2020 | PulseonParenting

Jim Gaffigan: Hot Pockets. Cookie Monster: Cookies. Our Family: Nutella.

May 21 2020

Let’s change the subject. COVID-19 is still very much a part of our lives, but there comes a time when some lighter fare is just what we need, something a bit more digestible. So let’s talk food obsessions. We’re cooking at home and baking now more than ever, so food is a distraction and even the main attraction during our time stuck at home. Comfort foods rule. So does humor. And comfort-food humor is good for the soul. It brings us together, like cookies and hot pockets. Nutella is the great uniter of sorts in our household. It sparks a…

May 14 2020

I was soooo ready to take the reins on this. When we got word that our school district was going to start remote schooling in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, I went about setting up a schedule for my kids to follow while they homeschooled. They needed structure. They needed to do their chores. They needed free time. They needed things laid out neatly so they could do school as best as they could. But what they really needed was for me to get out of the way. Wow, was this a tough realization for me to swallow. I had…

May 07 2020

John Oliver gets it. On March 16th he invited us to join him in a primal scream of sorts. In front of a white screen, during the first taping of his show Last Week Tonight while in isolation, he gives us permission to vent (it happens at about minute 18:00): Get it out. Really get. it. out. We all have had to give up something, and been disappointed or frustrated, by the new reality thrust upon us by the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s totally ok to feel this way. But we can’t let these feelings consume us. Or our fear. It’s…

May 04 2020

News flash: I sometimes post my opinions on social media. I even post my frustrations. Recently a friend from high school messaged me how angry she was at one of my Facebook posts. Her ire spread from that particular opinion, to one of my “likes” and from there to how much she despised my exercise regiment and shoe choice and everything in between. It was a stunning tirade that soon revealed the fuel behind it: Fear. Fear of COVID-19. Fear of being unprepared. Fear that she wouldn’t be able to get toilet paper. Pure fear drove her anger, and it…

Apr 23 2020

“My friend’s son has the chickenpox. So I’m taking my kids over to her house for a playdate.” Horrifying as that may sound, there was a time when parents made the effort to expose their offspring to this childhood disease. Some of us parents may remember Pox Parties, and may have even been a part of one. Parental urgency for children to contract the disease rose from the risk of complications that increased with age, and the desire to “get it over with,” among other concerns. Thus the rubbing of elbows with families with a literal pox on their houses….

Socks ARE Wicked Awesome. And so are your kids. Help them out with a 529.

Apr 16 2020

Last fall made it official: My husband and I have three teenagers living under our roof. And given the current situation, they are living under our roof all the time, 24/7. But even though we’ve gone critical mass in teen town, my husband and I have been gradually inoculated with teen attitude since our daughter was five. Kind of like allergy shots, the steady exposure to strong opinions and determined independence have helped prepare us for the actual teen years. Not that we are fully immune and completely prepared for this phase of parenting, but we have made many observations,…

Apr 09 2020

No NBA. No Spring Training. No Olympics. In these sports-less times, let me propose a new competitive event surely to entice even the most ardent arm-chair athlete to participate: Puzzle launching. Yup. Puzzle. Launching. It’s quite simple. Put together a jigsaw puzzle on a dining table. Scoot it to one end of the table. And, with a running start and both hands placed on the puzzle, slide the thing across the table and launch it, seeing how far it will go before landing on the floor. Try to best yourself. This is not as crazy as it sounds. Because puzzle…

Apr 03 2020

This morning I woke up, wondering what to write about today. Should I ignore the elephant lurking in every corner of every room? That gray, wrinkled stalker that even follows us outside and causes us to jump to the other side of the road? Do we need to escape this pachydermal pest, even for a few minutes? But then again, it’s an elephant. In. da. house. It’s pretty darn hard to ignore. Especially when it casts its long shadow over every aspect of our lives, even over the mundane task of food procurement. And the elephant’s gotta eat, too. So…

Mar 20 2020

When I was a kid, there was a certain intersection at the edge of town that everyone agreed was dangerous. No traffic light, not even a stop sign. It was only a matter of time, people thought, until tragedy would strike. And they were right. A mother driving her children was killed by another motorist, a teenager who attended the same school as hers. Then, only then, were the stop signs placed. Hardly a new occurrence then, and definitely not a new modus operandi now. It is human nature to be reactive instead of proactive, reassuring ourselves, keeping positive, that…

Mar 12 2020

I know. Yet another terrible joke linking terrible beer with a terrible pandemic. But, like so many families on the brink of spring break, you are probably trying to decide exactly where to drink your ale, on a beach or on your couch. In my last post I mentioned the irony of human nature: how humans ignore what we know and then go off the deep end and wipe the shelves clean of toilet paper (but not canned food?) in fear of what we don’t. Not that we shouldn’t be worried about the coronavirus (COVID-19). We should. But we need…

Archive - 2020

Jim Gaffigan: Hot Pockets. Cookie Monster: Cookies. Our Family: Nutella.

The Book Every Parent Needs to Read

Gratitude: a Stone’s Throw From Disappointment

Fear: How to Cope and Help Our Kids Do the Same

How to Give Your Immunity a Boost

Teenagers: Can’t Live With ‘Em…But We Have To

Puzzles: the New American Pastime

Change is in the Air: Breathe it Deeply

Combating Coronavirus with Kindness

Spring Break on Corona(virus): Party or Stay Home?