Hello. My name is Kristen. As a very little girl, I was called “Krissy,” a name that my mom’s brothers and sister still use for me and which never fails to make me giggle. I then became “Kris” and remain so to my parents, my younger brother, Husband, our extended families, and a few good [...]
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Last night after the boys were in bed, I was sitting in the glider nursing Baby Sister when I heard the familiar siren song of the ice cream truck as it circumnavigated our neighborhood. But instead of feeling that jolt of adrenaline that normally sends me running for my wallet, ready to dispatch a dollar [...]
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A lovely surprise arrived in today’s mail. It was a letter. A genuine, hand-written letter on lined white paper, the sort of which I had forgotten existed in this age of e-greetings. A letter from an old teacher and mentor whom I haven’t seen in years. This letter was from my former basketball coach. He [...]
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You’ve probably gleaned from previous posts that I have a good relationship with my mother. The truth of it is that I have a great relationship with her: I value her opinion like no one else’s; I trust her moral compass; I never want to disappoint her; I want to someday have a relationship with [...]
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Jack’s comment on Monday’s post was so intriguing, I knew I needed to hear more. I was much obliged when he agreed to share his story with us here at Motherese. Please enjoy Jack’s post and then stop by to visit him at his place, Random Thoughts, where you will be welcomed by one of [...]
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Her name was Mary. She was just about my age. Mary was a great listener; I could confide in her about anything and she never told a soul. She was far more cooperative than any of my other friends. She always wanted to play the same games as I did and to listen to the [...]
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Growing up, we had an expression in our family that I think originated with my grandmother: “Bad, but honest.” This expression was usually deployed when a child either readily admitted to a wrongdoing (“Kristen, did you knock over your brother’s Lego tower?”…”Yup!”) or provided an opinion that lacked social grace (a hopeful, smiling “Kristen, do [...]
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Last week I read Kelly Corrigan’s bestselling memoir, The Middle Place. I was deeply moved by Corrigan’s hilarious and heartbreaking account of balancing her roles as daughter, wife, and mother within “the middle place – that sliver of time when childhood and parenthood overlap” and during her battle against breast cancer. But what resonated most [...]
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Just last week I was singing the praises of Gale at Ten Dollar Thoughts, the inspiration for my post on choice. At Ten Dollar Thoughts, Gale writes articulate, reflective, and powerful posts on motherhood, womanhood, and personhood. I always enjoy her writing and her thinking and was delighted when she agreed to do a house [...]
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We never cursed in my house growing up. Never. In fact, when I first started hearing curse words in school, I thought these words were new. Recently invented and added to the lexicon. Like “spyware” or “unibrow.” Imagine my surprise when I realized that these words were as old as language itself. To this day, [...]
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It turns out that my typical middle American suburban cul de sac isn’t so typical after all. You see, the kids on my street play. We had the snowiest winter on record, but that didn’t stop them from heading outside after school to engage in snowball fights or the more genteel snow angel creation and [...]
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Today it is my pleasure to welcome Lynne Marie Wanamaker of Mind Body Mama. Lynne Marie is another writer I met through the Momalom’s Five for Ten challenge last fall.* Her weekly essays – on topics ranging from modern motherhood to mindful self-defense – consistently capture me with their eloquence and wisdom. Thank you, Lynne [...]
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Today it is my pleasure to welcome my buddy Liz of …but then I had kids to Motherese for a neighborly chat. I met Liz – like so many of my other favorite blogging buddies – through Momalom’s Five for Ten and I have been greedily devouring her posts ever since. The word that first [...]
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Today I am happy to welcome my neighbor Stacia of Fluffy Bunnies over for a chat. Stacia is a new friend of mine, but hers quickly became one of my favorite neighborhood hang-outs. I love her perspective on parenthood “the glass half-full way” and marvel at the way she extracts universal lessons about life, love, [...]
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I am a European mutt. The daughter of a dad who is half German, a quarter Irish, an eighth English, and an eighth Swedish and a mom who is half Czech, a quarter German, and a quarter Irish. All that makes me a quarter Irish. And I’ve got the freckles, sunburn-prone complexion, and Catholic guilt [...]
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Today is Ash Wednesday, a traditional day of repentance and the first day of Lent in the Western Christian calendar. I spent the Ash Wednesdays of my youth girding myself for 46 days of Going Without. My childhood Lenten promises, like my New Year’s resolutions, were usually those that involved a Giving Up. No chocolate. [...]
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Last month I shared some of my concerns over Big Boy’s nervous behavior during what was supposed to be our trip to Disney World. A comment on that post by The Absence of Alternatives has been ricocheting around my head ever since: I read this post and I thought, “We went through the same thing!” [...]
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In a recent post at Privilege of Parenting, Bruce offered some advice to a reader concerned about the sleep issues of her six-year-old son. In his response, he shared the advice of two of my personal parenting heroines, Jennifer Waldburger and Jill Spivack, the dynamic duo behind Sleepy Planet and the authors of the Motherese [...]
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Are you pro-choice? No, I don’t mean it like that. Do you let your kids choose – and, if so, how much? A post at Privilege of Parenting and a comment on a post of mine have me thinking about the choices our kids make and the choices we make for them. On Sunday, Bruce [...]
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To me, the most resonant of Gretchen Rubin‘s Four Splendid Truths is the third one: “The days are long, but the years are short.” Indeed, as far as this mother of two is concerned, truer words have never been spoken. For the past couple of weeks, I have really been feeling that “long” part of [...]
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The day after we arrived in Orlando, Big Boy, Tiny Baby, and I visited Downtown Disney. I was excited to introduce the dinosaur-obsessed Big Boy to the dinos at the T-Rex Cafe and thought we might just catch a glimpse of a Disney character or two. Won’t he be delighted, I mused. [Big] Boy, was [...]
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Flying home on Sunday afternoon after another week away, I was actually a bit sad to see the trip come to an end. That is unusual for me: I usually prefer to stay home than to travel. I enjoy planning vacations, mapping out an itinerary, but, as often as not, I find myself counting down [...]
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Because 13 nights away from home over Christmas just wasn’t enough for this vagabond family of four, we’re off again. In just a few short hours, we will be flying south, heading for the Happiest Place on Earth. No, not Denmark. (Hi, S!) Nope, not Costa Rica either. (Hi, Gwen!) That’s right, boys and girls, [...]
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I am a big sports fan. Part of my morning routine includes watching a snippet of SportsCenter while nursing Tiny Baby. This morning I learned that Washington Wizards superstar (and popular blogger) Gilbert Arenas has been suspended indefinitely after bringing guns into his team’s locker room and, allegedy, drawing a gun on a teammate. (Arenas [...]
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I have just come up with a hypothesis so revolutionary that I wanted to share it with you right away: Youth just might be wasted on the young. My first piece of evidence: Big Boy has recently decided that he will not deign to eat dinner, regardless of what is served to him. Whether it [...]
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Husband and I were recently talking about time. How it passes both quickly and slowly. How “the days are endless and the years fly by.” How we wish we had more of it. More of it for ourselves, at least. I reminded him then of my theory of time. I was reminded of it myself [...]
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Two weeks of family time over the holidays got me thinking about birth order and how it affects us as kids and as adults. When I was pregnant with Tiny Baby, I spent some of my weeks of bed rest reading uniquely unhelpful books about birth order, gender, and age spacing between kids. These books [...]
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