We must improve our assumptions about dads and domesticity if we’re ever going to solve the problems plaguing female breadwinners and derelict dads, says stay-at-home dad Vincent O’Keefe. Last week I had the torturous pleasure of chaperoning five 13-year-old girls around an enormous amusement park for 10 hours. So imagine my irritation later when I […]
Originally appeared on Everyday Feminism. Republished here with permission. Co-parenting can refer to a lot of different situations. A bare-bones definition, and the one that I’ll use throughout this piece, is: two people contributing to the parenting of the same child or children while leading separate lives. Divorced parents; “single” parents who were previously involved; […]
No matter how vigilant you are about protecting your children, accidents will happen. Last Friday, my friend’s 18-month-old daughter sustained second-degree burns on both of her legs and feet when she climbed into the front seat of my friend’s car, removed the top of a travel mug, and poured scalding tea onto her lower body. […]
This originally appeared on Jayson Gaddis’s website. Republished here with permission. Is your son less of a boy or man if he wears pink? Chances are, if a boy wears pink in this culture he will likely be judged as gay or feminine over time. I paint my toenails. I wear pink sometimes. My son […]
Despite what people say about the spoils of the current generation of kids, Telaina Eriksen says they’ve had their share of struggles. And so has every generation before it. The conventional wisdom today is that our current generation of children are all wimps. The media collectively wrings their hands and bespectacled professors on cable news […]
Whether it’s refusing to circumcise your son or giving your teenage daughter birth control, breaking with tradition still makes people uncomfortable. “We’re not doing Easter this year,” I said. “You have to color eggs,” my mom replied. “I don’t have to do anything.” I’ve had the same interaction with my mother a dozen times or […]
As she’s gradually changing roles with her mother, Rachel Darden Bennett is trying to maintain a connection with her mother’s beautiful spirit. I got a call from the head nurse of the memory care unit telling me my mother was punched today. I feel my stomach tighten. It’s the feeling you get when the person […]
This originally appeared on The Daily Life. Republished here with author’s permission. When a friend’s son asked her for a pink floral bike helmet, she lied and told him they didn’t have the floral ones in his size. He went home with a plain blue one instead. “I hate myself for doing it,” she tells […]
