I once said to a friend that I could not know whether our parenting choices were “right”; I just had to do the thing that felt okay at day’s end. Now, we’re looking at much larger transitions than beditme— two children head to college this fall and the third heads into high school. All around us the little ones we watched climb trees and wield wooden swords through mythic quests are driving cars and turning to face the world outside. … Read More...
“London has none of those nice things that children may play with without hurting the things or themselves – such as trees and sand and woods and waters… Trees are all different, as you know, and I am sure some tiresome person must have told you that no two blades of grass exactly alike. But in streets, where the blades of grass don’t grow, everything is like everything else.”
from The Five Children and It by E. Nesbit
While I … Read More...
“Too many cooks spoil the broth.”
or
“Many hands make light work.”
Endless turns of life take place in the kitchen. Much of our family life occurs around the table or somewhere between the kitchen sink and the stove, everyone’s spoon in the “broth” of the day-to-day rhythms. And I’m pretty sure many families find their own important work happens here, where we sustain ourselves body and soul. It’s in the kitchen that we model values around health, ecology, experimentation … Read More...
In the hubbub of a busy morning, not many food choices will seem easy enough to bother with. The idea of making a sandwich can be insurmountable when you already know your child won’t eat the bread or can’t take peanut butter or only eats ham every third Tuesday when the moon is full. All your ideas of healthy food choices suddenly seem less important than just knowing your child will at least consume a few calories between breakfast and … Read More...
At a physical for my children a couple of years ago, the nurse practitioner worked through a standard list of questions that I had answered for at least ten years. “Is there violence in the home? Does anyone smoke in the home?” But her last question was new.
“Does your child get at least one hour of focused physical activity per day?”
I did not ask why, but I did ask her to define what “focused physical activity” meant. I … Read More...
Taking care of a sick child is nerve racking for all parents, but especially so for new parents. The runny nose, a sore throat, a tummy ache are all common childhood ailments, however nothing can be as trying as caring for a child with an ear infection. Ear infections can be difficult to detect before the onset of full blown symptoms and tough to get over as reoccurrence is quite common in infants and young children. Giving them their medicine, … Read More...
