Yesterday, I had a kid home from school with strep throat. She’d already been to the doctor, so she was kinda sick, but not as sick as she had been, and what she wanted to do more than anything else was hang out on the sofa in her pajamas and watch The Hunger Games. WhatContinue reading “Elbow Room”
Category Archives: Politically correct parenthood
Read it and Weep, or What Have We Wrought?
“The Overprotected Kid: A preoccupation with safety has stripped childhood of independence, risk taking, and discovery—without making it safer…” (The Atlantic, April 2014) The gap between what people fear (abduction by a stranger) and what’s actually happening (family turmoil and custody battles) is revealing. What has changed since the 1970s is the nature of the AmericanContinue reading “Read it and Weep, or What Have We Wrought?”
Slice of Life
I haven’t read the book yet (it comes out today), but this is from Sunday’s NY Times Q & A with Debora Spar, President of Barnard and author of Wonder Women: Sex, Power and the Quest for Perfection: “….I raced home from work, I was putting dinner on the table, and I was racing outContinue reading “Slice of Life”
Treading Water: or, The Deep End
This is it, then. The lovely nutmeat of the summer. The musty smell of tomatoes pulled from the vine; the scent of sun-baked dirt before the afternoon’s rain storm. Sweat that teases the hair at the nape of Elder Girleen’s neck into tendrils; the beautiful, enveloping ache of refrigerated air when we finally get theContinue reading “Treading Water: or, The Deep End”
The End of the World as We Know It?
So… Elder Girleen’s elementary school is holding a Walk to School Day next month. Because… Well, you know. Kids don’t. Walk to school. We don’t. Our excuse: we live 2.14 miles from school, and there’s no bus (another story). I tell myself that if we lived only a tenth of a mile from school, we would,Continue reading “The End of the World as We Know It?”
In the Trenches
Mildly (it’s to be hoped) entertaining anecdotes about squirrels and cupcakes set in playgrounds aside, I’ve spent a heck of a lot of time in City of Atlanta parks this summer, and being in such places has made me think. About what? Oh, among other things … littering; our tax dollars; how children socialize andContinue reading “In the Trenches”
Word of the Day
Abnegation. A word I’ve never had the slightest opportunity to use. Denial, the dictionary has to say about it, particularly self-denial. I have so little self-denial! a person might say coyly when presented with — particularly this time of year — a plate of goodies, just before they reconsider — oh, well, on second thought!Continue reading “Word of the Day”
Food For Thought…
First grade. Those first few weeks as the family transitions back into the school year schedule can be a killer. Elder Girleen has bags under her eyes like she’s been cramming for a final, but honest, Ms. M the First Grade Teacher, she’s in bed by eight! Last night, though, I know she wasContinue reading “Food For Thought…”
Cooperation/Corporation, Continued
Spring has sprung here in the ‘hood. Painting crews are blasting conjunto music while they scrape and prep houses in a repainting ritual that seems to take place every spring. The lenten roses, green belles of the early spring ball, are laden with demure blossoms. The Bradford pear trees are a confectionary of exploded cottonContinue reading “Cooperation/Corporation, Continued”
Cooperation/Corporation
Part One Mornings when I take Elder Girleen to school, I usually hang around for fifteen minutes for Morning Meeting, a daily occurrence that involves 360 drowsy kids with sleep still in their eyes sitting criss-cross applesauce on the floor of the auditorium for a couple of announcements, a song or two and a factualContinue reading “Cooperation/Corporation”
