Against Marriage
Fifteen now, my kid has reached the stage some girls find themselves in: every baby she sees, smells, or hears about floods her with desire. “I need a baby!” she wails to me, (mostly) joking. “No babies,” I say firmly. “You can have a baby after you get your Ph.D.” …
Well, Why Not?
Being responsible for another human is, quite possibly, one of the most difficult things a person can do. The job is full of sweat, blood, tears, snot, and vomit. It’s full of stress, worry, heavy lifting, and sleepless nights. I suspect that’s why some parents feel the need to be heavy …
Babyproofing. . .Sort Of
My twins are officially crawling, and one is pulling to stand using whatever’s handy (furniture, our legs, the cat). Having roving children made me research baby-proofing, which in turn made me realize that we have definitely failed as parents. Though the decorative scrolling on what I now realize is the …
Amy Chua’s “Triple Package” and the Indian Tiger Parent
As a member of the Indian-American model minority, I find “Tiger Parenting” fascinating, admirable, and disturbing. In her newest book, the Tiger Mom herself argues that certain minorities including Jews, Indians, Chinese, and Mormons, achieve much greater than average socioeconomic success due to three distinguishing factors. Two of these factors …
Hanukkah is Not Your Christmas Side Dish!
I have a question for all of you folks who celebrate Christmas, in part, by celebrating the holidays and traditions of others. Are you still interested in Judaism or anything remotely related to Jewish culture once Christmas is over? Does your cultural curiosity extend beyond Judaism? Do you know anything …
Mommy, I Don’t Want to Look Fat
That moment when your four year old daughter says something that: You are completely unprepared to respond to; Packs an emotional punch to your stomach because of years of baggage; You want to prepare a carefully crafted response, because you know that what you say matters to her like nothing …
Why My Kid Had Purple Hair
Recently one of my friends polled all the other parents she knew: how terrible a parent would she be, she wondered, if she let her six year old get the mullet she was longing for? I won’t keep you in suspense: It was about a 70/30 split, with most parents …
Bad Parenting? Bad Medicine.
Trigger warning for child abuse and death As parents, the worse thing that we can possibly imagine is something bad happening to our child. Of course, the biggest fear of parents that hits the news is when a child is abducted. It is heart-wrenching to think about. But, the risk …
Parenting Fail #4,275: Greek Yogurt Cures Gayness!
Keep it simple folks. Don’t try to be clever. It never ends well for us parental types. Ok, maybe it just never ends well for me. I’m driving my son to school when I start to wonder, out loud, whether the kids at school these days have any opinions about …
Writing the Storm Out
TRIGGER WARNING FOR VIOLENCE, CHILD ABUSE, AND SEXUAL ABUSE. ALSO SWEARING. LOTS OF SWEARING. My husband and I come from extremely abusive families, and we’ve both made the painful choice to cut our parents out of our lives for the sake of giving our own child as normal a childhood …