Parenting
What to Do If Your Kid Says "I'm Bored"
It only takes once. If your child says, “I’m bored,” this summer, here’s what you do. First get all excited. Then, in the most madly excited voice you can muster say, “You are! Because I have the best thing for you to do, and I was just waiting for you to say you wanted to do something new!” …
Dirty Movies For Tweens
It’s summer. We’ve had a lot of 11 to 12-year-old boys hanging around the house. When it’s raining, they become basement dwellers playing ping-pong or Legos and K’Nex or Wii. I hear their mutterings. The other night one of Monkey’s friends was over. Let’s call him Steve-o. And Steve-o’s going on about movies he’s recently seen. He announces that he’s just seen Dude, Where’s My Car? …
I'm in Manitoba Visiting Ironic Mom, Eh!
I’m posting from Canada today. Seriously. I’m coming to you from Manitoba, eh. Seriously, I’m hanging out with Ironic Mom. Kind of. In a cyber-way. But I won her contest so I get to post on her blog. So hooray for hockey and Queen Elizabeth, beavers and Biebers, maple leaves and Mounties. …
Monkey is Blogging
Last June, in an effort to capitalize on Monkey’s innate love for all things technological, I suggested that he start a blog. After all, last May my own blog was in its infancy, and I figured we could sit side-by-side and write together. It was a romantic notion. And while last year, he wanted his blog to be secret, this year, he wants readers….
Non-Traditional Super-Hero Powers
“Mom,” Monkey asked one morning while hunched over a bowl of cereal, “If you could have one non-traditional super power what would it be?”…
The Giver: Is It A Happy Ending?
My son finished reading The Giver in his sixth grade English class many months ago, and I forgot to post the follow-up to his reading. Here it is now. Better late than never, no?…
Lessons From Annual Daffodil Day
For the last ten years, my friend and I have taken our sons to the local Daffodil Park on May 1st. I don’t know how it happened, but I missed it this year. Daffodil Day? Not. Even. On. The. Radar….
Things I Won't Be Hearing On Mother's Day
Hubby is not the best facilitator when it comes to Mother’s Day. This is because he generally golfs on Sundays. And since Hubby is out playing with his wood, there is generally no one to oversee the “special last minute Mother’s Day present making” in our house, and I’m not about to pull out the markers and demand, “Make me something to show me how much you love me!” Let’s just say I have pretty low expectations for Sunday….
How The Struggle To Survive Spring Break Was A Lot Like The Jews' Exodus From Egypt
This year, Spring Break fell on the same week as Passover – the Jewish holiday which commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. (Think Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments.) This year there seemed to be so many similarities between Monkey’s heinous April “staycation” in Western, New York and the oft-repeated, seemingly never-ending Passover story that I simply could not ignore it….