Tag Archives: parenting
Rob Ford taught my kid a lesson
I never thought the mayor of Toronto would give me the grist I need for a frank talk with my 9-year-old kid about the perils of smoking crack cocaine. It was during one of our dinner table talks. We’ve been making a point lately of sitting down and chatting about issues of the day – […]
Grown-ups can play piano, too
There are few things that say home like the sound of a kid playing piano. The sound of stilted scales drifting through open windows and into the spring or summer air, the floating notes representing what the kid wished her spirit could do while she had to stay inside, practicing. I didn’t understand that feeling, […]
When Toy Story makes for a freaky Friday
Today I walked out the front door of the house with my lunchbox in hand. My daughter had skipped out before me. She spied a friend of hers and her mother walking up the street. When she can, she dumps me and the car ride to school in favour of a leisurely walk, and today’s […]
Slaying ennui with Graham Greene and bored games
“I’m bored.” Those were the first words out of my daughter’s mouth after I picked her up from the babysitter. I can understand the feeling. It’s -25C outside with the wind chill factor. “Everyone else at school was hyper – I was grumpy,” she started off with a grouch. She was on the edge of […]
Marrying toothbrushes provokes the morning yell
The morning yell is inevitable. It happens for different reasons every day – dawdling, sleeping in, being distracted – but it is inevitable. My daughter is physically incapable of getting ready on time without the morning routine escalating crazily into the morning yell. To wit: I walk into the bathroom – she’s standing in front […]
When a wooden spoon is a threat
When I was a kid I would sometimes wonder, in certain situations, why grown-ups didn’t do something. Now I’m asking myself, should I do something. My daughter’s friend, S., had a sleepover with us last night. We went to a movie, did a little bit of shopping, made breakfast together this morning – simply had […]
Joy found – and lost – on a winter’s walk
My daughter keeps asking me to go on “our winter walk.” What she really wants to do is recapture a moment we experienced last year. It’s now etched in her memory. And she wants to replicate it. It was like this: the snow had fallen gently all day, covering the trees, the houses, the sidewalks. […]
My daughter needs a role model. I’m going to take a bath
It’s one of those in-between days. Midway between Christmas and New Year. One celebration ended, another yet to begin. So let’s take a break, take a breath. Or take a bath. Which is what, for the first time in months, I was able to do the other day. No, no, not the kind that my […]
Midway 