How do you respond if someone is blatantly racist in front of your kids?
I in turn wanted to share this [now gone] post from Ask Moxie — the topic is powerful and uncomfortable, and definitely needs to be addressed. A (Chinese-American) mother was out with her two kiddos and confronted with blatantly racist comments directed at her
The perfect classroom for a child is a hiking trail
Hiking is so much more than just walking around in nature with a hiking stick, a back pack, and some provisions. It can be a way of escape, it can be a time of meditation, it can be challenging, it can be educating, it can be down right frustrating. For us… it’s all of the above.
How to maintain relationships with difficult family members
My little brother will be 23 this year he’s had issues with alcohol, drugs, and just general defiance since he was 12 or 13. He has said horrible things to me, to my husband, and to my mother on different occasions. He has shown up to holidays drunk and late and a bunch of other stuff too (I try not to keep track). No matter what he does he’s still my brother and I love him and I decided I’m not going to cut him out of my life. I’m going to give you my advice for dealing with a difficult sibling or family member you want to keep in your life.
How can I get comfortable with the idea of being pregnant?
I’m TERRIFIED of getting pregnant. Like, it is literally the worst fear I have of everything I could encounter in the world. There’s going to be this parasitic THING inside my body, screwing everything up: squishing my organs, messing with my hormones, and causing me pain, sickness, and constant discomfort.
Our house is drowning in toys so we’re cutting back
It has all just accumulated over the years to the point that I feel our house is overrun with it all. Now, I know there are a lot of folks out there that will not agree with me. I know lots of families that have entire playrooms full of toys, and that’s nice and all. But what if I don’t want to use up an entire room just for toys? What if I actually don’t really want more square footage in my house just so I can accommodate a habit of accumulation?
Can we send a “We aren’t having kids!” announcement to family and friends?
Recently, we got a “we eloped!” announcement from one of his cousins and he said “Wouldn’t it be great if we could send an announcement that we aren’t having kids!” I laughed, all “Yeah right,” but he really liked the idea. He said we could do it in a light-hearted way, but with a serious yet gentle note included that says we know everybody really wanted us to have kids, and we love everybody and thank them for their thoughts and opinions on the matter but we’ve decided that having kids just isn’t for us; we are looking forward to the many years we have to share together, and in sharing those years with everybody else, too.
The right answer to “how is the baby?” and why we have kids in the first place
If you don’t have kids but plan to have them some day, remember that. Chances are you’ll need to change the way you hear that question soon, so that when you have a baby you don’t start answering the way things are really going. Because, if you were being honest, you would probably say: “Baby is fine, except…” (don’t worry, there are LOTS of things you can fill in here. I’ll just add one.)
You are your own shareholders: How quarterly relationship meetings strengthen our marriage
My husband and I recently celebrated three months of marriage. The perfect way for a programmer with a mind for finance and an accountant to augment the occasion was, of course, a quarterly meeting. It may sound crazy, but this is our first step in always making our marriage a priority. Here’s how quarterly meetings foster open and honest communication while strengthening our relationship…