How do you prepare your kids to stand up for themselves — and for other kids?
If my kid ever witnesses another child being bullied (or is the child being bullied), my hope is that she will stand up for the child and for herself. How are you talking to your kids about defending others?
Crossing bridges when I get there: my life as a legally-blind single mom
Living differently than the norm with a disability was riddled with obstacles even before I became responsible for a wee human being. Back then I’d often make personal sacrifices to accomplish goals I wouldn’t expect of a child. These days it’s a balancing act of happening upon alternative opportunities that are within my abilities, don’t require a car to get there, and because I don’t have childcare, toddler welcoming.
When your 7-year-old announces, ‘I’m gay’
I was on the phone with a relative who had just discovered that I was blogging on The Huffington Post and openly discussing my son’s crush on Blaine. I was in another room alone (I thought), explaining, “We’re not saying he’s straight, and we’re not saying he’s gay. We’re saying we love who he is,” when my son’s voice piped up behind me. “Yes, I am.”
Of family, fear, and Freezy-Pops: on visiting my daughter at school after I transitioned from Daddy to Mommy
Biologically speaking, I am not “Mommy;” I’m Daddy. But I transitioned a couple of years ago, and slowly the kids are getting used to having two Mommies. No one knows that I transitioned unless I tell them — I blend in.
Everything you need to know about life can be learned in Little League
It was the 6th inning and our team was down by one. Carter, a third grade boy who had yet to make contact with the ball the entire season, stepped up to plate and gave that ball the greatest wallop seen the entire game, landing his first RBI and tying it up, 1-1. And then everything stood still, including the tall maples that edged the stretching field.
Body Autonomy: a feminist, sex-positive perspective on teaching your children body ownership
As people, we get one body, and, as a feminist, it is damn important to me to claim total ownership of mine. The best thing that I can ever do for my children is to give them autonomy over themselves. I want my daughter especially — who came into a world that legally accepts her body has her own but sends messages all the time that reject that truth — to fill out her skin with a personal spirit that is impermeable.
It’s on like… a Donkey Kong-themed birthday party!
With three young children that I adore making a fuss for, party planning has become one of my favorite things. I l-o-v-e a theme and finding ways to creatively interpret it. So when my own “not so little/little guy” approached me with his request to host a Donkey Kong-themed party, I was up to the challenge!
Recognizing ourselves in the stories that we read
At bedtime, I read my daughter Alice a story. This has been our nightly ritual since before she was born, but now, after we read together, she reads on her own. She’s always loved stories, but more and more she’s caught up in words. Almost nightly now she pops out to read her dad and me a short passage: beautiful descriptions, scenes that seem especially funny or apt to her.