I’ve been looking haggard lately, more so than normal. I’ve had a long stretch of teaching, followed by two nights of parent-teacher interviews. Bedtime’s come too late and sleep has been unsettling. In the classroom, I’ve looked and sounded like Charlie Brown’s teacher. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcZlalsyOxE] I’m not sure if it’s the tiredness or the fact that […]
holidays
Earth Day Tips for Lazy Parents
April 22 is Earth Day, which means kids will be coming home from school with great ideas. Most of these “great ideas” are things we parents wish we were doing already: growing our own vegetables, packing litter-less lunches, and singing Kumbayah. I admit defeat early in the three above-mentioned Save-the-Earth campaigns: I kill house plants, […]
Bowling with Children: A Spring Break(down) Tradition
Bowling seemed like a good idea at the time. I didn’t have high expectations. I simply hoped for a better result than last Spring Break, when Vivian melted down because her name was listed last on the monitor; when my husband finished in fourth place, behind me and two kids who still peed in their […]
A “New” Year’s Tradition: Make Resolutions for the People You Love
It’s six days in. Six days since I started my Resolution of the Decade: drinking eight glasses of water each day. This was something I used to do on an hourly basis when I lived in Bangkok. It’s harder to drink water in the freezing Canadian winter, but I soldier on, imbibing H20 like it’s […]
5 Great and Not-So-Great Memories of Our Family Vacation
Memory 1: Seeing the Ocean My kids haven’t seen salt water since they lived in Thailand, and that was before they could walk upright. Because we now live in a landlocked province, they’re not exactly sea-savvy. We’ve grown tired of them asking “Is that the ocean?” every time we drive past a slough in a […]
5 Unsuccessful Strategies for Getting Kids To Fall Asleep
Let’s face it: this holiday season, many of us will have the task of getting kids-hyped-up-on-chocolate to fall asleep beside us in hotel rooms or in a grandparent’s spare bedroom. This is no easy task; if it were, someone would’ve won the Nobel Peace Prize for Parenting. Saturday night, in a desperate attempt to get […]
5 Tips for Traveling with Children
Tip 1: Don’t. So what’s wrong with vacationing in your house? There’s nothing wrong with it, besides the fact that your kids want to kill each other because they’re routine-bound and besides the fact you’ve started to wax poetic about the lives of your childless friends. Take it from someone who took her twins on […]
Gingerbread DysFUNction
It seemed like a good idea at the time. You know, in that same category as opening another bottle of wine or giving your phone number to the guy who’d later become your husband. It was a bit of synchronicity really. My husband saw a gingerbread kit at the supermarket. Then my neighbour – who […]
Those Annoying Christmas Letters: A Rant
It’s the advent of Christmas Card Season, when things other than bills grace my mailbox. Whenever I get a Christmas card, I go through the Kubler-Ross stages of emotions, from denial (It’s not Christmas again, is it?), to guilt (I really should send Christmas cards), to bargaining (If you’re going to send me a card, […]