Category: Parenting
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What is essential?
A teacher wrote to me with a question: What if you’ve done everything to help a kid who is bullying others, but he still does it? What if he seems so filled with anger that you’re worried about what he’ll be like when he’s sixteen? I wish I had the answers to that one. I…
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Taking Time
The last few days I’ve been doing the difficult job of making fundraising contacts for my son’s school. It’s usually not terribly easy to make these calls, even when local businesses are flush with cash. This year it’s painful. My son’s school has a yearly performance which features a program with ads from local sponsors.…
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Emotional Intelligence
One year there was a boy in my son’s class who was always bugging the other kids. He would break into conversations, touch kids in ways they didn’t like, and generally ignore the usual social conventions that kids follow. He was also a very large boy, which affects how people view him. It occurs to…
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Household Mysteries
In our house, we have mysteries. Top on the list is the mystery of the disappearing cranberry bowl. We used to have a set of four glass cranberry-colored nesting bowls. The largest one is too big for most tasks. The one we lost was perfect for pancake batter, salads for a family of four, biscuit…
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It is what we make of it
And about that Miss Goody Two Shoes… In yesterday’s blog I described my child self as “Miss Goody Two Shoes.” Yep, I was that kid who always had her hand up first, who always knew the answers you got wrong, who always had her homework in on time. Knowing what I know now as a…