My husband and I once walked this planet as part of the species known as the Smug Parent-To-Be. All-knowing, we wielded The Family Edict on just how things would be in our house. Our children would always act in love and no games involving weapons would be allowed. We would have children that only knew [...]
There are plenty of great reasons to convert to Judaism; but the one that’s making me seriously consider the switch is Christmas. Christmas doesn’t make me grumpy anymore, the way it did when I was younger. In fact, I’ve grown to really appreciate the family gatherings, the feasts, the music (in small doses), and even [...]
My kids are hoarders. I know this because every time I enter one of their rooms, one of them is hiding all of the old mail that was SUPPOSED to go out with the recycling. You’d think they could hoard something cooler, like kittens or diamonds, but no, not MY kids. My kids are all [...]
The other day I was cruising the toy store aisles and was struck by all of the “old is new” toy characters on the shelf: Strawberry Shortcake, He-Man, the Smurfs, Transformers, Cabbage Patch dolls, Alvin and the Chipmunks. I could go on, but you get the point. Clearly, characters created in the early 80′s are [...]
I love the movie Tangled. You know what was stupid? Buying the doll from Tangled. Rapunzel entered our home a princess with a dream, but has since decided to engage in some sort of multicultural identity crisis evidenced by her nascent attempts to incorporate dreadlocks into her hairstyle repertoire. Not a good look for her. [...]
I have a small beef with the Vtech people. My youngest boy, Tom, loves his Mobigo. It’s brilliant for keeping him occupied in the back of the car on long and short journeys. I have no complaints. It is what it is. A hard wearing games console for the under 5’s. For his birthday this [...]
I am the anti-hoarder. I’m constantly stuffing things my family doesn’t use (though they might argue that point – who knew that backpack contained my husband’s Blackberry?) into sacks for Goodwill. The amount of stuff in my house refuses to lessen, though. The problem is that my husband and I are voracious thrift shoppers. We are [...]
On top of my refrigerator you will find pans and a rice cooker. Oh, and a big ass box of Misused Toys. The refrigerator is where light sabers go when they’ve Jedi mastered everything on the mantel. It’s where baseballs land when a fastball gets perfected in the family room. It’s where the Life! Like! [...]
“Give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and your kid won’t be living in your basement at 36 years old and not paying rent or buying groceries.” That’s the saying, right? Confidence that comes from self reliance is not a birthright. It’s taught. But. How do you [...]
Up until several months ago my life was a perfect model of balance (*cough, cough*)—a model of perfect balance until a certain friend and her husband introduced me to some goofy game, the premise of which involves enraged birds, aloof swine, and flimsy-looking structures begging to be knocked down. Some friends. This game—this stupid, trivial, [...]
A package just arrived with my name on it… Tadaaa! It’s a BlackBerry Torch!
Game nights in our house are often a disaster. It takes longer for our kids to agree on a game than to actually play one. Once we do finally start playing, one kid will start bragging and then the other will start raging about the bragging and then we get snippy about the bragging and [...]
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