WeeFiveFamily

  Move over Miley Cyrus. I never know what to expect from my daughter. After school, she’s as equally likely to bring home a stray hamster as a school book. The other day, she came bounding through the school doors, singing and dancing with one of her little friends. It was cute, as little-people songs [...]

  Pottying is serious business. Parents who regularly cart around their bathroom-envied toddlers share an important testimony: the trip into a public restroom is not for the unprepared rookie. Full-time toddler-toting veterans alleviate this burden by simply staying packed and prepared for the inevitable “crisis-potty.” This is a good start. But, the true warriors cunningly formulate a [...]

A few days ago, a guy selling tree-trimming services interrupted the James family mechanism. This is a bold move if you know anything about father-necessitated family mechanisms. The mechanism, as most dads know, is our process-driven ark of sanity. And we are a process-driven gender … most men anyway. We like to make lists, follow plans, and [...]

  Earlier this summer, I woke up bothered by the nagging feeling that I was about to miss something important. Did I forget to take out the trash? Maybe the kids have dentist appointments? I couldn’t be sure except to say that I felt uncomfortable about walking into another day of predictable processes. Maybe you’ve had [...]

  Susan is a friend of mine. In the stretched sense of the word, we’ve been friends since high school. But, in truth, we hardly know each other at all. This may seem like an odd way to tell you about such a profound experience, but I’m not sure how else to convey this thought [...]