On participant ribbons and letting kids always win
I just went to a fair with my kids, where all four of them participated in a hula-hoop contest. My children are not world-class hula-hoopers. They are mediocre at best and didn't outlast the winner. It was just something fun for them to do. But guess what? They all won participant ribbons! So forever we can celebrate and remember their mediocrity at rotating a plastic hoop around their hips. Sigh. They loved the ribbons. They smiled and proudly showed them to Dad, who secretly rolled his . . .
How to survive the summer as a work-at-home mom
Kahil Gibran once suggested that joy and sorrow are inseparable. They arrive together, he wrote. "When one sits alone with you ... remember that the other is asleep upon your bed." I get it, man. You're describing what summertime is to me. Growing up, summer was the best thing in the world, and I love revisiting that freedom and happiness when my kids are on their break. I get to spend more time with them. I get to see them play. I watch them grow and change before my eyes because they're not at . . .