I don’t take my kids outside to play. I SEND them outside to play. | At Home With The Happiest Mom They need to be outside, for long periods of time, most days of the week: jumping, running, smelling the air, digging in the dirt, looking at bugs. And since I can’t be out there with them as much as I want them to be out there, well…I kick ‘em to the curb. Or the yard, as it were. Preparing for the Siege | sweet juniper! The other day I saw my son and a few of his friends sitting crosslegged . . .

The Most Racist Thing That (n)Ever Happened The wonderful part about the experiences I just described is their overtness. Once, racism was men in hoods burning a cross on your lawn. It was separate entrances and separate water fountains and the back of the bus, and if people didn’t know their place it was okay to remind them who’s in charge. The great thing about those folks was: at least you knew where you stood. A man with a noose has clear intentions, about as easy to spot as a harvest . . .

Michael Ian Black: | Despicable We Rarely do we know more about each other than the public faces we present to the world. The private person can be very different. The question I’ve been asking myself, though, is which is the “real” person? It’s a question I’ve been asking about a lot of people during this horrible political season we’re experiencing, in particular myself. Viral Video, Vicious Warlord | NYTimes.com When a warlord continues to kill and torture across a swath of Congo . . .

What abides. Cultivating purpose and passion beyond family | Planting Dandelions When you are in the middle of family life, it’s so easy to lose sight of that constant. My children feel like my passion and my purpose, but their childhood will pass, and is passing, like all things. My husband is the love of my life, but our eventual parting is written into our marriage vows. What will one or the other of us live for, then?   Guest Post by Jen Hatmaker | Give 1 Save 1 Dear one, . . .

To Narc Or Not, That is The Question | Hogwash From a Hoser with Tanis Miller I have gone out of my way to cultivate the trust between my children and for them to feel safe telling me anything they wish. And so far, in their early teenage years, they do. I’d like that to continue as they creep closer to adulthood. But what if next time it’s not about stumbling on a forbidden Facebook page but rather finding out one of their friend’s is doing drugs or drinking and driving? Is it my duty as . . .

Free Pass | The Extraordinary Ordinary He loves me despite how I can’t keep it together at all and how my insides don’t match the outside and how I can’t hide my pain so much of the time. He is a little God reflection. He doesn’t wait to love me until I’m doing it all right. Kids don’t expect the impossible in their mothers. He just wants me. Giving the baby back | Adventures in Paradise On the other hand, when parents are completely disconnected from the child, when they act as though . . .

Wonder Dog : A Golden Retriever Reaches a Raging Boy | NYTimes.com The science behind Iyal’s cognitive leaps is still in its infancy. Alan M. Beck, the director of the Center for the Human-Animal Bond at Purdue University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, is among those intrigued by it. “There is a real bond between children and animals,” he told me. “The younger the child, the greater the suspension of disbelief about what an animal understands or doesn’t understand.” According to Beck, . . .

{click on the title to read the whole post} On the wide world and why it matters | Chookooloonks Since returning home from the funeral, I've been thinking about how much immigration and emigration are such a huge part of my personal story.  If my great-grandfather hadn't immigrated to Trinidad from China and met his Asian/Amerindian wife, my paternal grandmother wouldn't have been born.  My paternal grandfather's story is similar, with the immigration of his Barbadian family to . . .