Archive - May 2019

My watch is a step/stair counter. I put it on the moment my feet hit the carpet. Dedicated? Maybe. Weird? Definitely. But I consistently log 1000 steps (including stairs) before 7 am and I haven’t even left the house. This is because I am held hostage by my 12-year-old daughter and her sleepy-head inertia. Getting her out of bed and out the door in the morning requires crossing the house to trudge up and down the stairs more times that I like to admit. My daughter is at “that age” where the teenage sleep pattern shifts to night owl who…

Raise your hand if you liked P.E. when you were in school. Anyone? Anyone? www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP0mQeLWCCo Now raise your hand if you thought P.E. was a stupid waste of time and made you hate the idea of exercise. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdqjPCynGUc Ok, whew. Even Bon Jovi agrees. There were many, many things I did in school that pegged me as unpopular (band, theatre, honor roll…), but hating P.E. wasn’t one of them. The fact that every non-jock had to take Physical Education did single out us nerds but even the athletes hated P.E. (but were smart enough to join a team to get…

She looks at me. I wonder what she is thinking, as I can see her wheels are turning, trying to process what I’ve said. She seems at a loss for words, or is unsure she should say what is on her mind. She responds with yes when I ask her if she’s ok. But as I reflect back on this talk with my daughter, I realize something: She was nervous. My daughter had received a surprisingly low grade in math, one that shocked us both. It appeared her grade suffered because of missing work, work my daughter insisted she completed…

“I have to go, I have to go, I HAVE TO GO!” She danced a desperate jig as she made her way to the back of the line. I leaned in and whispered. “Is it number one or number two?” “TWO!” “Ok, everyone, let “M” to the front of the line!!!” Crisis averted. Problems with a mean kid, struggles in math class, number one or number two, there are many situations where a kid needs an advocate. But what does that mean, exactly? According to Google dictionary, an advocate (noun) is: a person, such as a protector or proponent, who…

It was the most powerful moment of the evening. The reality. The pain. The raw, honest emotion only a mother can feel when her son has been traumatized. My husband and I were attending a Durango Diaries event, and the floor was open to the audience after a panel of three told their personal experiences with bullying. The microphone passed to the mother of the young man who told his story of repeated public persecution at the hands of his once-friends, and how he turned the trauma into community outreach. She said she knew something was going on with her…