Do Childless Folks Have a Valid Opinion About Parenting?
Okay, taking fun photos with the webcam aside, how would you answer the question of whether childless folks — your sister, your friend, the checkout lady at the market, a New York Times writer — have opinions about childrearing you should take to heart? It’s a tough question. Have you looked back — with honesty — about the things you thought, assumed, presumed about parenting before you had kids? Can you replay a little film in your head, a montage of times you said things to parents you knew at the time that you cringe at now? On the other …Keep Reading
IPhones are a Privilege, Not a Right (or, my ode to the mom who created an iPhone contract for her son)
Did you hear about the mom who, when she gave her 13-year-old son an iPhone for Christmas last year, followed up the gift with a 18-point contract that he had to sign in order to use his phone? It was aaaall over the Internet at the time, and the mom, a writer named Janell Burley Hofmann, was all over TV, along with her son. It was as though they were (the best kind of) circus attraction; so out of the ordinary as to draw oohing and ahhing crowds. So fascinating! How did she do that? My feeling at the time …Keep Reading
I Don’t Think Watching “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” Will Turn My Sons Into Bullies.
Just read a blog post on Babble.com that decries the latest danger that must be kept from our kids. Ready? It’s Charlie Brown. Well, specifically, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!”, because this 46-year-old* piece of beloved Americana threatens to turn your kid into a bad-mouther at best, and a bully at worst. Or something. The writer, Buzz Bishop, describes in the post, titled “It’s Time to Retire, Charlie Brown,” that when he and his Halloween-mad wife sat down for their annual viewing of the show with their five- and 12-year-old sons, they suddenly realized that, uh-oh, this has to …Keep Reading
Are Smartphones Making Our Kids Lonely?
Last weekend, we took the boys to a local frozen-yogurt place — a treat because, after we pushed Daniel hard to study for his science quiz on the parts of a cell (which, as an aside, seem to have more parts than they did when I first learned about nuclei and mitochondria), he got a 100%! While we sat there, me with my salted-caramel yogurt (there is a God, by the way, because of caramel), a handful of young girls walked in. And then another handful. And another. Turns out they were all together. Our first thought, when we ascertained …Keep Reading
What Swimming Lessons Taught Me About Letting Kids Fail (And Why Madeline Levine is My New Hero)
My children finished up their annual six weeks of day camp last Friday. We tried a different camp this year, partly because our friends were switching and we do a bit of carpooling; partly because it’s less expensive than even the relatively inexpensive YMCA the boys have been going to for four previous years; and partly because the camp, run by our town’s recreation department and held at a large local park, offers daily swimming lessons (the drawback to this camp is the infernal, can’t-escape-it, snack culture). I have a bit of a thing about wanting my children to be …Keep Reading
My Olympic Moment: How Do Ordinary Sports Parents Become … Well, Crazy Sports Parents?
Did everyone see this clip, of the parents of U.S. Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman? They are not just feeling what most parent would feel while watching their child compete, at any level: the sense that you hope like hell that she won’t fall/that he’ll save the goal/that she makes the point. No, Mr. and Mrs. Raisman were living their little girl’s every move. Doing the moves for her in their heads, even with their bodies. It was excruciating to watch. I don’t ever want to be that parent. We have a little bit of Olympic fever in our house. Well, …Keep Reading
Are American Kids Spoiled? What’s Your Verdict?
Spoiled kids. It’s a big topic — and often a misunderstood one. What do we actually mean by spoiling? 1. Are we saying an unspoiled kid is like a perfect ripe peach, and a spoiled kid is a piece of fruit in which rot has set in? Like, there’s nothing you can do? 2. Is spoiling what my grandmother might have said would happen if you picked up your newborn too often? 3. Is spoiling what happens when parents spend a lot of money on their kids? 4. Are spoiled kids the same as indulged, over-protected, entitled kids? Me, …Keep Reading
