While women have made great strides in the boardroom and in many other previously “male-only domains” over the past 50 years,
there’s at least one where it seems they haven’t made much progress at all: the grill. If we are to believe what we see and read, women do not grill. Grills and grilling aprons are
not part of Mother’s Day ads. I had to page through 29 listings at amazon.com before I found a grilling cookbook with a woman …
Past Posts
A Ph.D. in Playground: Should young kids have “graduation” ceremonies?
In this month of graduations, I’ve been thinking about how, sadly, wearing a cap and gown doesn’t mean as much
as it used to. If I recall, it used to be reserved exclusively for high school and college graduations—something you looked forward to for many years, because those are graduations that deserve
Pomp and Circumstance, cap and gown, and celebrations of the highest order. It meant you’d come a long way over many years and studied hard (hopefully) to get where …
Words We Remember
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 …
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 …
Mom’s Best Friend
Animal therapy is a wondrous thing. Horse programs that assist kids and adults with physical and learning disabilities. Cats that help out in
nursing homes. Dogs that are trained to assist with an enormous amount of conditions, from blindness and deafness to Alzheimer’s Disease and peanut allergies—even those that dramatically change the
lives of hard-core criminals. I think another group that can be blessed by animal therapy is moms of pre-teens and …
Hour Showers No More: Helping Kids Break the Habit
Why are teens (and pre-teens) notorious for taking long showers? Is it because when they were
younger, they used to spend so much time with “bathtub crayons”, “foam soap” and “waterproof musical instruments”, that they’re simply used to “staying in”? Just when I thought my kids were the only ones who think water is limitless and free, I’ve discovered there are many more out there just like them.
One Surprise After Another
Allison, our teenager, a few days ago: “Mom, why are you always complaining about
something?”
Me: “It’s not that I’m always complaining, it’s that as a parent, there are problems and issues
constantly thrown my way, a lot of stuff I’ve never dealt with before, and I’m constantly having to make decisions and take a side— and you and Emmie don’t always agree with my opinion.”