Parenting
I blame my wife.
My home is slightly disorganized and cluttered, but my kids are incredibly happy and love books and music and libraries and museums. Both are my wife’s fault.
Read MoreMom and Dad Are Fighting: The Back to School Edition
I appeared on Slate’s parenting podcast Mom and Dad Are Fighting this week, discussing what parents can do in the first week of school to help ensure the success of their children. You can listen here:
Read MoreHow to make a reader in one easy, high effective step
My daughter can read. She’s six years-old and started first grade yesterday, and that girl can legitimately read books. Hard books. Real books. She can read books that I can’t believe she can read. My girl is a reader. And she loves to read. And her brother is only three years-old and can’t read yet,…
Read MoreHow to annoy a child
As an elementary school teacher for the last 17 years, I have learned many ways to annoy a child. Here are just a few: If asked, declare that you have no favorite number. If asked, declare that you have no favorite color. Refuse to divulge your own middle name. Ask a child how many fingers he…
Read MoreMy daughter manages money better than most Americans. And unlike me, her savings weren’t eaten by a dog named after a video game.
For almost a year, my six year-old daughter, Clara, has been saving her allowance and birthday money for a dollhouse that she saw at Barnes & Noble one day. Clara receives $1 per week (plus additional quarters for the completion of additional chores), of which she divides amongst her long term, short term, and charity jars.…
Read MoreThe blend of happiness and sadness, pride and envy of the working day is easy on some days. Impossibly hard on others. Also, my son needs to get himself a job.
It’s not uncommon to hear about my wife’s day home with our son or the times that they have spent with friends at a coffee shop or a playground or a gym class and feel incredibly jealous for this time that she has enjoyed at home with our kids. It’s an odd tug, to be…
Read MoreIt’s your booger.
I was wrestling with my two year-old son. He was climbing all over me. Squeezing my face. Tickling me. Standing on my chest. Throwing himself onto my head. Then he stopped. Frowned. Pointed at my chest. “Ew,” he said. “Yucky! What dat?” I looked. I saw. “That’s your booger, Charlie. Your giant booger on my…
Read More30 lessons learned from six years of parenting
My daughter celebrated her sixth birthday on Sunday. When she turned two years-old, I posted a list of lessons learned from two years of parenting. I updated that list when she turned four. In truth, I raised a step-daughter for ten years as well, so I’ve been a parent a lot longer than just six…
Read MoreWhen do you allow your child to quit an activity? Also, entering into contractual agreements with your child is insane.
In the Washington Post, Katherine Reynolds Lewis writes about when it’s acceptable to let your child quit an activity and how do you handle the anger that children express when forced to continue with something that they don’t like. She and her his husband have used a strategy that I will call contractual commitment: We…
Read MoreA New Year’s resolution for all experienced parents: Silence the small, sad and stupid. Allow expecting parents to be expectant.
Now that I’ve posted my New Year’s resolutions for 2015, I have a New Year’s resolution suggestion for all parents: Spend the next year (or even better, the rest of your life) telling expecting and first time parents that children are joyous miracles, and that being a parent is a remarkable and rewarding journey. Pour…
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