I ran an experiment with the boys, last week. I like to see what data can do for me. I use it to make decisions in all other areas of my life, and with this parenting task being so significant, I need data in spades. For research and training...
It was night. It was cold. It was wet. It was in the middle of nowhere, and I would be stuck there for the next hour. That’s what the roadside assistance company said. This wasn’t how holiday homecoming trips were supposed to go. And what made it all worse, was...
It’s immensely satisfying to discover a novelist whose work is so enjoyable, so engaging, one delights to gorge on it in any free moment available. Particularly at the end of a long preschooler-filled day, which finally ends with quietness, stillness, and an opulent stack of pillows. Of course, the euphoria...
It’s fortunate that I have nothing I’m required to do this weekend, because the rolling sound of the ocean tide next to this holiday bach makes me quite unable to do anything. It’s a battle with hypnosis. A struggle to do anything beyond rolling off the front of the...
Which is worse: to love writing stories but be atrocious at it, or to have the skills of a literary Rumpelstiltskin but no drive to do anything with it? I narrate in my head all day. Sometimes I tell myself the words are what I intend to write later,...
If I were a food I’d be a marshmallow. I’m soft and easily flattened. (Also white and spongy around the middle, but that’s neither here nor there.) Today I gave a small wave of thanks to a lollipop lady who’d waved me through a lane of road cones. You...
Explaining to a 3-year-old that the budgie is dead, is unpleasant. But explaining that it’s Mummy’s fault because she job-shares with the Grim Reaper, is unnecessary—so at least Timmy doesn’t blame me for anything. Only two days ago, I’d been joking with someone about not being able to keep...
Bases for friendships are irrational. When we were kids our friendships were largely determined by who else lived in our block, but as adults with wider options we like to think our rationale has deeper reaches. It doesn’t. The absurdity of it struck me today when I shared a...
The only way to make someone want something is to take it away. Generally speaking, people are horrible value assessors. When I was in school, I hated it. I suspect that’s normal. But now that I find myself busied with the busy busyness of domestic this and that, and...
