Growing up in a different era meant experiencing a childhood that would probably give modern parents a heart attack. The parenting style of the Boomer
Last Saturday, Ellie came running in from the backyard absolutely covered in mud — hair matted, fingernails black, the biggest grin I’ve ever seen. She’d
There’s a phrase that floats around when people talk about difficult childhoods: “They were doing their best.” It’s meant to be comforting, I suppose. A
The other morning at the community garden, I was chatting with another mom while our kids dug in the dirt. She kept apologizing for different
I was folding laundry the other day when Ellie came running in, breathless and muddy, clutching a handful of dandelions she’d picked from our backyard.
Last Thanksgiving, my mother reached for Milo’s plate to cut his food into smaller pieces—for the third time that evening. He’s two. He was doing
Being a grandparent is one of life’s greatest joys, but let me tell you—it’s also one of its trickiest balancing acts. You want to be
Last Saturday at the farmers’ market, I overheard a grandmother telling her daughter, “In my day, we didn’t coddle children like this.” Her tone was
Here’s something nobody tells you when you first become a parent: you won’t fully understand the weight of your choices until years—sometimes decades—later. When my
Looking back on my own childhood, I realize now just how much my parents gave up without ever making a big deal about it. And
Look, I won’t pretend to have it all figured out, but here’s something I’ve been thinking about lately: the words we use to survive our
Parenting standards change. What was considered normal in one generation looks questionable—or even shocking—to the next. Fathers in the 1970s and 80s operated under completely
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