What You Don’t See

“So what time do you get home?” I asked. I desperately wanted to know how my friends had managed to solve the conundrum of living in the suburbs with young kids – how to spend time with them while also getting them to bed at a reasonable hour. They had just told me that they got their one-year-old to bed by 7:30 pm, a feat that has never happened at our house.

“6:30,” my friend replied, shrugging. “We grab her something out of the fridge and do the bedtime routine.”

I blinked. They didn’t have dinner together. Or much time together at all on weekdays. I literally had not considered that possibility.

Continue reading

Why I Didn’t Make a Sign for My Son’s First Day of School

Why I Didn't Make a Sign for My Son's First Day of School (Photo: Young white boy closing the door of a house)

Two years ago, I made a controversial parenting decision. On the night before my son’s first day of preschool, I chose not to make him a “first day of school” sign. For that matter, I’m not making one for his first day of kindergarten next week either.

As I said on my personal Facebook page: “I was going to make a sign for [my son] to hold on his first day of preschool tomorrow. But I fell asleep in his room while trying to get him to sleep and woke up at 10:40. And now it’s 12:30 and it’s still not done. Maybe next year!”

My friends cleverly suggested a few work-arounds. “You can do it this week and say you forgot!” or “You can use Photoshop!”

But I didn’t take a single one of them.

Continue reading

Reflections on my Lenten Fast from Social Media

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/719190586474033153

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/719191439402496000

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/719191952403640320

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/719192316741857280

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/719192912983146498

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/719193262075076608

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/719193630267830272

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/719194019029479424

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/719194206921744384

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/719194510803255297

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/719195183095627777

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/719194786339635200

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/719195316810031104

My Best of Twitter 2015

I know I’m behind the curve posting my best-of yearly posts the second week of January, but we had a surprisingly busy two-weeks off Christmas holiday. All of that gift-wrapping, food eating, museum visiting, and Internet browsing doesn’t just do itself. As you may have noticed, from the sidebar, I’m on Twitter, posting @storiteller. Most of the time I post links to articles on social justice, bicycling, and other political issues, with a smattering of parenting commentary. However, as not everyone is on Twitter and there’s just so much traffic, I wanted to highlight some of my favorite tweets about parenting this year. (Yes, it only goes back to June – I guess I tweeted so much that Twitter cuts off by that point.)

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/612352644770873344

 

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/624913062496194560

 

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/625065731512737792

 

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/625833342605348865

 

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/627279570463510528

 

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/636337778297577472

 

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/636337896669204480

 

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/642137950483017728

 

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/642863992944390145

 

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/643588275458965504

 

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/648263687581626368

 

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/650331901165744128

 

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/664891016969895936

 

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/671553444117876736

 

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/673236436238385154

 

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/674058490088964101

 

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/676597118069563392

 

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/678436778185990145

 

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/685312550947426304

 

https://twitter.com/storiteller/status/687068443892428801