Parenting | PulseonParenting

Hate is Not the Way: Don’t Pass it On

Jun 05 2020

I’m sitting on our patio overlooking a tree-lined canyon. The hummingbirds dive at my red-headed husband. The ground squirrels peer suspiciously at our dog, passed out in the shade of a Ponderosa pine. And it’s still, so very quiet. Peaceful. And the guilt washes over me. My family is safe, ensconced in our little tiny bit of southwest Colorado real estate. No death, no protests, no destruction. No illness. But not no worries. Facebook has been ablaze for seemingly forever. And of late, the flames get fanned on a minute-by-minute basis. There’s always a cause to defend, there’s always someone…

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…

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,…

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…

Nov 13 2018

He couldn’t control himself. HIs rage had reared its ugly head many, many times, and we labeled it Puberty. His renovating brain and growing body are overwhelming him and emotional outbursts are a symptom of the wild ride. But this time things were different. For the last several days he complained of stomachaches unaccompanied by any other signs of illness. At first I thought it really was a bug, then I worried he had the beginnings of appendicitis, then I settled on the “Halloween Flu”…the result of hoarding and munching a giant helping of chocolate, suckers and body part-shaped gummies. …

WTHeck…Is the W Sit That Bad for Our Kids?

Oct 30 2018

Virasana. Hero Pose. This is my “yummy” yoga position. And even yummier is Supta Virasana (reclined Hero Pose). At the end of hot yoga, this pose feels like the right amount of stretch. One morning, however, the yumminess was foiled when I realized the similarity between virasana and the W-sit familiar to all parents. I totally lost my zen focus trying to reconcile one of my favorite yoga poses with the W-word. The W-sit is synonymous with bad habit. And I was ready to fill your computer screen with only the evidence to support just that: the W-sit should be…

Oct 23 2018

I finally figured out a job title I can live with: Home-Based Parent. “Stay-at-Home-Mom” isn’t remotely accurate (my record: five trips into town on a weekday) and “Domestic Engineer” sounds like I’m trying too hard to avoid the fact I don’t have a regular income (do earnings from the consignment shop count?). But Home-Based Parent is totally on-target. It applies to both dads and moms, and includes the increasingly common possibility of a home-based business. Feel free to use this description if it suits what you do. Being a Home-Based Parent has its perks (flexibility, increased presence for the kiddos,…

Oct 03 2018

I’d like to interrupt our regularly scheduled blog post for an important public service announcement. I’ve written over time about the importance of the influenza vaccine and the myths surrounding it. Today, I’d like to share more of the latter. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard new rationale against getting the “flu shot” and it’s been a good reminder that one will never hear it all: I’m not getting the flu shot because I heard a woman got pregnant after she got it. You can’t say I didn’t warn you. And it gets even better: a boy in my son’s…

Category - Parenting

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