For as long as I can remember I wanted to be a mom. I was absolutely convinced I could parent better than my mother. My father was the breadwinner — king of our small kingdom — and more into himself than raising the two kids he produced and the one he adopted. I became a … Continue reading Letting Go of Adult Kids
My 21-year-old daughter decided to give me an assessment of my parenting of both her and her brother on her visit home from college at the end of summer break. Among my many crimes, I was cheap, though my college senior has never paid a bill in her life, not for her education since we … Continue reading On Raising a Modern Man
Friday night on the short ride home from his Boy Scout meeting, my 11 yr old son was quiet and sullen. I asked him what was up. Had anything happened at the meeting that he wanted to talk about? I saw him looking at me from my rearview mirror, gauging how to tell me disappointing … Continue reading Boy Scouts of Faith-Based America
“They’re coming back. Make no mistake about it. Doesn’t matter what you think you are, they are coming back for you. You are a Jew,” my mother often told me. I’m not. I’m an atheist. At 5, I told her so, thus creating a chasm between us that went unresolved, even with our last goodbye, … Continue reading Living with Hitler
She walked to the bank on the last Friday of every month to deposit her social security check. She’d been doing it on her own for a long time, since her husband of 49 years died of a brain tumor ten years back. She folded the check in half then put it in her wallet, … Continue reading The Upside of Dementia
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Bn6F9PHebGDagd1s2NFb6?si=BlR-c0orTyaw-XRdYeC4NQ To escape the bickering, and whining, and catering to the needs and desires of everyone’s demands, I took our dog, Annie, for a walk on a quiet fire trail near our house. Bright and beautiful out, a sweet sea breeze came over the Oakland Hills with the afternoon sun. The mile and a half … Continue reading The Good Life
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2jYpkquscPut4Iozh90BCH?si=f63maePPSfGqBwzUN7CXnQ Got the call at 7:50 this morning and knew something was wrong. No one calls when I'm getting the kids ready for school unless it's bad news. And there was no possible way my 14 yr old son could have made it to school on his bike so fast. Could hardly hear the woman … Continue reading The Yin/Yang of Love
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6khB0mctgVj4qtz6ktl178?si=fD8GH1dfSyqKLEtr6Jbpdg I’ve been on the outside looking in since I was a little kid. Failing to assimilate, I worked at cultivating unique and different. After achieving this coveted perception, I no longer wish to possess it.Unique often translates into strange. And as the mother of a 10 and an 8 year old, I do not … Continue reading The Folly of Perception
Strong winds shake the plane and rain sheets off the wings and streaks down the small windows as we sit on the runway waiting to take off. The 737 engines ramp to a high pitch roar. My three year old daughter sitting next to me suddenly grabs my hand as our plane accelerates, faster and faster … Continue reading The Terrorist Within
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5xhZeYAutJNfWi5zt9soK6?si=4073fb0a27024069 Had a meltdown on my tween son when he asked, yet again, for an iPad at breakfast this morning. Before the iPad he wanted a laptop. He'd insisted he needed my old HP the moment I purchased my Toshiba, though he could give no reason why he had to have it, since he had a powerful … Continue reading On Being Cool
