Despite hours of waiting at lines at Disney World, there is no way around it: Disney is one of my favorite family trips. That’s because Disney is just different. The grounds are clean, and so is the language people use. There are very few people pushing, you are surrounded by people who are generally reasonably happy and enjoying time with family.
The Dread of Disney
We drove an hour from our hotel to get to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Our younger son had spontaneously come up with what must be this generation’s version of “Are we there yet?” He kept asking “How many miles left?” He was keeping count and insisted I check the GPS to give him an accurate number. It was both cute and irritating.
Mission Nasa: Family Vacation
Trick-or-treat! It’s a few days after Halloween and your adorable fairy-princess-witch-super-Star Wars-ninja just collected a pillow case full of Halloween candy. You know how bad all that sugar is. What is a responsible parent to do?
Never Fear,
The Switch Witch is Here
Where we grew up, there were still lots of older homes with no central air conditioning. The summers were hot and humid. There were a few activities you could sign up for at the middle school, but they weren’t all day camps. There were morning swimming lessons in the freezing cold community pool, but after that there was not much to do. The kids that were around did tend to spend a lot of time inside using their Nintendo’s. We already knew our mom was a little different from the other moms. She made us eat whole-grain bread and natural peanut butter, and our snacks were pieces of cheese and fruit. We didn’t get free access to hostess cakes like our friends did. Our TV time was limited, and we had never owned a Nintendo.
The Summer of No TV
“The seagulls sure are beautiful, Mom,” said one of my kids on our first evening at the beach in Florida. “Yeah, they are pretty cool,” said the other. “It’s like Finding Nemo!” The two of them started chirping: “Mine Mine Mine Mine.”
Swooping Seagulls
I always loved my father’s stories about his glory days as a runner. He was tall and lanky, an ideal build for a distance runner. He ran in high school, and he was later recruited as a runner in college. That scholarship was his path to an engineering degree at a good school. He used to love to tell stories about his races. His favorite races were the ones he nearly lost, when he came from behind and sprinted past the leader for the win. For my Dad it was always the joy of the contest.I was just the worst runner. Just terrible.
4 Lessons
from a
Truly Terrible
Cross Country Runner
The weather was nice and the kids were being annoying.
They had been playing in the house so nicely all morning. But now they were following me around whining about being bored. All three of us knew this was really a ploy to see if they could get extra screen time. It never ceases to amaze me how hard they try for this, even though it never works.
The Great Map Adventure
We live in a culture of constant criticism, haunted by the idea that one mistake can alter our childs destiny forever. This “Shouldstorm” makes us anxious parents who raise anxious kids.
These are my reflections on working as a team in our parenting. We’ve been having so much trouble with our son who’s not a good sleeper,. He’s back in a pattern of bedtime resistance, and it’s just so frustrating.
Working as a Team
This morning I watched a great free webinar about how to use natural consequences. I saw the testimonials; amazing stories like the woman whose three year old is just buckling themselves in and is delighted to do it now!
When Natural Consequences Don’t Work
