We’re in a restaurant and my toddler is screaming. I feel your eyes on us, but I make no move to leave. When I return your stare, I see you look away quickly; not so fast, though, that I don’t catch your eye-roll. I can feel your annoyance coming at me in waves. And you know what? I could not care less. And we’re not moving.
“Wait for me!” yelled my 4 year old daughter, Dari. My 8 year old son, Phineas and his older buddy had already raced out of our yard. They were half way up the street by the time my daughter got to our backyard gate. She couldn’t reach the latch and burst into tears.
“You can’t go with them, honey,” I told her. “You’re too young.”
I have been passionate about food and drink my entire life. I have been a culinary broadcaster and writer for over 20 years. Long ago, I became weary of fads and gimmicks in the food world passing as new “essentials”. So when I am delighted by a new product, it usually is accompanied by an element of surprise reminding me of what I still love about food and food people. Barilla Pronto Pasta delighted and happily surprised me when I dared it to star in my traditional, Boston inspired, Fourth of July celebration.
We look forward to summer break at our house. It is a time when we cut down on activities and well… just, “be.” It never seems to fail though, a week after school lets out, the kids are complaining about being bored. My co-author and her kids came up with a list of ideas to do at their house. This isn’t a list of intricate crafts, projects or extravagant destinations—it’s a simple list. In fact, it’s a list of things that quite often, I forget are an option.
Checking off a couple of her list items, I realized that it’s easy to do fun things with kids, because all they want is our time. If we are there, present, in the moment and playing with them, they’re happy. So I decided to make a second simple list of some of the greatest things that you might consider doing with your kids this summer.
“Your child’s success or lack of success in sports does not indicate what kind of parent you are. But, having an athlete that is coachable, respectful, a great teammate, mentally tough, resilient, and who tries their best is a direct reflection of your parenting.”
Oh, just shut up. Really.
I’ve seen this sign crop up more than a few times in my Facebook feed, and every single time I think: listen, you sanctimonious super-parent-slash-sign-maker—you are wrong, and you’re not helping anyone.
Let’s think about it, for a moment. Kids come in all shapes and sizes, and are blessed with all manner of abilities and personalities. No two children are alike, and yet, if for some reason your child is not quite coachable, respectful, mentally tough….the list goes on, then you have failed?
That’s what this sign is telling me.
I call bullshit.
Before his second birthday, my son said his first three syllable word thanks to his brand new hearing aids: Banana. Biologically, his corrected age made him a year and nine months old. He was so thrilled, he said, “banana,” several more times before piling the whole thing into his mouth.
Yes, I swear by Tide. And it’s even better now with a cool new cap and extra tough cleaning power for getting the stains really gone. This whole video is a summary of our fun Tide Stain Challenge about how to remove messy stains. We also have a general stain guide for you too.
What’s worse than running out of printer ink when the kids remember homework due TOMORROW and it’s bedtime? Not much. Epson has come out with a new printer called the Ecotank, which comes with enough ink in the box to last 2 years and frees you from never-ending cartridge-buying, as the low-cost ink comes in bottles that you actually pour into the printer.
My father doesn’t like to sit still. He’s always outside: tinkering with his tractor, using a chainsaw, or flying in his small airplane. He got his pilot’s license the same year I was born and I grew up riding alongside him in his single engine airplane, peering out the window, yelling at the top of our lungs to communicate with each other.
Over the years, his love for flight hasn’t changed, but now I have to yell to speak to him even when we’re on the ground. The constant exposure to the deafening sound of the engine took its toll and, at 60 years old, he was forced to admit he needed hearing aids.
I’m basically haunted when it comes to mobile phones. I even wrote an article once about ‘The Curse of the Blackberry Pearl’ (please, GenY, don’t do the math here.) Point is: if something can go wrong with my phone, it will. Whether by drowning (ask my toddler why ‘mama’s phone needs a bath’), fire (resting it on a heater so the innards melted), innumerable technical malfunctions (I don’t think phones are meant to withstand the sheer number of photos I take and store), loss or theft (usually involving enough wine so that I have no clue which is which) or a number of other potential maladies, it’s a *thing* and my cell phones just don’t make it.