Zeal and appeal over keeping it real?
Women, Education and Parenting: Tough Choices, No-Brainers
Work. Kids. Priorities…
JLo? Really?
Celebrity divorce news is hardly news. It seems that so-called Hollywood power couples jump in and out of marriages (and engagements, for that matter) the way most of us switch diets. The most recent split to catch my eye? Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony of course, announced earlier this week. Somehow this marital meltdown seems […]
Apathy Into Action
It’s Saturday morning. It’s raining. I’d love to linger in bed and turn my daily writing exercise to flights of fancy, or the latest tales of teenage folly around my little household. But given the discussion this past week – of very real and pressing social ills that affect millions of us – I prefer to point […]
Challenging Kids, Knee-Jerk Reactions, Band-Aid Responses
Who doesn’t want to scream when it comes to their kid? At least now and then? In the past 24 hours, one of my sons tried my patience over a long-running issue. I lost my temper – though he admits to seeing that I was holding back – but I went for a more hard-line […]
Feeding Your Spirit
I was browsing the Living section on Huffington Post and came across this: Spiritual Lessons From Wine And Baguettes. How could I bypass so tasty a title? Especially as today is Bastille Day – the French national holiday? And, I confess, I have allowed myself a bit of both this summer – good wine and […]
Healthy or Unhealthy? Cultural Commentary: A Conversation
“Why should my tax dollars pay for your medical care?” she says. Her blue eyes are piercing against her softly tanned skin. Her eyebrows are raised, and her lips pursed in annoyance. At first I think she’s kidding. But she’s not. She is about thirty, and we know each other casually. She’s healthy, single, in […]
Disclosure
Everything about the woman was foreign territory. Yes, she was polite. Yes, she smiled often. Yet her reserve kept her at a distance, holding everyone at bay. I wondered if it was the age, or the fact that she was married and living the suburban lifestyle with a husband and child. The rest of us […]
Big Bucks For Kids, Statistical Confusion?
I’ve commented previously on the cost of raising a child. At the time I did, the figures I used referenced newly released 2010 data, estimating $222,360 per child, on average (for middle income families), up to age 18. But this morning I took a look at another reference to the same originating document which is […]
Sometimes, You Give In
I am dreaming of Hillary Rodham Clinton and the face I see is the one I remember with clarity: she is bright and youthful, her hair pulled back and secured by a head band, her earnest expression we come to know at the beginning of her husband’s first presidential campaign. And in the dream I […]