Protecting the Gift

We arrived late for our movie, and the lights already were down. We were new at going by ourselves and didn’t know the etiquette. Afraid of disturbing others, we slunk into back-row seats at our local movie house.
Once our eyes adjusted, we noticed a man one row in front of us. He […]

From a hilarious mommy blog I just started reading:
I don’t want to sound like some sort of Alfie Kohn acolyte, but Nora and I spent some time at a busy playground recently and some parents really need to cool it on the “good jobs.” Good job swinging! Good job going down the slide! Good job, […]

I’ve been suffering from sleep deprivation this week. And I do mean suffering. When I don’t get enough sleep I feel muddled, enraged, and nauseated.
A recent New York magazine feature addresses some of the physical, intellectual, and emotional burdens kids bear when they aren’t getting enough sleep, most of which apply just as much […]

Last night, as I went to bed I thought, “Tomorrow I will read something inspiring.”
This afternoon I picked up the current issue of Mothering, and found an article about a mother-daughter book club. Reading it, I felt moved and misty eyed.
These six girls and their moms call themselves the Page Turners. They have been meeting […]

The idea that life is hard and I should prepare my child for that disturbs me. Adopting that philosophy would be like telling her, “The world will treat you poorly; let me be the first.”
I prefer peaceful parenting. Which sounds self-righteous, and today — nearly ridiculous. Today I used force to keep my daughter […]

photo: Amy Smith
Hold On to Your Kids
In Hold On to Your Kids, Gordon Neufeld describes attachment villages as places where children are attached to their parents and through that attachment, connected to other adults; where values are passed from adults to children; where extended families live nearby and children are part of community where all […]

The Unsettling of America
I am motivated to create this journal as a means of capturing ideas and making connections between them. Wendell Berry’s Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture is an apt starting place because it thoughtfully addresses many things I care about and coherently relates them. I begin with the hope that I can […]