When Rita heard the roar of the bus engine and the wheesh of the brakes, her ears perked up. She knows those sounds. They mean it’s time for the first of her boys to come …
I read somewhere a long time ago that a dog is about as intelligent as a 3-year-old. I read somewhere recently that a dog can understand only about 20 words, which means someone’s either underestimating …
It sounds frivolous to compare the New York Times to a children’s Web site and instant movie access, but those are the economic facts at my house.
Club Penguin: $12 a month – $6 per kid. …
He looks around among his friends and sees only a few women in green. It was inevitable that the question would come up.
“Mommy, why aren’t there many girls in the Army?” Big Guy asked.
There are …
Looking for a social media strategist? There’s one particular group that recently did an exceptional job of compiling the important information, explaining without talking down, laying out policies and backing them up with salient case …
Can I get an amen from everyone tired of eating off the kids’ menu?
OK, so maybe those of you with better parenting skills than I don’t suffer through the same cycle of spaghetti, mac and …
My only consolation as I read the note from Boots’ teacher is that he wasn’t the one in trouble this time.
Please talk to your children about not having boyfriends and girlfriends at school, she wrote. …
Note to Florida Rep. Kelli Stargel: I’ve already passed kindergarten. Second grade, too! Therefore, it really doesn’t matter what my kids’ teachers think about my performance. I’ve earned a diploma and a degree. It’s the …
Content warning: Germophobes are strongly advised to don protective gear before reading this post. The rest of us should quickly buy stock in companies that manufacture face masks.
It was supposed to be a science project …
It’s an event almost as foreseeable as predicting that someone this week will call today’s kids “the dumbest generation”:
A family will “unplug” – shed all electronics for an arbitrary period. Let’s say, oh, six months. …
We’ve been on a Harry Potter kick lately, watching them as fast as Netflix can deliver them after Big Guy started begging because he didn’t like it that friends had seen something he hadn’t.
Big Guy …
There’s name calling, and then there’s name calling.
We have zero tolerance for one kind in our house: Anything that’s gender, race or sexual preference-based. I called Big Guy out recently for saying, “that’s so gay,” …
“They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it – seems that only children weep.” – To Kill A Mockingbird
It was a dog and a …
The guys have an unfortunate addiction: Graham crackers and milk for breakfast. We could go through a box every three days, at $2 per “on sale” at the commissary.
I thought that price was bad until …
As long as they’re still selling Milk Bones, there is no reason for a normal person to make dog treats.
When a 5-year-old gets an Easy Bake oven from Santa and a dog treat set complete …
Back in the days Before Children, weekend plans were simple:
Friday night, a drink after work or maybe dinner out.
Saturday night, a dance club capped off with a trip to an all-night pancake house where I’d …
“I am heavier than him uh huh.”
“That is shinier than that yep it is.”
“I am happier than him OK right.”
Overlook the confusion about usage of he/him. I’ll work on that one later. Right now, I’d …
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before – and if you have a chronic medical condition, you probably have.
One drug works so-so, or not at all to control your symptoms. This is the one …
I can’t remember their name, though it was burned in my brain at the time. Just seeing it on the reservation list was enough to make me want to fake a case of bubonic plague …
It’s not that I had the “bad math experience” in school that a recent newspaper article talks about – though I’m not sure what a “bad math experience” is because the article never defines it.
At …
There’s a heaping helping of irony in the fact that Saturday’s assassination attempt on an Arizona congresswoman by a man associates say is “very disturbed” has forced the right into the same box Muslims have …
A little more than a year after Dad’s departure, his return is getting close.
Tantalizingly close. Not close enough to order the balloons or bake the cake, but near enough that we can see that it’s …
There’s a gulf in our house that’s even bigger than gap between the Digital Native (the guys) v. Early Settlers (me).
That’s the Whole Wheat Native v. Adult Converts.
I didn’t grow up on whole wheat. I …
I say all the right things when the guys ask about Rita, and I go through all the motions when she comes up and nuzzles me.
But when they ask I lie, because they wouldn’t understand. …
The guys’ backpacks are camouflage. Their lunch boxes, though, are Buzz Lightyear. We have a camouflage model left over from last year, and since only one guy takes his lunch these days that means they’d …
For Big Guy it fell into the category of Things That Are Really Important. That meant he was going to keep pestering me until I got around to making it happen.
For me it fell into …
Mommy, am I Student A or Student B, Big Guy asked.
Huh?
Am I Student A or Student B, out of the ones in my school folder.
I was stunned that he’d read his school folder, especially given …
You know the mess is getting annoying when it’s bothering the slob in the family, a friend muttered as she stared at the pile of dishes in the sink.
It was only an afternoon’s worth, but …