Mother’s Day is around the corner. Uh-oh. 

Like the rest of the country, I’ve been following the Steubenville rape case, disgusted. Today I saw this headline: Steubenville Rapist to Appeal Because “His Brain Wasn’t Fully Developed Yet.” Seriously? It reminds me of the absurdity of the Twinkie defense in the Harvey Milk case back in the 70s. The brain doesn’t fully mature until [...]

When I look back at memories I have from birth to age 12 of my childhood, I’m stunned at how little I actually remember of it or of my mother.

This post was originally posted last year, just after the death of singer Whitney Houston.

Alcoholism is one of the leading causes of a dysfunctional family in the US. As of 2001, there were an estimated 26.8 million children of alcoholics (COAs) in the United States, with as many as 11 million of them under the age of 18.

This week I tweeted that well, I’m happy, so something must certainly be wrong because I’ve usually got something to kvetch about, right? The truth is, I’ve been content and happy for weeks now, so of course, with my background, I began to get worried – like maybe the sky may fall in or something. [...]

I’ve used the term ACOA (Adult Children of Alcoholics) for something like 30 years, but not until now have I ever actually associated the word “child” with the word “alcoholic” because I never imagined that alcoholism could happen to a child. You could be a child of an alcoholic, but I never thought a child [...]

This week’s Listicles topic over at NorthWest Mommy is a good one (what week isn’t?) – 10 Things My Parents Did Right, chosen by Lisa over at The Sprog. I’m amending it to 10 Things My Alcoholic Parents Taught Me, because that’s basically what this blog is about: me writing about how my alcoholic parents [...]

“She said to go ahead and feel the feelings. I did. They felt like shit.” — Anne Lamott My sister called. As soon as I heard her voice, I thought of the Coldplay song Every Tear Drop Is A Waterfall. For her – it is. She was crying. She had just come from the hospital. Her [...]

I got a voice mail from my sister, who I haven’t written about before now on this blog. Due to coming from an alcoholic family with two alcoholic parents, we’ve been a teensy bit alienated.