Why I’m Taking Parenting Advice from a Cartoon Turtle

June 11, 2018 / Shannon Brescher Shea / Leave a comment

Why I’m Taking Parenting Advice from a Cartoon Turtle (Image: The cartoon turtle named Crush from the movie Finding Nemo)

“Let’s start school in a year or two. Clearly you’re not ready and you’re not coming back until you are. You think you can do these things, but you just can’t, Nemo!” said a puppeteer holding a cartoon fish. I immediately burst into tears. Heavy weeping wracked my body as I tried to stay quiet.

“Are you okay?” my husband leaned over and asked.

“Noooo,” I whispered between tears. I absolutely was not okay. Because that cartoon fish dad was me and I was him and we were both utterly unprepared for our kids to be starting school.

I did not expect to have a parenting epiphany at Animal Kingdom in Disney World, but there we were. (Although maybe I should have, considering I had one last time we were at Disney World.)

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How to Find Nature in the City and Suburbs

June 6, 2018June 6, 2018 / Shannon Brescher Shea / Leave a comment

It may seem difficult to find nature in the city. But with these eight ideas, you’ll be able to find nature anywhere you go!

How to Find Nature in the City and Suburbs (Photo: Dandelion growing out of a sidewalk)

Flipping over a rock, I ask my kids, “Do you think anyone’s here?”

Spotting a rather large spider scrambling towards my pants leg, I almost drop the rock on my foot. “Ah ah!” I yell and shake my leg. My two and four year old turn to look at me, wondering what on earth just happened. “I just… there was a big spider. Did you see it?”

Despite the spider, we weren’t in a nature preserve or large forest. Instead, we were in a grassy area right behind our house, with a road on one side and a graveyard on the other. Despite living in a semi-urban area, we regularly find ways to encounter nature. I truly believe that you can encounter nature almost anywhere, even in the most urban of locations.

Here are some of our favorite ways to find nature in the city and suburbs:

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What Will Never Change as a Mom

June 4, 2018 / Shannon Brescher Shea / Leave a comment

What Will Never Change as a Mom (Photo: Dark room with animal decorations and crib)

Rocking in the big, yellow chair in my two-year-old’s room, the sweet folk melodies of the Fleet Foxes fill the room. The nightlight shines in the corner, throwing light and shadows on the beige walls.

My son’s little head nuzzles into my shoulder as his eyes close. I rest my lips on the top of his head, feeling his fine hair tickle them. I feel his warm weight leaning into me. Shifting, he climbs up onto my lap facing me, curling his legs under him. Then he’s back to sitting on my lap, his head leaning onto my chest. Every once in a while, he unceremoniously squirms and kicks the arm of the chair, trying to get comfortable. Eventually, he drifts off, his breathing becomes steady and his arms limp. I wrap my arms around him, cradling him as I place him in his crib.

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What I Remember When My Son’s Silliness Frustrates Me

May 28, 2018 / Shannon Brescher Shea / Leave a comment

What I Remember When My Son's Silliness Frustrates Me (Photo: Young white boy with a stuffed frog on his head)

“What did you do at preschool today?” I ask my four-year-old son.

Silence. And then, he yells, “Boobie-chang sweet barbershop!” So much for anything resembling a coherent answer. I will never have any idea what that phrase means.

On other days, I ask that exact same question and I get, “We learned about grasshoppers! Daddy told me that there are grasshoppers that don’t fly!” And we’re off to the races. It’s a barrage of information, but it’s a lucid and informative one.

It can give you whiplash.

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How Parenting Brings Out the Best Contradictions

May 21, 2018May 21, 2018 / Shannon Brescher Shea / Leave a comment

How Parenting Brings Out the Best Contradictions (Photo: Small white boy looking at a pretend giant honey pot)

Hugging my son, I felt him shake a little as thunder clapped and the lights cut out. A booming voice declared, “Oh, I didn’t mean to frighten you prematurely. The real chills come later.”

“That’s the worst part, honey,” I swore to him, squeezing him close. As we walked into the Haunted Mansion’s “doom” buggies at Disney World, I kept glancing at him, taking his emotional temperature. As we rode the ride, I pointed out little jokes and kept up a jovial attitude to help him enjoy himself.

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How to Garden Round the Seasons

May 20, 2018May 20, 2018 / Shannon Brescher Shea / Leave a comment

How to Garden Round the Seasons (Photo: Small child playing in the dirt surrounded by tomato plants)

My beans have wilted, either from the slugs slurping on them or the sun beating down on them. Random holes in my garden are a testament to the birds digging for worms. The squash leaves are full of nibbles. Every year around late spring, I begin to despair about my garden.

Yet every late summer and fall, we have produce fresh from the backyard. (Sometimes bountiful, sometimes less so.) At the end of every year, I find growing my garden worthwhile. It brings our food miles down to zero, ensures my food is totally organic, stores carbon in the soil, creates habitat for animals, and is a wonderful way to bond with my kids.

But how do we go from those spring days to the (semi)-successful harvests? The whole process starts in the winter.

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Why You Should Share Your Struggles with Your Kids

May 16, 2018 / Shannon Brescher Shea / 1 Comment

“Let’s remind each other to be positive and flexible this trip,” I told my four-year-old the day before going on vacation.

“What’s flexible mean?” he asked.

“Being willing to change plans. It’s something I’m working on. We both need to help each other out, okay?” I responded.

That’s neither the first or last time that I’ve told my kids about my own struggles. Some parents may feel like admitting to mistakes or challenges decreases their authority, but I think it actually does the opposite. We shouldn’t dump on our kids or reveal more than they can handle, but discussing issues at an age-appropriate level can be valuable. Thankfully, talking about this a little bit can go a long way.

Here are some of the benefits:

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What Happens When We Trust Kids’ Imagination?

May 14, 2018 / Shannon Brescher Shea / Leave a comment

What Happens When We Trust Kids' Imagination? (Photo: Young white boy hugging the character of Chip, a giant chipmunk, in front of a table with food.)

“They’re just people in costumes, right?” my four-year-old asked me about the Disney characters months before our trip to Walt Disney World. “Yep,” I answered, being truthful but not elaborating.

Yet despite knowing that, my son jumped up and down upon meeting them, hugging and high-fiving Chip, Dale, Pluto, and Mickey as they came to our table for a character lunch.

How did he manage that? I wondered. He knew they weren’t “real,” but his enthusiasm was genuine. I like “meeting” the characters too, but not with that level of joy. I’m always seeing layers down, wondering about who is in the costume or the logistics of it.

I think our responses reveal something important that most adults miss: kids can teach us so much about how to balance reality and imagination if only we let them.

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