Love Means Showing Up
I feel two emotions when I watch my son in plays or musicals and the curtain goes up at the start of the production. The first is nervousness for the cast and crew; the second is relief that the show is finally happening. The next few hours will be a surprise: I often have no
There should be different words in the English language for young teenagers (ages 13-15) and older teenagers (ages 16-19). Calling them all “teenagers” gives parents the false expectation that our experiences with them will be similar throughout all those years. I found the early teenage years pretty manageable, but I was totally unprepared for the
My daughter hadn’t even spent the night yet at her dorm and I was texting my friends, “I should probably just go get her. She’s tried college and it went well. Now it’s time to get the family back together.” To be clear, my daughter wasn’t texting me with pleas to come get her. She
My son was practically crowing in the doctor’s office. Caleb is officially over six feet tall. I wasn’t celebrating with him. In fact, I wasn’t even believing the very clear data that I had just witnessed with my own eyes. When the nurse left, I said, “Maybe we should have her re-measure you. I just
I love calendars and goal setting and the hope of a brand new year. A few days ago, my husband Bryan and I sat down and looked over the goals we’d set for 2018. As I looked back over the year, I noticed that some things that had been priorities just disappeared. We’d had to
I couldn’t help but overhear the woman talking loudly in the restaurant about panties. I was out to dinner with my family when I heard a woman say, “Pops, we have big news! We’re wearing panties!!” I leaned to look around the corner, hoping her use of the “royal we” involved a young child. Sure
It’s prom season, which means it’s time for parents to stay up late worrying. It’s also time, apparently, for teenagers to attempt to renegotiate rules and expectations. Prom time scares me. My whole hope for prom night was that my kids or their friends wouldn’t end up in the local news for any reason.
After the horrific shootings in Florida, it didn’t occur to me to keep my kids home from school. By the middle of the week, though, I was hearing talk from parents explaining why they weren’t sending their kids to school this week. There were several online discussion groups citing concerns about school safety in
I must confess that I sometimes wonder if being a feminist makes my job of raising girls harder. Sometimes, the idea of girls who smile and nod and do what they are told without ever questioning sounds pretty dreamy. Being a Women’s Studies minor in college prepared me to fight for women’s rights; it
I was terrified about my daughter entering adolescence. I’d heard so many horror stories about the dramatic changes that happen to teenage girls; I was braced for her to turn into a monster. She honestly didn’t change that much. Caroline is still herself—just stretched out a little. She’s still lovely. I should have been more