I was chatting with my four-year-old cousin (who is a 35-year-old New Yorker stuck in the body of a toddler). She was asking me all sorts of inappropriate, sweaty-palm inducing questions like: Did you grow your babies in your tummy, and how did your babies get into your tummy. After I answered affirmatively to the babies in […] Read more…
Archive of ‘Bad Parent’ category
Teaching The Intangibles, Part II: Gratitude
When the nurse laid my first sweet little baby boy in my arms right after his birth I looked at that squishy little innocent face and swore I would be the best mom in the world. Which for the next ten months meant catering to his every need: feeding him when he was hungry, rocking him when he […] Read more…
Teaching the Intangibles: Part I
Last night my seven-year-old son played the first game of his competitive soccer career. Have you ever watched a John Hughes movie where the white suburban kid is about to learn a major life lesson at great personal embarrassment and expense? So that ‘s pretty much how this game went down. As my son and his […] Read more…
Tooting Your Kids Horn
Dear readers, how many of you have ever had the pleasure of having a conversation with a colleague or acquaintance that goes something like this: “My son has been invited to be on the competitive soccer team. He’s such a gifted player.” Usually they tell you this right after they tell you about their fabulous […] Read more…
Relaxing Makes Me Too Uptight
It’s that time of year again. The seven day stretch of time that I attempt to shut off my cell phone, stop checking email, and let my backup handle my clients’ immediate needs. Theoretically I should be looking forward to this time with blisssful anticipation. In practice I become a a raving lunatic. If you’ve ever watched the […] Read more…
The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree
Throughout my career and from time to time, management asks me to go through the exercise of filling out a professional version of the Cosmo quiz to figure out who I am and how to fix me – errr, help me reach my potential. In my twenties I found these “professional personality tests” fascinating. Mostly […] Read more…
Birthday Wishes
Birthdays are annual milestones by which we measure our life’s progress. We dread them, we embrace them, we celebrate them, and sometimes we try to bribe the office admin to not send out a reminder email to the entire office that it is our birthday that week. My personal favorite was my 25th birthday when me and […] Read more…
Tripping Out
One of the great joys in my life has always been travel. When I was younger and worked in politics the extensive traveling I did during campaign season was exciting and interesting. It was the chance for my wide-eyed twenty something year old self to explore and experiencing the world. In my thirties, as a mom, I traveled […] Read more…
The Joy of Cooking
As every working mother with children of a certain age know, Mother’s Day is also judgement day. It’s the day your young child makes you a gift at school that usually requires them choosing some descriptive words about how they experience you as a mother: nice, loving, caring, time-challenged, insane. And the best part is […] Read more…
The F**ked Up Things We Say To Our Kids
I’ve always thought of myself as feminist. I consider myself a strong, independent woman. So I’m not quite sure what possessed me to say to my son in response to his request for help with his video game that: “girls don’t play video games. You’ll have to wait until your father gets home for help.” […] Read more…