My children are 17 and 20. I am (most of the time) fairly content with how they’ve turned out. And I can honestly tell you: I’ve been both a permissive parent and an authoritarian parent. I’ve been their best friend. And they’ve occasionally loathed me. As for lawnmower, helicopter and snowplow? Check, check and check. … Continue reading The Only Title I Ever Wanted

A little over a year ago we dropped our son off at the train station for his return trip to college after winter break. When I came back home I discovered my son had left dozens of sweet notes behind for me to find. They were in the cabinets, drawers and even the coffee machine. … Continue reading A Soggy Message

This is a photo of my two big kids. Over the years they have had their share of disagreements and squabbles. I know for sure they’ve often irritated one another. These two young adults are very different people, they always have been. And I’ve sometimes worried about the strength of their sibling bond. Then this … Continue reading Sharing Their Whole Heart

My college son has been home for a few days on spring break. And in that time he’s mostly been in the house—sleeping, watching way too many YouTube videos, completing some homework. So yesterday we decided to get out for a bit, and we made our way to the local mall. There we shopped for … Continue reading An Extraordinary Slice Of Pizza

This is my daughter in her happy place. The National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland. Two million gallons of water and 17,000 animals representing over 750 species. Turtles, eels, a giant Pacific octopus, stingrays, puffins and blue poison dart frogs. She loves them all. She can tell you all about the feeding habits of the shark, … Continue reading I Hope She Finds Peace

My 17-year-old daughter and I have spent every weekend for the past month shopping for a dress for her high school junior prom. She is, at heart, a sweatshirts and jeans sort of young woman. So, as you can imagine, these forays into every local store and nearby mall have not been the highlight of … Continue reading The Epitome Of Bold

We just took our youngest child, our only daughter, on her first college tour. But this is not my first rodeo. I went through this process with my son a couple of years ago. I know what to expect. Except apparently I didn’t really know what to expect. I didn’t expect things to feel so … Continue reading The Enormity Of This Moment

When my son was in third grade he was given an assignment to create a “Timeline of My Life.” He had to choose five important events from his young life to put on that timeline, the first of which had to be a picture of his birth, and the last a photo from that year, … Continue reading The Timeline Of My Life

I came into the kitchen early this morning and discovered a mess. Crumbs on the countertop that were not there when I left this room, tidy and freshly Windexed, late last evening. To be honest, any other morning I probably would have overlooked that small pile. I would have recognized just how trivial and insignificant … Continue reading Calling For A Ceasefire In My Marriage

Recently I was going through a pile of old papers in an effort to “tidy up,” and I came across a tattered page from my son’s feeding log. This page was almost twenty years old, but seeing it still felt like a punch to my stomach. Born six weeks early after a harrowing pregnancy, our … Continue reading Failure To Thrive