If your kids think you're cool, you must be doing something wrong…
One of my favorite photos: Allison and I in San Diego, 2003
Family therapists, take note: when looking for another way to help families
relate, tell them to “go jump”. In a pool, that is. Or a swimming hole, or lake. With lifeguards on duty, of course. And a shallow end. Because it’s in the shallow end …
The story in the news these days of Jet Blue flight attendant Steven Slater has me thinking—not just about the
straight-outta-the-movies way in which he quit his job, but about the onboard incident that preceded it, when a passenger reportedly cursed at him and cut Steven’s head with her suitcase, mad
because she was told to sit down until her arriving plane came to a complete stop. I wondered if that passenger had children watching. Yes, we’ve all been ticked off …
I remember it well. Being at my cousins’ house one summer when I was a kid and staying up until 2 a.m. for the
first time, then sleeping until at least 10 the next morning. Amazing! I felt so grown up. I was 9 or 10 and my cousins were both teens. It was an early taste of what would be a common occurrence
when I became a teen—sleeping late in the summer. Which is why I haven’t nagged (well, not …
Time for an update on previous blog posts, especially in light of the “archived” post just published on
Mamapedia:
Emmie has
decided to play an instrument in 6th grade band…and the instrument is…drumroll please (how appropriate)…drums! Well, actually “percussion”. Which means xylophone, several different kinds
of drums, tambourine, castanets, gong, washboards… —anything to fill out that “wall of sound”. Our exchange student may want to run and …
I’m very excited to share that a past post from UncoolMom.com is the “featured post” for today, July 29,2010 at mamapedia.com. For
those of you not familiar with Mamapedia, it’s a national website with all sorts of parenting and family articles as well as local advice and information. On its homepage and in its Voices
section, it showcases a different blog post every day, and also keeps the blog posts from the last four days visible. In addition, Mamapedia …
Talk about a staycation. We are about to embark on a huge adventure without having to leave home: we’ve applied to host a foreign exchange
student through AFS for the upcoming schoolyear, a girl from France. And I must say that even if we don’t get approved, just the process of applying has been worthwhile. I mean, how often do
you get the opportunity to really take stock of your family, your home, and your community, …
The re-release of the movie, “Grease” in “Sing-A-Long” version this month has reminded me of something a parent
recounted to me not long ago: She’d been all excited about showing her kids the original “Grease” but when she watched it with them, she was embarrassed that she’d forgotten about all the sexual
references. Oops. You can bet with the song lyrics now plastered onto it, it’s going to be even more embarrassing for forgetful parents! J
…
The bedroom switch my daughters are undertaking this summer has been very interesting.
The whole project has definitely turned out to be more than just “switch furniture and paint one room” (which went pretty well while I was gone July
4th by the way…my teenager, Allison, now sleeps amidst four walls painted a sophisticated gray-purple shade called, fittingly, “Enigma”
“It’s a free country!” How many parents have heard this line at least once from a child who is trying to
justify bad behavior? How many of you have used this line on your own parents, or heard a sibling that has? And usually it’s followed by, “So I can do whatever I want!” I’ll bet the founding
fathers had no idea their groundbreaking document would be someday used and misused by sassy kids and teens from sea to shining sea, to defiantly explain …
Sometimes the best activities that parents can do with their kids are the things parents also enjoy doing on
their own. No, I’m not talking about the twisted Moms and Dads who force their kids to see movies they shouldn’t, just because the parents want to watch and won’t get a babysitter—or the parents
who drag their kids to smoky bar/restaurants and make them sit at a table and color while they get drunk…I’m talking about letting your kids tag along …