You know those days when you’ve planned an end-of-school swim & BBQ party for your child’s classmates on the last day of school but horrid weather.com alerts you that there’s a 70% chance of it pissing rain on the day of your party so you move mountains to switch it today? – You carefully go [...]

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 [...]

This is another update on how the New Rules thing at our house is going down (and I do mean down, as into the abyss). It isn’t going well.

OK, ohmyGod: they’ve started an Occupy Movement in Fiona’s room.

Two days ago, I “crossed a Mommy line.”

I’m reading The Aquariums of Pyongyang, a book about N. Korea. Ella saw it today and asked me to tell her what North Korea is like – so I told her how it’s a communist country that was created by Russia after WW II, how Kim Jong-Il and his son, Kim Jong-Un imprison hundreds of thousands [...]

Something kind of extraordinary happened in the Safeway cafe yesterday. I posted it on my Facebook page, but it was such a moving tale of the love a parent has for a child that I’m posting it here, too.

We live in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, a region rife with over-achievers. You get on 270 to drive somewhere and you’ll encounter all kinds of Very Important People on their busy way in to “the Hill” or to the White House or whatever important place they need to get to. Even the aircraft is [...]

Make your bed everyday. (Why? Because it shows that you care.) Wash your hands – but not obsessively. And don’t make a big deal about germs with your kids. A little bit of dirty is good for everyone. Don’t pick scabs, at least not in public. Learn how to be a good listener. It’s one [...]