Several weeks ago, Ling and I attended our first college application orientation at her high school. We learned the high school’s policies and heard from 3 local college admissions reps–all very informative and helpful. And then I lay in bed that night filled with panic that I’ve failed my child by not being the Tiger Mom I should have been. I couldn’t help feeling wooed by the lure of helping my child get into an elite college where learning can... Read more
For his first official Christmas present, my soon-to-be fiancé gave me LL Bean snow boots. Or actually, he gave me a photo of LL Bean snow boots. The practical type, Scott didn’t want to lug snow boots to and from Hawaii during his “meet the mom and brother” trip. After Hawaii, we flew to his home state, Maine, where he bought me a pair at the flagship Freeport LL Bean store along with beeswax to waterproof the leather. If sunshine... Read more
In April, my husband has the chance to get an all-expense paid trip to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in exchange for giving a talk about health care IT management. He wants me to go too, mostly so we can spend some alone time together. At first, I thought “Absolutely not!” My overweening sense of responsibility balked. After all, it would mean leaving 3 kids home alone (again after my jaunt to Paris in September) and either relying on friends to watch... Read more
I’m 3 months and 14 days away from mothering 3 official teenagers. Scary. In 3 months and 14 days, 3 teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 will dwell in my house with their mass of raging hormones, their sheer size, and their budding intellects that increasingly MUST be expressed. Believe it or not, I’ve actually enjoyed parenting teens more than I enjoyed parenting small children. Folks always say the early years are exhausting physically, the teen years exhausting... Read more
I’m 6 months away from having 3 teenagers, and boy do I feel it. Recently, an unnamed child threw a spanakopita triangle across the living room because this child didn’t want to give a sibling a crab Rangoon. For New Year’s Eve I had copied my sister’s habit of buying up Trader Joe’s frozen appetizers and testing them all. It was a failed experiment—Trader Joe’s appetizers just don’t stack up against homemade—but the kids were a lot less discriminating. Anonymous... Read more
Happy New Year Everyone! For those of you who read this blog regularly, you’ll see I’ve fallen off the blog-wagon for the past couple months. I’m supposed to move to a new blog on Patheos, but it’s just taking time to set up which was the perfect excuse not to write. But here we are in the first week of 2013, and it’s time to make my resolutions, including those around writing. Now I don’t know why I make New... Read more
Instagram by Lisa Calderon 60 days after my last period and the day after I’d taken a home pregnancy test that gave me the blue plus sign, I called my OB/Gyn’s office. “I think I’m pregnant.” The receptionist paused, and in a careful voice asked, “Is that good news or bad news?” “Good news!” I said. “Great!” I could hear the relief in her voice. “Then we’ll set you up for an appointment and start taking care of your baby.”... Read more
Sometime in the very near future, half our country’s going to feel disappointment. You may fall in that camp, or maybe me. Because my husband and I are on opposite sides of the political spectrum, someone in our marriage is going to be disappointed. How can we deal with our disappointment in a way that helps our kids (and ourselves) learn resilience? Some weeks ago, 2 out of 3 kids faced major disappointments. Weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth ensued. ... Read more
Back when Kai-Kai was born, my pediatrician told me I needed to have “special time” with 2 year old Ling-Ling—time set aside just for her even if it was only 10 minutes a day. “Then when you can’t give her attention, you can remind her that you will have special time later in the day.” Well I didn’t do it. And it wasn’t like Ling wanted any time with me—she coped with a new sibling by ignoring me for an entire... Read more
Tonight Kai came home with a homework assignment and said I had to help. “I’ve been through 9thgrade, I don’t do my kids homework,” said I, the loving, supportive, full of energy Mom of the year. “Mom! You need to help me—it’s an assignment.” “Where?” Suspicious. “Let me see the assignment.” “Mom! I’m so hurt! You don’t believe me?? Nobody else’s parents don’t believe them! This is supposed to be a learning experience between us.” She showed me the assignment. ... Read more
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