With all apologies to my readers with young children, it is a cold reality that the milestones in your children’s lives become less frequent when they hit their teen years. Unless you’re a little odd, you don’t celebrate the first pimple with the same enthusiasm as your baby’s first tooth, nor do you rejoice in […]
Category: On The Child Side
Available for hire: one future … pirate?
My firstborn son is on the job hunt. With the assistance of a dedicated teacher of Grade 10 careers, a pocket full of freshly-minted resumés and stars in his eyes, he began the search in earnest in January. Throughout the job hunt process, no matter how hard it was to watch, he has learned […]
Five things parents cannot live without
In my goal to raise good human beings, I’ve been impressed along the way with the quality of parenting I’ve encountered. Some parents are just so naturally good at it, and others such hard workers; but I have also learned, nearly all have a trick. Every parent I know has an item, something they feel […]
Advice for teenagers who don’t want any
In an attempt to prevent our sons from making the same mistakes we did as teens, The Rational One and I have compiled the following list of ‘Things We Wish We’d Known When We were Teenagers’. We do know that they will immediately discard this advice as out-of-date tripe provided by out-of-touch parents, but nevertheless […]
With all apologies to Ann Landers and Emily Post
I have abandoned etiquette in favour of sanity. I’m not proud, and there is a long line of women in my family who are collectively rolling over in their graves, learning that I am waving a white flag of surrender, abandoning all attempts to raise young gentlemen. I had good intentions. When my boys were […]
Is there life on the other side?
I’ve started to contemplate my retirement from motherhood. Oh, I know motherhood never ends, but the day-to-day support portion, in which I have been submerged for the past 15 years, will start to vanish. I talk to empty-nesters and they let little tidbits of their lives seep into their conversation with you, the beleaguered parent. […]
A tale of two garage sales
Garage sales are one of my true loves; not shopping at them, hosting them. I love emptying the garage of old, unloved, underused sports equipment, children’s toys, computers, electronics and the like, and finding them new homes with people who perceive them to be treasures. I don’t see it as a money maker but rather […]
Dinner for four, for life in a hurry
There are a lot of aspects of parenting I’m not particularly good at, and meal planning would be among the top three. It’s not that I’m a bad cook; in fact I’m a very good cook. It’s that I struggle to remain organized enough in our hectic lives to remember the contents of the refrigerator […]
In defence of exhausted mothers everywhere
I do not consider myself a vain woman. I have wash and wear hair, could never be described as a fashion diva, nor do I have a lot of time, energy or – heck, I’ll admit it – money for fancy makeup, nails and the like. With that said, I occasionally walk by a mirror, […]
Christine’s fantasy life as Jason Bourne
It’s hard as a mom, as your boys grow into men, to continue to be connected to them. I have found that playing the same sports, or trying new things with them helps, which brings me to the story of my single day as Jason Bourne. To stay connected, I agree, from time to time, […]