A post originally from two years ago, of a time when I “got it right” with playfulness, and with seeing “misbehavior” as a plea for playfulness. *** My 2yo and I were sitting at the kids’ dinner table. My 3.5yo always has a hard time with dinner. He’s groggy from his nap and his blood … Read more
Earlier this year, I bought my 5yo “Apollo” new shoes. Apollo’s approach to clothing has always been pretty much functional. He’s gotta wear clothing to go out in public so whatever goes on his body works just fine. He’s occasionally been enthusiastic about a cool airplane shirt or whatever but mostly unconcerned with what he’s … Read more
Recently, my family and I visited a sandy playground, and it reminded me of this story about myself and sensory processing. My son was maybe 18 months old, and he was playing on a playground where the ground was hard rubber. Excellent. All was well. Then he realized that across a little strip of grass … Read more
I grew up with a lot of technology. We had a home computer since before I was born and we had access to it pretty much whenever, as long as an adult didn’t need it right at that moment. I used to play simple clicking games when I was very young, like 3 and 4, … Read more
The kid I’m working with is a hardcore gestalt language processor*. I notice that they’re singing a song while the two of us work side by side on an art project. I can tell some of the lyrics are about characters from Mario, but many of the words are hard to understand. I think, “This … Read more
The long-awaited interview between myself and my husband! We cover topics including: -coming from differing parenting backgrounds -generational parenting styles, wanting to parent the same way your parents did or not -apologizing and repairing with your children -being a stay-at-home dad and its challenges -societal differences in gendered expectations of parents -non-traditional families -disagreeing with … Read more
“They’re actually not playing dangerously.” I tell this to my own body. My own nervous system. My own fight-or-flight response. Because of the way the noise feels. It pounds against my ears. It sends jolts down my skin. What I want to do is hide. What I want to do is cry. What I want … Read more
We have an outdoor toddler climbing frame/play set in our house. It was outdoors for the first 6 months or so of us living here. Then it became apparent that the extended period of cold weather in England compared to what we were used to the last place we lived, meant that my kids were … Read more
“Did you know,” he tells me, his feet kicking off the ground to push the swing again, “that if you wake up before 3 AM, there’s a 1 in 3 chance it’s because you heard somebody breaking into your house?” “Hmmm,” I answer reflexively. I’m sitting on the floor with my knees up, facing in … Read more
Something I’ve been trying out lately is counting to a hundred. I do it when I’m impatient with my kids for no actual reason. So I’m not saying this is for when you actually have somewhere you need to be. I’m thinking of times when I’m taking my kid home from daycare and she stops … Read more