When September days arrived this past school year, I again faced the reality that I was staring down the homestretch with my precious second oldest. As when my very Oldest was in Grade 12, my only son, it was again, a bittersweet milestone to be reached. I (as mama) was so proud and so grateful …
Speaking of normal parenting things we did last night… We watched home videos, together, on the couch— in an act of complete and utter solidarity. God bless us everyone. ********************************** Providing some context, dear reader. {And we, as amatuer writers these days have been clarifying in these spontaneous blog posts, that emerge out of nowhere …
When I was nine years old, the bottom fell out of our family’s world with one, horrific phone call. The call that changed everything—it came on a December day, just before Christmas. I remember very little about the date—the common, everyday moments leading up to the call. But I will forever have imprinted in my …
For quite some time, I have bemoaned the growing separation of our older children on the Second Level of the House, from the Parents, located on the First. Many tricks have been tried. I have begged and cajoled and lectured and flat-out scolded, with the sole intent of wanting them ‘down here’ to hang out …
Your children are still at that stage of life where they want YOU and you alone.
It is disheartening, to say the very least, to realize yet again that the public’s perception of your work as a professional is characterized as being whiny, over-paid, indulged, lazy, self-centered and existent so as to be servile. I have spent the past number of years in deep contemplation of my teaching practice- writing, thinking, …
Being a Mom has rewarded me in so many ways, particularly in my understanding of things concerning parent-teacher relationships and student-teacher relationships within in a school system. Disclaimer from the get-go: I realize that one does not have to become a parent so as to teach well and make a difference. I would never want …
You can read this article again at the Huffington Post Canada. This Sunday is Mother’s Day, a day we traditionally honour and celebrate the mothers in our lives. Moms, grandmoms, great-grandmothers, step-mothers, adopted moms, surrogate mothers, mothers-to-be: they all get at the very least a nod of appreciation (if not a full-out display of love …
Dear Teachers, It’s April. We parents are hardly able to clasp the few shards of fading sanity remaining from Spring Break (as they slip nimbly from our hands into the oblivion of another work week). So we can hardly imagine how other adult human beings around the country are faring out. (Can I get a …
Four months ago, after traveling home from supper with friends only to witness a near-fatality involving two children, I wrote an article– the title of which was “Why I am Glad to be a Helicopter Parent”. In the article, I wrote shamelessly about being a helicopter parent as it concerned the issue at hand- safety …
It’s August. And as it happens to be my holidays, I am knee-deep in summer lovin’. I have paint spatters on my legs from the fresh coat I applied to the veranda this afternoon, a good book waiting for me on the couch and the idea in my head of a glass of iced coffee …
I stand beside her, tipping the muffin tray ever so slightly so that the batter will have that much more of a chance of making it into the hollow. She is intent on her task: lifting two ‘full-to-running-over’ spoons dripping with banana cupcake batter up and over the side of the porcelain bowl, toward the …
