Avant Parenting Archives
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Avant! Welcome to my parenting blog archives
As you can see by the dates below, this blog is no longer being updated. However, there’s lots of good stuff here, much of it as true now as when it was written. Please feel free to browse, or follow these links: One last piece of parenting advice: Enjoy today even if it’s a rough…
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Don't listen to your kids
This morning our daughter came in “to cuddle” sometime long before seven a.m. In our household, this is against the rules. On weekends, she needs to wait till 7 a.m. before she can interrupt her parents’ beauty sleep. Groggily, her daddy said, It’s not seven o’clock yet. Go back to bed. She went away. It…
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Aquarium dreams
The other day, my sister and her daughter were here, visiting from the Midwest. My niece and I were looking at our aquarium, and my sister said, “Oh, no, don’t you get any ideas! I don’t need any more trouble.” They have two dogs and a cat or two, and my sister doesn’t need any…
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Thoughts on the human condition
The other day the phone rang. It was one of my husbands’ cousins on the East Coast. She inquired about our family’s health and happiness, and then I knew what was coming: “That fire isn’t anywhere near you, is it?” We often get calls like this when a natural disaster hits close to home. To…
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Seasonal delights
This morning I made Italian plum cake. My ten-year-old was helping me and it occurred to him to ask, “Are we going to Nana’s house tonight?” “No,” I answered. “Is someone coming over for dinner tonight?” he asked. “No,” I said, getting curious. “Why?” “Because you’re making cake so I thought it must be a…
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Pushing my feminist buttons
We went today to get my daughter’s hair hacked off. Actually, to get it very professionally cut off by the stylist who does my and my husband’s hair. Usually I cut my kids’ hair myself. But this was one job I wasn’t willing to take on. At one point, my daughter’s hair was approaching waist…