Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking… Trying to wake the kid. Rushing to get his lunch made. Hoping the car will start. Scrambling to get things done hours earlier than usual, and “usual” is pretty damn early. Crossing my fingers that I make it to the dealership. Pleading for no traffic. Counting on that loaner. […]
Silence is Golden, Sort Of
No need to dress. No need to drive. No need to cook – heating a frozen dinner in the microwave was just fine. And not one word. No need to speak at all, for 36 hours. Bliss. Yesterday was my first day off in two months. No parenting, no worrying, no checking a clock or […]
Tough Call
Trusting our teens as they learn to make their own tough calls.
Random Acts of Parenting
I thought it would be a quiet weekend. It was. A little too quiet. My son seemed off. I couldn’t put my finger on it. Though he had friends over one evening, there were two nights in a row when he was up at strange hours, walking around. Not his usual behavior. But with adolescents, […]
Flipping the switch
On parenting, on pending Empty Nest, on making a difference.
Travel Day
It’s here. Again. A day of last minute laundry and packing, goodbyes, airports. The house, suddenly so quiet, as my teenager prepares to fly back to college. To begin his sophomore year. It was an evening of more loads of wash than I can count, the heap of luggage in the living room finally emptied, […]
Numbers Do Not Lie
We’d been at it for several hours, side by side, each of us on our laptops. Spread on the small ottoman pressing against my knees were stacks of old tax forms. On the chair beside me, two more folders with notes and figures. We actually began the process days ago, but I couldn’t continue, and […]
The life behind the face
I am the face of the aftermath of divorce, the aftermath of layoff, the aftermath of defeat. I am the face of invisible illness, of piercing isolation, of daily hide-and-seek. Would you know me if you saw me? I am your neighbor, your colleague, your sister; I am the woman who yells at the cashier […]
Parenting Teens: Tips from a Professional Post Party Parent
Are you parenting partying teens? Care to hear my ten tips for surviving party chaos? For surviving normal chaos? The planned, the unplanned, the assumed stuff of parenting pandemonium? Yes, it’s Sunday morning. (Insert *sigh* of relief.) Yes, for the moment it’s quiet. (Sigh number two.) No teenagers as yet stirring in the kitchen, after […]
Sink or Swim
Fond of clichés? Don’t they breeze into our minds and tumble out of our mouths faster than a speeding bullet? Catchy little phrases stick, don’t they? Good for what ails you? A quick fix? Oh yeah – tidy gems to sum up the world’s wisdom, like life isn’t fair, you get what you pay for, […]