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Aug 17 2012
Should I Play Along With My Daughter’s Imaginary Friend?
Someone new is at our house. (Bonus points if you know what book that’s from. Double bonus points if you’ve read it over one hundred times.) This someone new is a superhero. Her name is Weather. Her costume consists of … Continue reading →
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Aug 15 2012
Olympic Athletes Can Grow Up to Be Normal People, Too
Would you want your kid on a Wheeties box, Renee Septimus wondered here on Kveller. She talked about the kind of things that young Olympic athletes must be giving up to acheive their level of success–school, summer camp, birthday parties, etc. … Continue reading →
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Aug 10 2012
Making Mom Friends… When You Don’t Want To
In my piece on being a latch-key kid, I suggested that perhaps spending hours upon hours alone as a child, watching TV and ruling my elaborate, closet paper doll kingdom with an iron fist may have contributed to the slightly … Continue reading →
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Aug 2 2012
Am I Too Cheap (And is it Messing Up My Kids)?
Every year on July 11, 7-11 offers free Slurpees. And every year, I take my kids to get some. This year, since we were staying in Brighton Beach, the annual acquisition required marching my 13, 8, and 5-year-olds half an … Continue reading →
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Jul 26 2012
I Was a Latch-Key Kid (And Look How I Turned Out!)
In “Do Kids Raised By Nannies Really Turn Out Okay?” Renee Septimus asked the question: Yet again we read a piece from the points of view of the mothers and the nannies. What always seems to be missing in these … Continue reading →
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Jul 17 2012
Is My Middle Child Doomed?
Reading Jeffrey Kluger’s fascinating book, The Sibling Effect: What the Bonds Among Brothers and Sisters Reveal About Us, I learned that “Schoolhouse Rock” may have lied to me. Three may well not be a magic number. In fact, when it … Continue reading →
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Jul 13 2012
When to Hide Your Race & Religion
In Tamara Reese’s recent piece on kids being more open-minded than adults, she wrote the following phrase: Would I encourage (my son) to hide his heritage in an effort to make life easier on him, or myself? Absolutely not. This … Continue reading →
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Jul 10 2012
Reading Your Mother’s Sex Scenes
I write romance novels. I am unapologetically proud of that fact. Since 1995, I’ve published 13 works of “genre” fiction, including three soap opera tie-ins, five figure skating murder mysteries, and four romance novels, two set in the Regency period, … Continue reading →
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Jul 9 2012
An Unexpected Bar Mitzvah Boy in Oxford
My eldest son turned 13 in June. We didn’t arrange a traditional bar mitzvah for him, for reasons I outlined earlier. However, my son still became a bar mitzvah. He didn’t read from the Torah, make a speech, or hand … Continue reading →
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Jul 2 2012
This Summer, My Kids Are Doing… Nothing
“And what are your kids doing for the summer?” smiling friends and strangers alike ask regarding my three children, ages Just-Turned-13, Almost-9, and 5. The smiles fade a bit, to be replaced by a somewhat puzzled expression when I proudly, … Continue reading →
