parenting
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It Was Just So Soothing To Leave Every Note Touched
For weeks, my very own son, sat down at the piano, hunched over the keyboard, iPad off to the side, tuned to Youtube where they were giving guided lessons on Twenty One Pilot piano solos. He invited me to help him work out a few chords, or to show him the fingering for a tricky section. We struggled together over the passages that were in the key of F#, and he had so much trouble remembering that when you start with E, every B will always be flat, and with G, every F will be sharp. (How nice was this — to have my latent talent awakened and useful?!) He…
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Boys and Being Boys
My boys one day, found an L-shaped piece of paper and said, “Look, a picture frame,” while the other one, simultaneously said, “It’s a gun.” I talked with a new mom. The mom who knows everything. She was quite proud of herself that she is avoiding “gender bias” by ensuring her son has a “kitchenette” instead of traditional “boy toys.” She can’t understand her friends, moms of girls, who have toy rooms filled with pink and purple, princess themed toys. This sadened me. I didn’t say a word, although I was thinking, “Remember, they did that study, in the ’80s, giving boys girl toys, and girl boy toys, and…
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Without a “To” and a “From” What’s the Point of a Valentine?
School Valentine’s parties were the perfect cover-up. You could have a crush on anyone in the class, give a Valentine to that special someone, and get one back, and no one was the wiser. This is all about to end. I think it was just about in January, when the boys were in kindergarten, and they had the “going to school routine” down to the beauty of mundane everyday. The kind that comes without fanfare or stress and coaxing. Now they were ready to venture outside of the realm of “me and teacher” and really get to know everyone who occupied that classroom. Not just the boys who liked the…
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Is Santa Real?
The question, Is Santa Real, rings through the holiday season with the Christmas carols, and just like the icicles hanging from our rooftops, sends a shiver down our spines. We can stall, ignore or sugarcoat our answers; however these futile attempts to side-step the issue rarely satisfy the insatiable curiosity of a child.
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Supervised Teen Driving: A Golden Opportunity To Connect
Just when the doors of the bedroom slams shut to reveal the “keep out†sign meant for you, we get an opening—and it’s a big one. While teenagers are clamoring for more privacy, an identity of their own, it’s time for them to learn to drive. And they need you, parents, to teach them. By law, in Ohio, they need 50 hours of supervised driving with you. And for reasons I’ve outlined below, AAA says you should spend at least 100 hours of supervised driving. Do you realize what a gift those hours are? You and your teen are alone in the car, the radio off, and there’s nothing but…
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When He Was Master of His Universe
Oh. My. I was innocently scanning through photos, looking for something specific, and I stumbled upon this archival photo. First of all, those puppy dog pajamas were requested because they wanted a puppy, and we kept saying no. Sleeping with puppy pajamas was the next best thing. Second, those puppy pajamas are always worn by his younger brother. Fun Size never wears those pajamas, and the baby still wears them. Little did we know, Fun Size wore them too. The crown. What is up with the crown? Was it his birthday? I can imagine what must have filled his head, as he settled down to sleep, on his pillow, with…
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When Babies Sleep, They Grow
And when you pick them up in the afternoon after their nap, you can sometimes see how much they’ve changed. How much they’ve grown. They grow so fast. You can see it. Then, the babies grow legs, and the growing seems to stop… it slows down… and you see their growth in 6 month spurts, sometimes in 4 month spurts… but definitely, you can definitely see the growth as the seasons change. And, so you settle into this routine, of the growth slowing down into more manageable chunks. Times is still moving, but it’s manageable. And then, they become adolescents… and in many ways they become like infants all over…
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Waking Up
I pretend not to notice, when they stretch out on the sofa, lounging around instead of sitting upright at the table eating their breakfast, like proper school boys. The alarm is set early every morning, for this very purpose. The older boys come straggling down later, and they are on a time crunch: they do sit down and eat their breakfast, rushing to get the milk back in the fridge, gulping down their cereal to ensure they’ll have enough time to eat, and get their teeth brushed. No need to push the little ones, I decide… their day will come. Just a few feet away, the little boys, aren’t even…
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You Would Think, By Now, I Should Have This Down
But I don’t. The minute I pick the kids up from school I’m hit with no less than 15 requests for play dates, queries about “what’s for snack, †and an avalanche of forms that the school needs my signature on immediately. My mind is whirling to fit in homework, dinner, sports… and a much needed, but will not happen, nap. Afternoon and dinnertime have come, and once again, I am unprepared. Upon my insistence that homework and their laundry be put in their closets first, I did not shuttle them off to their play dates until 4. I calmly looked the other Mom in the eye, and said, “He…
