For the majority of my life, my insides didn’t match my outsides. On the inside, I was overwhelmed and stressed out. But on the outside, I pretended everything was picture…
Browsing: Parenting
The holidays go by quickly for most people. This time of year can be a blur of gatherings, gift-buying, cooking, and general hustle and bustle. Then, soon after, December is…
How a dad of two daughters who looks forward to winter so he can hibernate fuels himself through the holiday season.
Sorry folks! No partridge, no pear tree, and not a single turtle dove. No swans a swimming or maids a milking, and not one lady dancing (let alone nine). Truth…
I have watched kids in my extended family open birthday and Christmas presents over the years, and I don’t like what I’ve seen. My kids are still preschoolers, and I want them…
What are the two easiest gifts in the world to give grandparents? A super-sweet and lovely-to-look-at edible, or a book. Take it from a grandmother: This time, don’t go there!…
When couples separate or divorce, a common question for parents is: How does child support work? Child support matters can be arranged by agreement, or if the parties are unable…
As a cadet at VMI, fall made me anxious. While others were tidying up the frat house or skipping that first-period seminar, I was sprinting back to barracks and diving…
My fifth-grade daughter is in with a new group of girls at her school. A few of these families have two homes. One of the mothers has asked me if…
Last year, I buried my maternal and paternal grandmothers just weeks apart. One night, as I drove home from visiting with my unresponsive grandmother, I couldn’t help but shout over…
Our 13-year-old son has a career plan: Zack’s going to open a pie restaurant, where both the main dish of pizzas and the desserts that follow will arrive on diners’…
You would think, after so many years in this business of raising a family, that we would have it all down to a science. Or at least a well-greased, satisfactorily…