Do You Teach Your Child To Share?

Whether or not to teach your child to share is a matter of great controversy. Some may find this surprising, because sharing is good, right? Doesn’t it teach kids not to be selfish? Eh, not so fast. Like practically every other aspect of modern parenting, the issue is much more complicated than it seems… For example, […]

Meet and Greet: 5/26/17

Thanks to Dream Big Dream Often, we’re having another Meet & Greet! It’s a great chance to find other bloggers and share your blog!

Gorillas On The Playground

So, yesterday I took the girls to the local park to get some exercise, never realizing what mean-girl psychodramas were about to unfold. Bridget immediately begged to be pushed on the swings, but I told her to GO PLAY. All morning they’d been chewing up the couch like overwrought labradors who needed to work off some adrenalin. Which would never […]

My Toddler’s On Fleek Playground Ensembles

I let my kids dress themselves, within reason. When it really counts, I resort to the faux-democracy of preselected acceptable choices (“Would you like to wear this, or this?”) because any semblance of a choice, however manufactured, tends to appease deep toddler yearnings for some control while under their current dictatorship. But usually, I just let them pick. I […]

When You Love Different Members of The Food Chain

One of the trickier parts of parenting is deciding how and when you’ll explain to your children that the world isn’t always pretty or fair. Promising that shot won’t hurt will make you a liar in thirty more seconds and pretending everyone is kind will backfire the first time some playground kid makes your baby cry. Still, we […]

Tales of the Lizard People

Maybe I’m psychic, but the other day I got a distinct feeling there was something going on in our closet. Or, maybe it had something to do with seeing this: And then, this: Yup, this wasn’t looking coincidental in the slightest. Next, Frodo the Cat got involved: Let me just zoom in here, in case […]

Everyone In Our House Has A Cat

I’m a cat person. In fact, this was very nearly a cat blog instead of a mommy blog. Occasionally, cat-themed posts have still found their way in, like that time I was trying to figure out why hating cats is so popular. I even started pulling them in order to start a separate kitty blog until I figured out how maintaining both would […]

Why I’m A Mean Mommy

I really try not to be a judgey parent, because I know how judged we already feel. But sometimes it’s hard not to be. For example, we were attending a pool party when another mom warned me about my daughter’s soon-to-be kindergarten teacher: “Miss Virtue is old and rigid and just doesn’t understand my son Dougie’s needs. He’s a very […]

My Kids Advance to Higher Level Tantrums

Generally speaking, Brontë and Bridget are much easier to manage now that they’re five and three. Gone are the days of three-hour fits and grocery store tantrums. Consistent refusal to reward bad behavior slowly winnowed them out. Or of Brontë’s poop-mural experiments, which went on for months. Making her clean them up, by the way, […]

5 Ways Having Kids Makes You Fat

Dieting SUCKS, so there’s usually some triggering event that convinces someone to start eating better. For a friend of mine, it once was getting thrown out of a roller-coaster line by an attendant twice her size. For me, it’s been arguing with my five-year-old about not actually being pregnant. Because she insists that the last time my […]