kids is a mark of social standing sounds ludicrous to the majority of us, the fact that people are influenced in their reproductive choices by what they see around them is less so. Tori Spelling recently announced she is pregnant with her fifth child. It was news I met with an unabashed: Wow, is […]
Families are different and grow in lots of different ways. Children understand this intuitively. Highlights magazine had no idea the ire they would draw when they responded to a reader’s post on Facebook asking why their publications don’t depict any same-sex parents or visibly LGBTQ families. The magazine answered that although they value inclusivity, “the […]
So much of what I love today began with her. I still take long, hot baths and occasionally put ketchup on popcorn because that’s what she did, and I want to be just like her. There’s a cute pair of jeans in my closet that I refuse to give away because I paid $200 for […]
