parenting – Life in the Multiverse

On Keeping Children Alive

I fancied myself a decent mother of infants and toddlers; I jived with the tenderness, the clear boundary-setting, the byways of unshackled imagination. But, like, I imagine, most parents, I waited a little in apprehension of the “dreaded teenage years.”

The Art of Doing Nothing

I have really been wrestling with this stage of parenthood, the age when they insist they don’t need or want my help and can do it all themselves (the fraught 9-12 preteen years!). I often feel frustrated and bereft and superfluous. I used to hold them close and share their adventures step for step, andContinue reading “The Art of Doing Nothing”

Thank You, ChaCha

Our menagerie is growing. On Thursday, we got four active, healthy-looking chicks by mail. On Friday there were three. It is the girls’ first year of 4-H, and their leader had prepared them to expect that not all would arrive alive, and, of those who did, that not all would stay that way. Nevertheless. TheContinue reading “Thank You, ChaCha”

This is my face

I was 40 before I had the courage, finally, to show my face. All of it, as it is. It’s something I had to learn from my daughters, and it started with the simplest question: “mommy, why do you do that?” Why re-color my skin with foundation and my lids with eyeshadow, why draw circlesContinue reading “This is my face”

Want

I may be starting a theme here, but apparently I have a fraught relationship with holidays in general! In our lean years, when Matt and I were in grad school and the kids were in those early years, just beginning to appreciate Christmas magic, I relished Christmas as the opportunity to finally say “yes” toContinue reading “Want”

On Piecework: Lucy

I wasn’t there for the carnage. I waited a minute to gauge the nature of the wailing, whether it was a perceived affront or a bloodletting. It didn’t stop, so I trekked upstairs. Both children were intact, but the china doll gifted by their great aunt wasn’t. She lay face down on the floor inContinue reading “On Piecework: Lucy”