Browsing all posts in "Children".
The Mother’s (2nd Annual) 12 Step, Back to School Program
Last year I gave all the back-to-school advice I know. Since this is absolutely the definitive guide, I’m posting it again, just in case any of you forgot any of these important steps as your kids head back to school. Step #1: Refill the kid’s lunch money account online at least a week ahead. That [...]
Competitive Parenting
We’ve all been there: at a school or social function, with other moms and their kids. The moms are all jostling for position, reaching for the ever-ephemeral “perfect mother” title. Competitive parenting. The problem is, no one knows the RULES. It’s hard to win without goal posts. So I offer, free of charge, the very [...]
Is Parenting FUN? Is it Supposed to Be?
An article in Psychology Today this weekend was titled, “Why Parenting isn’t Fun.” The most interesting part: When 909 Texas women ranked how pleasurable daily tasks are, parenting was ranked sixteenth, after cooking, watching TV, exercising, shopping, and housework. Wow. We’d rather do housework than parent. Considering how much I hate housework… Hubby came through, noting [...]
Father’s Day, 2010
At some point, between last year and this, I have totally lost control. Normally, I wouldn’t be thrilled. Us moms tend to be control freaks. But… Monday, my Grouch called me and told me he needed to have a wisdom tooth pulled. I dutifully made arrangements for him to see the oral surgeon and got [...]
Excuse Me While I Install a Security System in my Kitchen
Last weekend, I had the pleasure (slight use of sarcasm) of helping my college-age son move from his dorm ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE STREET into a university apartment. Yep. I trekked 300 miles to move my kid’s stuff 300 yards. Am I a great mom or what???? Okay, I’m a mom who got guilted [...]
Done. Finished. Cooked.
A mother only gets to say that once per kid. I get to say it four times, but this is my first. My oldest graduates from college with a BS in Biomedical Engineering this weekend. He will immediately start his PhD program. A paid gig. No longer on mommy and daddy’s dole. That makes him [...]
So Shut Up!
Wiktionary Says: Didactic teaching: teaching from textbooks rather than laboratory demonstration and clinical application. Dialectic teaching: Any formal system of reasoning that arrives at the truth by the exchange of logical arguments. A new bit of research caught my eye this week: A student researcher working with four and five year olds with language delays [...]
The Last Supper
Quick! What’s wrong with this picture? How about this one? If you guessed that there’s bread on the table (during PASSOVER), you win. But that’s not the answer that’s been running around the science news. A recent analysis of Last Supper paintings from the last millennium (who knew they have had the Last Supper [...]
Sensitive or Capable?
Years of pop psychology have convinced us that the goal of a parent is to raise a sensitive child. We want empathy, sympathy, caring. We are told that children who display these gifts are endearing, fun, interesting. And as long as their environment is totally stable, apparently, they do just great. But a new study [...]
Why Kids Believe Weird Things
Near the end of Michael Shermer’s “Why People Believe Weird Things,” a book well worth reading as we confront the issue of critical thinking skills and how they affect science education, I ran into one of the weirdest things of them all. If it weren’t backed up by tons of evidence, I might think Shermer [...]
