Last night I came across this – on Free Range Kids, about an incident in which the authorities were called when a mother allowed her 8-year old to play in a nearby park, alone. I was struck by how much has changed in a generation. I grew up “set loose” in the afternoon after school, […]
Playing by the Rules
I find myself sitting in traffic. It’s a dangerous intersection of off-ramps and commercial roadways, with a confusing tangle of turns and lights. But it’s past rush hour and before lunch. Not too bad, I think. I’ll make it through in five or six minutes. Most of the drivers are waiting patiently. Inching forward as […]
Particle Physics
We’ve been staying up until all hours, often working side by side. On the couch. Or he’s on the couch and I’m in an adjoining room plopped in a chair, plugging away on my laptop. He watches me scowl in exasperation, shuffle through stacks of pages, then tap furiously on my keyboard for a long […]
Semantic Issues
Pens, pencils, textbooks. The computer. Dirty dishes. It’s all heaped on the edge of the couch and the small ottoman next to his long limbs. He’s twisted up in an old comforter, and out cold. I touch his arm and he opens his eyes. “I don’t need to print this morning,” he murmurs, and turns […]
What Is the REAL Problem? Having It All or Doing It All?
Are we confusing “having it all” with “doing it all?”
Spinning Your Wheels
There are times your goal is visible, and it seems, just out of reach. If I can push myself a little longer, you think, and so you do. You push. Hard. You develop a habit of pushing yourself that becomes the routine of your mornings and your afternoons, the standard transition into night’s long hours, […]
IVF, Older Mothers, Emma Thompson, Aging Out
Howard’s End was on the tube last evening – a film I love, among other things, for two of my favorite British actors. Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins. Released in 1992, we see a lovely Thompson at age 33, and Hopkins, then 55. But I was bothered that I hadn’t seen her in many films […]
Ghosts, Goblins, and Ghouls
This week, Gale at Ten Dollar Thoughts wrote about the division of responsibilities among couples – how the lines are drawn when it comes to bringing home the bacon, household chores, childcare, cooking, yard work, and more. As a long-time single parent, my view of domestic duties operates from a different perspective. I’ve raised my […]
No coasting, no toasting. (How to survive chronic lateness.)
I could swear Kim Zolciak was singing Tardy for the Party in my dream. Or was it just the alarm? That horrible tinny pop music that my kid uses to wake him? Only it never wakes him. Me? Another story. So I start the morning routine. Yawning. My eyes burning. Coffee. Even the aroma helps. […]
Endings, Beginnings, and Everything in Between
My propensity for nostalgia hits full swing in Autumn. October in particular seems to activate a melancholic side; the season’s fragile cusp between warmth and chill, between light and dark. I am moodier. I am reminded of endings. Then I give myself a good swift kick, and remember that for every ending, there is a […]