I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again: no one except the people involved in a relationship really knows what goes on there, and sometimes they’re not all that sure either. That’s one of my core beliefs about relationships. Another is that I don’t believe that there is just one single perfect soul-mate match for everyone – if there were, the odds against their ever finding each other would be just enormous. […]
Tag: family
Turnabout is fair play(?) (updated 2/21)
I got this via e-mail from one of my girlfriends last week: CLASSES FOR MEN REGISTRATION MUST BE COMPLETED BY January 31, 2008 NOTE: DUE TO THE COMPLEXITY AND DIFFICULTY LEVEL OF THEIR CONTENTS, CLASS SIZES WILL BE LIMITED TO 8 PARTICIPANTS MAXIMUM. Classes begin Febuary 2, 2008 Class 1 – How To Fill Up The Ice Cube Trays — Step by Step, with Slide Presentation.Meets 4 weeks, Monday and Wednesday for 2 hours beginning […]
Money talks at Work It, Mom! – now with more links
(If you subscribe to a feed – yes, you’ve seen this before, sort of. I keep running into relevant links and adding them…) I’m talking about some simple ways to help kids learn about money over here. Please go and read it if you have a few minutes, and if you have any ideas or suggestions on the topic, leave me a comment either here or there (you have to join WIM to comment there, […]
Parenthood, step by step
There was an interesting On Balance post recently in which Leslie Morgan Steiner discussed a recent conversation with a stepfather: I asked what it was like to be a step-dad to a 15-year-old girl. “Awful,” he said. “A totally impossible job. I am completely a third wheel, unwelcome, un-thanked. But I love her, she’s a great kid, and obviously I’m really happy about being with her mother. Everything I do is like training for a […]
Somewhere around the 12th day of Christmas…
…the Christmas decorations have been taken down and put away till next year. They only made it till about the tenth day. In anticipation of an unusually wet weekend in SoCal, we decided to go ahead and dismantle everything and pack it up on Friday, so we wouldn’t be slogging back and forth to our outdoor storage unit in the rain. I don’t seem to be having much of a post-holiday letdown this year – […]
A few thoughts from the mother of the boyfriend
An actual exchange of text messages with my son over Thanksgiving weekend: Dad wants to know if I’m engaged.You’re surprised? (Rejected response: Well, ARE you?) No. But I thought you’d find it amusing. Still shaking my head. An online chat session with my son’s aunt (his dad’s sister) a few days later: (He and his girlfriend) were at her parents’ for Thanksgiving – as far as I know things are going OK with them. They’ll […]
No simple answers
There are some things in our lives that no one else really can, or should, decide for us, although other people are usually happy to offer their opinions (solicited or not). There are some decisions that, no matter how much data we gather or how much contemplation we give them, we may never be objectively sure areunequivocably “right.” It seems like a lot of those questions come up in the general arena of family – […]
Together apart
Relationships can take many forms. Couples aren’t married, and live in separate homes. Couples live together, but aren’t married. Couples get married, and live together. Couples are married and live together, but one member feels like a single parent because the other isn’t around very much. And here’s a couple (via AisleDash) who are married, but live apart in the same city. In a recent article in Self magazine, Judith Newman describes her 14-year marriage, […]
Home for the holidays
For the first time in awhile, I will be preparing both Thanksgiving and Christmas Day dinners in my own kitchen this year, and I’m looking forward to it. Maybe I’ve had a long enough vacation from it, but it’s also because I actually enjoy being a host and getting to feed people. Besides, having the holiday gatherings on my turf gives me a lot more control over events, not to mention the menu. And we […]
In-laws and “outlaws”
My grandfather would refer to relatives-by-marriage as “the outlaws.” There’s a popular stereotype that in-laws don’t – or aren’t supposed to – get along; I think it goes with the idea that “blood is thicker than water.” I used to work with a woman who had no siblings and whose parents were both dead, and figured that her husband would have it very easy in the in-laws department; interestingly, as far as I know, she’s […]
The work/family juggle – school days edition
I submitted this as a guest post to the Work It, Mom! Blog back around the beginning of the school year; on October 16 it made its way to the front of the queue and was published there. (Guest blogs run on most Tuesdays and are a popular feature, so there’s a wait for posting.) And on a related note, check out Elizabeth Horn’s post about managing “the afternoon activity shuffle” at Mommy Track’d. Many […]
The young conservatives
Back on my favorite soapbox again, but I’ll try to keep it brief this time. Penelope Trunk’s latest post on the Millenials suggests that they’re a basically conservative generation, craving stability above all. They’re not big-risk takers, and they’re not rebels; they want their parents to help them figure out adult life. (That we knew.) Somehow, for me, that doesn’t exactly jibe with the picture she’s been drawing of these “emerging adults” as the group […]
