Browsing all posts in Domesticality.

Cheesecake

My family loves cheesecake (the edible, dessert kind. I have no wish to know what my boys think of the other kind). Birthday cakes are usually cheesecakes around here, which is fine with me because they require a lot less decorating. All of my children can make cheesecakes. Note–”children” equals “boys.” From scratch. They have [...]

You Can Take the Girl out of the City

One of the things we parents do to our kids is attempt to force down their throats foster a sense of appreciation for nature. To that end, then, we took Stretch out into the vast wilderness (sorta) with a two day trip to a local park. He was working on some scout stuff, and we [...]

Evolutionary Psychology is the Reason I Only Have Boys

Here’s the basic idea: Those personality traits that encourage successful reproduction in that person’s progeny are favored. Those that don’t, well, die out. The idea has been around since the 1960s or so. Especially in the mating game, it explains a whole lot. Like–why men have the roving eye. You see, a man’s investment in [...]

Cleanliness, Godliness, and Allergies

“Cleanliness is next to godliness.” How many times have you heard that? Do you have any idea where it comes from? Turns out that it appears to be the grand wisdom of a 2nd century rabbi. If you are at all familiar with the wisdom of the ancient rabbis, you are probably rolling your eyes [...]

The Blankie

Blankies are the loveys of every tiny tot. And the bane of every mother’s existence. They can’t live without them, so they get carted around, everywhere. Which means: 1) they get lost, engendering a half-day search through the house, the neighborhood, the last fifty places graced with your presence, only to find it under a [...]

The Gene for Common Sense is on the X Chromosome

Has anyone out there ever sent her husband on an errand?

A simple errand, like, buy a gallon of milk?

He calls you on the way out the door, from his cell:

To Health Food, or Not to Health Food…That is the Question

My children got organic baby food (which I had to make! Twenty years ago, there wasn’t jarred organic baby anything). They ate nothing but wholesome, lovely food, based on the most recent research into nutrition and health.

AND THEN THEY WENT TO SCHOOL.

Someone mentioned McDonalds, and my perfect little boys were now craving fat and sodium on white carbs.

All Last Minute Requests Must Be Submitted in Triplicate

Some of you who follow me on Twitter (tmhmom, ’cause The Mother was apparently already stolen by some blackguard) got to listen to my hissy fit last week when the Goth announced that he needed twelve dozen cookies for tomorrow. This is a classic parenting dilemma, affectionately referred to as, “The Last Minute Request,” but [...]

The Dummy Daddy Decade

A woman from the UK named Rachel Cooke wrote an article a few days ago called “The Dummy Mummy Decade” for The Observer, which bills itself as the oldest Sunday paper in the world. In it, she argues that there exists now a generation of women who talk about nothing but motherhood and children, and [...]

The Blissfully Domestic Valentine’s Post (wherein I prove that I’m not)

There’s this Valentine’s Day meme from Blissfully Domestic, in which you are supposed to write a post about how much you love your family and how much you love to be domestic, etc. I do love my family. Most of the time. But they’re boys, so they aren’t into mushy stuff. I only have one [...]