The principal of our elementary school has signs on the wall in the school office with her motto, a quote from
Aristotle: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act but a habit.” While that’s a great “mission statement”, the mere act of having that hanging on the wall (and published in our
school newsletter, proclaimed during morning announcements, etc.) personifies an even stronger truth: We are what we repeatedly say. My memories of that principal may dim as …
Month: May 2010
Unskilled for Living: “Chores” should not be a dirty word
Whenever Allison has to pack her own lunch bag before school, I often hear the “But nobody else
has to make their own lunch!” complaint. Many parents would probably say, “You don’t know everybody” to that one, or my answer, “Well, I feel sorry for them!” but secretly I wonder that
she just may be right, sadly. When she was in a jr. high “Skills for Living” class (the politically correct title for what we knew as Home Ec), she came home on …
My Car is the Betty White of Minivans
Recently my husband and I had a conversation about buying a new car for me. I didn’t get my hopes up, rightfully so, because it didn’t take long for him to say, “You know, for about $300, I think I can keep your car running another year and then we can get a new one.” Umm, that’s what he said last year. And I’m pretty sure the year before that as well… For someone who’s not “into” cars, Andy is a self-taught, amazingly crack mechanic in his spare time who has definitely saved us thousands of dollars and kept my car going year after year (after year). Not only does he like saving money, he gets a lot of satisfaction out of researching and solving problems, and I think he also likes “telling the guys”, like some guys brag about the big fish they caught, or the amazing golf putt they sank.
Yes, I do drive a 1997 Dodge Grand aravan with 184,208 miles on it. (That’s right—aravan. It was once a Caravan, but one day last year when I didn’t pull in far enough in the garage, the automatic garage door scraped off the “C” as it was closing.)
Helping our kids vs. “enabling” their bad habits: Sometimes, it’s a balancing act
For many years, I’ve been on board with the Love & Logic notion that “parents need to
allow kids to make mistakes so that they learn from the consequences, so that they’re better prepared for adulthood and ‘the real world’ ”. If a child
throws one of their toys in anger and breaks it, either it doesn’t get replaced or they earn money by helping Mommy around the house in order to save money to replace it, and …
Getting Older– Daunted? Flaunt It!
In honor of my friend Teresa turning 49 today, I’ve decided to re-run an essay of mine that was published in the Dallas
Morning News on 10/18/05 under the title, “Crimp’s My Style”. After it was published in the newspaper and online, I received over 40 letters from across the U.S., all positive and supportive
(except two). The most touching ones were from men, writing to say they wished their wives wouldn’t worry so much about aging and looking older, that they loved …