I have a confession. When I was expecting Little Man, I suffered terrible, unspeakable guilt. You see, I knew that there was no way I could possibly love this new baby as much as I loved Miss M. Miss M was so beautiful, so clever, so funny. She was my baby girl and I… Read More
You are a shit-head.
“Daniel called me an S-WORD HEAD!” (She actually said “S-word” head because she could NOT bring herself to say, ‘shit’.) Miss M was six years old. She came running to me after school, upset because someone had used *gasp* the S-word. She was horrified and devastated that a child could use THAT word. It was… Read More
Parenting. Like a Ninja.
Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. Yes….and no. I have tried to raise my kids with good manners, compassion, respect for other people’s property, the ability to share and a sense of kindness for everyone around them. I thought I was doing the right thing. I wasn’t wrong. If we lived… Read More
Oh, my nuts!
Rude words and why Baby G thinks we can’t say them at school. Last week, my big kids each had a friend over to play. Baby G was feeling left out because the big girls wanted alone time sans little sister, so I suggested she go play with the boys, who are good-natured and would… Read More
No, Lil Wayne is not raising my children.
In an article at Mamapedia, Dave Room, of Heal Our World, Heal Ourselves has posted a piece titled, “Are Lil Wayne, Zombies and Minecraft Raising Your Children?” Having checked out Dave’s website, I’m pretty sure he’s a good guy with pure intentions, so I’m going to ignore the wholly unsubstantiated statistic about Latino and black kids (true or… Read More
Mum vs Wild (The Suburban Edition)
My kids love Man vs Wild. It’s a documentary where Bear Grylls (a super-human, uber-tough, attractively-British navy seal) gets dropped alone in a variety of scary locations around the world. His mission: to survive, get through the night, forage for food, make shelter and climb/trek/bungee-jump (using a home-made bungee created entirely out of banana leaves… Read More
Directions to Fairyland.
Today’s post was written by my mother, and it explains one hundred percent how I am who I am today and why I try so hard every day to live up to the job description of Mom as set out by her. I was so blessed to be brought up by this remarkable woman. I hope… Read More
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
If you were asked what the most important thing you could give your child is, what would your answer be? I asked a few mums I know this very question and the answer was unanimous: love. My knee-jerk answer was love, too. After some thought, I have a different answer. I think the most important… Read More
The Story of a High Horse.
Last week a blogger, Issa Waters, posted No Excuses: Parenting Isn’t Hard on BlogHer. I love the premise of her piece, but her judgemental stance was pretty confronting and she used some strong language that got a few people pretty wound up. Including me. She called parents who shout at their children, drag their children,… Read More
Four years old. Still my baby.
My baby is turning four tomorrow and I am in denial. Four is not a baby. Four is not even a toddler. Four is a child. A child! Where did my baby go and why did time run away so fast? Today, she had a Fairy Princess High Tea for eight little girls (and two… Read More
Why I let my kids fight.
Look on the wall of any kindergarten classroom and you’ll find a list of rules like this: From the minute they enter the school system, our kids are taught how to be good, play fair, be nice. It’s wonderful and delightful and, well, unrealistic. I was the mother who mirrored those rules at home…. Read More
Kiddy Quips
After 21 months of pregnancy (collectively…although each one did feel approximately that long), haemorrhoids, nausea, varicose veins, false labour (doesn’t get more fun than that), real labour (a whole other post), cracked nipples, repeated public boob exposures and The Battle With The Scale, there is a bright and magnificent light. There is! It makes all… Read More
The Great Beach-after-school Debacle
Today I decided in a crazy ‘carpe diem’ moment that I was going to surprise the kids after school by declaring war on homework, chores and responsibility and taking them to the beach to play and swim and make sandcastles and then get fish and chips for dinner. Of course this was naive. I’d… Read More