Posts under ‘parenting’

I Made a Video!

Have you played around with this site xtranormal.com? You can make animated videos of your writing, and it is a seriously fun way to spend more time that you have available to you. I decided to turn my recent blog post about bad parenting into a movie. Now, instead of reading about how you are [...]

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Why You Are a Bad Parent (Mother) and How to Fix It

Image credit: Photo by katrinket on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons So, have your read the recent New York Times article on toddlers and iPhones? It's shocking and alarming! More and more parents (oh, ok, moms -- only one nameless man is mentioned in the entire article and we are not told how he handles [...]

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I’m Late, I’m Late, I’m Late

Image credit: Photo by aesop on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons The school secretary looked at me over the top of her glasses. The look clearly said, "Oh. It's you again. The mom who can't be bothered to get her child to school on time." She knows my daughter and me, which is not a [...]

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Autism as an Invisible Disability

As promised, I am over guest posting today on Amy Julia Becker's blog Thin Places about autism, invisible disability and acceptance. And here's your teaser... My son Austen* looks like most nine-year-olds, except perhaps a bit taller, with long legs that carry him swiftly across the ground as he races you to the car or [...]

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Rules Kids Won’t Learn in School

Image credit: Photo by TheeErin on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons A few of my real life friends have forwarded around "rules that kids don't learn in school" from the book Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can't Read, Write, or Add by Charles J. Sykes (not Bill Gates, [...]

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In Which I Admit I’m a Little Crazy

Image credit: Photo by anyjazz65 on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons My son wanted to go to bed early the other night. Now you wouldn't think that this would be cause for alarm. There are lots of good reasons for him to be tired. Summer break is over. Fourth grade has started. The kids are [...]

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Happy Independence Day

I have been meaning to write a post about why I haven't been writing many posts lately, but go figure, for all the reasons I haven't written about yet, I haven't finished it. So, I'm going to take the excellent suggestion offered by Wendy of Renewing Ruined Cities, who said I should consider re-posting some [...]

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At Any Given Moment

Image credit: Photo by Cayusa on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons The scene: Janie's elementary school. A first grade girl is throwing a huge, spectacular tantrum. She is alternately thrashing on the ground and trying to kick, hit and even bite her own mother as dozens of well-behaved, polite children walk past.  Passersby are shocked [...]

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Routines

Image credit: Photo by Bob.Fornal on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons If you had asked me, before Austen was born, if nearly every detail of my life was fixed in routine, I would have said no, and I would have thought that was quite true. After all, I had free will and all that. If [...]

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Are Bloggers Like Me Crazy?

Image credit: Photo by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons "I hate that you don't have a blog," said a woman about to undergo heart surgery, as she gazed sincerely up at her boyfriend, "I hate that I don't know what you're thinking." Mark and I burst into raucous laughter and had [...]

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