By October of Maya’s second year, I had a toddler who refused to nap, a pile of leaves she’d scattered across my living room floor, and a husband asking why the entryway smelled like a compost bin. I had tried to bring “the magic of autumn” indoors with a basket of pinecones and acorns, and … Read more
My daughter Maya once dumped an entire bag of dried black beans across my kitchen floor at 7 a.m. because she wanted to “find the spiders” faster than her sister. I stood there in my socks, coffee in hand, staring at a floor that looked like it had been hit by a tiny brown blizzard, … Read more
There comes a point — usually during bath time when someone is screaming, someone else is hungry again, and you’re pretty sure you haven’t had a warm cup of coffee since 2019 — where you wonder if your kids will remember anything good about their childhood. Not the vacations. Not the birthday parties with the … Read more
My living room floor disappeared under a sea of blinking, beeping, battery-draining plastic for about three years straight. Between Sarah, Maya, and Leo, we owned toys that sang at three in the morning, toys that needed a manual to operate, and at least two toys so “educational” they made my kids cry from boredom. I … Read more
My living room once looked like a toy store had sneezed on it. There were light-up gadgets that beeped, plastic kitchens with 47 accessories, electronic learning tablets, motorized cars, and at least three versions of that one doll that sings the same four songs until you fantasize about a house fire. My kids — Sarah, … Read more
My kitchen counter once held a half-eaten banana, three crayons, and a toddler who had just “cooked” my phone in a pot for the fourth time that week. Every parent knows this scene. You’re outnumbered, overwhelmed, and your child has decided that your belongings are the most exciting toys in the house—because the actual toys … Read more
Every parent of a toddler has had that moment. You turn your back for thirty seconds—thirty seconds—and your child has shoved a handful of kinetic sand into their mouth like it’s a snack. Or maybe it was playdough. Or worse, that mystery chunk of something you found fossilized under the couch cushion. With my youngest, … Read more
There’s a moment every parent knows. Your seven-year-old is melting down in the cereal aisle, your teenager just slammed a door hard enough to rattle the picture frames, or your toddler has looked you dead in the eye and said “no” for the fifteenth time in an hour. And in that exact moment, you ask … Read more
Every summer, it happens. The kids have been inside for approximately forty-five minutes and someone has already said the words “I’m bored.” You point at the yard — that beautiful, green, perfectly good yard — and they stare at it like you’ve just suggested they vacation on the moon. That was my life with Sarah, … Read more
The sun is still blazing at 8 p.m. The birds haven’t even gone quiet yet. And somewhere in your house, a child who is absolutely not tired is doing their seventh lap around the couch, making the kind of noise that belongs at a carnival, not at bedtime. Been there. Lived it. Survived it — … Read more