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.
I don't know ...
This is about the day I finally got to meet Czeslaw Milosz, the Nobel laureate who could tell me about my grandfather.
As you may know, my mother was a complete mystery to me. For a long time my sister and I didn't even know what country ...
I’m back from 10 days of me-time in California, and I’m shocked at how well my husband has done as Mr. Mom. Shocked! I don’t know what I expected – to see the house in a shambles, possibly even burned down? People fainting with relief ...
It's sad, when I think about how there really isn't anyone on my side of the family for my children to "know" (because my parents died, and the rest of them live in far-flung countries, and my sister lives across the country...). My husband's family ...
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 age 26. Does this mean we can all commit crimes unimpeded up until we’re 26?
Writing yesterday’s post about my mom dredged up the sad stuff for me. Since writing it I haven’t been able to get far enough away from that image of the 7-year-old me putting that blanket over my mom and me on the floor because I couldn’t drag her by her feet to bed. I can’t get over the thought of me cuddling up to my mom-who-was-passed-out and falling asleep with her on the floor like that. No wonder I was terrified of molecules. Other children were scared of normal things – the monster in the closet, the ghoul under the bed. But I was afraid of molecules, which were everywhere, all the time. No wonder.
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. Read the Rest »
Are you interested in your child’s education? Well, duh. Of course you are. (-:
Watch this video by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renown education and creativity expert. It’s definitely worth watching. A friend was telling me she had seen a “fascinating video about the history of education that also shows a map of how the (so-called) ADHD epidemic spread across the U.S. It shows how there aren’t too many prescriptions in California but then the epidemic starts up somewhere in the mid-west and by the time you get to Washington D.C. (where I am, a place I call the Land of Over-Achievey Parents), it peaks.”
My latest parenting mistake which I blame on my ADHD: Fi got cast as Tiger Lily in our school play (Peter Pan) so I immediately panicked. I ordered 4 (or 5) different styles of inexpensive Indian costumes on Amazon. And some plastic American Indian jewelry. And a hundred feathers and 3 headbands and stuff to make headbands in case the pre-made headbands didn’t work out. And two types of Indian feather earrings. And mocassins!
After all the stuff arrived, after we had put it all together to create the perfect American Indian costume, I found out that the school had revised Peter Pan to be “politically correct” – they took out the mermaids, removed the slang, changed the “Lost Boys” to the gender-neutral “Lost Children,” and changed the Indians to NATIVE ISLANDERS with nary a FEATHER to be had! Apparently, politically correct natives wear HULA SKIRTS and LEIS!
Who ever heard of a Tiger Lily without the iconic feather?
Now I have to go scare up a hula girl, and I’m tired. Scampering around like I do to keep one-step ahead of forgetting things is exhausting.
Next Halloween, whether they like it or not, my kids are going as a tribe of politically-incorrect Indians.
