Parenting

The emails trickle into my inbox. “I want to quit my job to stay home with my kids,” one reads. “I want to be a stay-at-home mom so badly,” another begins. Each email tells a unique story, and while the details are different, the resulting question is almost always the same. Should I become a …

My oldest child is afraid of monsters and the dark. He races up from the basement so he won’t be the last one left down there and still struggles to fall asleep on his own. He’s always been a bit fearful of things, but lately, it felt like his fear was growing. I wanted to …

Letting Go of Toys We haven’t picked out a new house, but we started cleaning, packing, and decluttering as though we’ve already found one to love. This week I tackled the closets, beginning the painstaking process of boxing up our belongings in preparation for our move. I spent two days transporting our possessions out of the darkness …

My youngest son is scheduled to begin kindergarten this year. Before the outbreak of COVID-19, we talked a lot about his new school and how exciting it will be to join his big brother. Now I’m not so sure if he will start there.  This was going to be the year of big changes. The …

This weekend I removed a large, wooden rocking horse from our house and then I cried. My oldest didn’t play on that horse very often, but I still felt very sentimental about it. To be perfectly honest I couldn’t figure out why, but as I sat in the space where it used to reside a …

I spend a lot of my day moving things from Point A to Point B. I move the dishes from the cabinet, to the table, to the dishwasher and back to the cabinet every evening, only to start all over again tomorrow. I move the clothes from the drawers, to the kitchen table, to my …

A few days before Halloween my husband looked into the massive bowl of candy and said “you did not buy enough.” “You don’t think that’s enough,” I asked, “It’s ten bags of candy!” I really didn’t want to run to the store to buy more, but I had a sinking feeling he was right. A …

I cannot believe my little baby is just shy of five months. Time seems to move so much faster this time around. The adjustment from one to two took a little longer than I expected, but as the nap schedule begins to normalize things are definitely getting easier. So far adding another baby has made …

It started innocently enough. “Can I take a ten minute shower?” I asked my husband. “Sure,” he answered, “no problem.” When I walked upstairs the three month old was asleep in the cradle. A few minutes later I emerged from the shower and immediately heard the baby crying. This child rarely cries. For the first …

I’m feeling surprisingly anxious about the arrival of child number two. For the past three years my son has been the primary focus of my life and I’m not sure how best to balance the wants and needs of two children. I’d love to hear any parenting advice from those of you who have two …