Last Sunday, I returned home from a 3-day trip with our 17-year-old son to visit a college campus. Tom stayed home with our other two kids while I was away, and he said it was weird to be here without me. He’s usually the one leaving for business trips while I hold down the familial fort. Although he was happy for my return, I was gone just long enough for he and the kids to decide I needed an unusual “intervention.” Here’s a recap of that conversation: Him: “While you were gone, the kids and I were talking, and we’ve decided you have a problem.” Me: “What problem?” Him: “You’re spoiling the dog. You let him get away with all […]

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Tomorrow I’m going to watch my 12-year-old daughter take the stage. She has spent three weeks of her summer break taking theater classes, and tomorrow I’ll see the second of two plays in which she’s acting. For most kids this wouldn’t be newsworthy. But for Kate – who has struggled with crippling shyness – this is huge. Shocking. Almost miraculous. As a recovering shy girl myself, I’m still astonished at how Kate was drawn to theater last year. The first time she asked me to take her to an audition, I played it cool and nodded my head. “Sure,” I said. Then I sprinted upstairs to find Tom, shut the door and whisper-yelled, “Oh my gosh, Kate wants to audition […]

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Last night as I pulled back the covers to climb into bed, I realized what has happened. In a sense, Tom and I have traded places with our three kids. A decade ago – when the kids were 7, 5 and 2 – we were the ones eager to get them to bed so we could sit down and relax, reduce the noise level in the house, and maybe watch a show or two on TV. We looked forward to that window of time between eight and eleven o’clock at night so we could have a conversation uninterrupted by requests for a juice box. But these days, with two teenage boys and one almost-teenage girl in the house, things are […]

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We’re back from a trip to New York and we have the blisters to prove it. During our last night there, I took off my tennis shoes after three days of walking more than eight miles per day and saw a toe blister so big I decided to name it. Fred, the blister on my fourth toe, is the only souvenir I brought back from the big city. We skipped shopping in favor of seeing, and boy did we see some things. It was the first trip to the city for two of our three kids, and we were anxious to see their reactions to a place they’d only seen in movies. After an introductory slice of New York pizza, […]

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‘Tis the season of carry-on bags, rolling duffels, and the much-maligned fanny pack. It’s summer break, and we Americans are on the move with all our stuff. As the mother of three, one of the not-so-fun parts of vacation is the packing process. Most moms feel an unspoken obligation to remember to pack things that anyone in the family might possibly need while on the trip. Not only do we have to remember our own stuff, we must think through the “just in case” scenarios for everyone else, too. It’s no wonder most moms are tired before we ever climb in the car or board the plane. Even now that my three kids are plenty old enough to pack their […]

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When I was in college, I had a professor who often began class with a ritual. He’d shuffle to the front of the room and reach inside his tweed sportscoat to retrieve a folded strip of newspaper. Then he’d carefully unfold it, adjust his glasses and start reading in his signature monotone delivery that always reminded me of the cartoon character Droopy Dog.  Each news clip told a different story, but the overarching theme remained the same. The report detailed how someone who was about our age – late teens or early twenties – suffered an untimely death or life-altering injury after making a dumb decision. It was usually something along the lines of “19-year-old student killed by oncoming train […]

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Today I read about a new technology that sounds completely ridiculous and perfectly rational – all at the same time. Let me explain. There’s a new dating app called “Refrigerdating,” which works in conjunction with the Samsung Family Hub Refrigerator. In case you’ve never seen this appliance in person, it’s what you might call a fridge of the future – the kind of thing you might have seen in Jane and George Jetson’s kitchen. It has a touchscreen door and a built-in camera, allowing you to browse what’s inside the fridge without even opening the door. The app developer apparently decided to marry the concept of Love Connection with modern fridge technology. By using the app, you can peek inside […]

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Tonight, after a birthday dinner ending with a hot fudge sundae topped with a candle, I sat on the sofa next to Jack, our middle child who just turned 15. He wanted to watch a movie we’d recorded on cable. We weren’t even 10 minutes into the movie before he got a case of hiccups. I smiled because it made me happy to know that some things never change. Before he was even born, Jack got the hiccups in utero at least two or three times per week. When you’re pregnant and your on-board passenger gets the hiccups, it feels like someone is rapidly tapping on your belly from the inside out. Last night, exactly 15 years after he made […]

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Dear High School Juniors and Seniors, It’s that time of year when graduation caps all over the country are tossed skyward in celebration. While those caps and tassels fly wildly up in the air, most people expect you to have everything else nailed down tight. I can’t imagine how often you hear these questions from well-meaning adults: “So where are you going to go next? What will your major in college be? What field are you planning to go into?” As the mother of a 17-year-old, I’m here to tell you that “I have no idea” is a perfectly acceptable answer. Don’t let the grown-ups fool you into thinking that they’ve always had things figured out. I know plenty of […]

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I went home last weekend – not my current home but the first place I ever knew as home – a little town in southern Arkansas called Stuttgart. I’d planned to make the trip with Jennifer, who I have been friends with since 5th grade. We were planning to attend a funeral for a dear family friend. Something came up at the last minute that prevented Jennifer from traveling, so Tom said he’d go with me instead. I was grateful for his company because heavy rain combined with the rhythmic hum of the interstate is enough to make any driver drowsy. But I perked up when we came within 10 miles of our destination. I hadn’t been back to my […]

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