Inheritance

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of the word “inheritance” is money, but there’s so much more. How many of us focus on the social status we’ll pass on to our children, to the exclusion of our intangible – and perhaps more valuable – assets? I have no social status, [...]

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Is hate too strong a word?

There’s someone I know that I don’t like very much. Although nothing about this statement is extraordinary, being commonplace is little consolation. This guy loses his temper more than I would like, and I cringe every time he yells. I see him show patience at the office and I wonder where it goes when he [...]

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A prisoner to pre-teen impulse

It scares me sometimes how much my mood depends on events that I have no control over. Every day my daughter is picked up from school by a local program which gives her a safe place to do her homework, followed by a Tae Kwon Do lesson. While it has done wonders for her focus [...]

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What would you do?

Imagine you had two young children in your house… say ten and two. Now imagine you went to brush your teeth, you noticed your toothbrush was wet, and you knew it shouldn’t be.
Is there anything your children could say that would put your mind at ease?

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Already

I didn’t expect this until high school. Beth pulled a late night, last minute school project throw together tonight. If you’re keeping score from home, that’s a fifth grade, last minute project.
We like to think we’re good parents. I knew she had “homework” that was due tomorrow. Somehow I didn’t catch on to the significance [...]

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Overheard this evening, in a home near me

“Come on Beth. This should be easy.”
“Maybe for you it is. You graduated from college. This is homework at my grade level.”
Sometimes kids can be infuriating and hilarious, all in the same sentence. You may find this exchange neither infuriating nor hilarious… in which case I can only trot out the “you had to be [...]

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Phenomenal

My daughter was trying to get me to watch High School Musical 2 this evening. I was holding out.
Then she says, “Dad, you have to watch it. It’s a phenomenon.”
At this point I laughed.
“What?” she asked?
I just smiled.
“What does phenomenon mean?” she asked.
I laughed some more, but harder.

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Uh huh.

This is Beth. She’s clearly not impressed with my idea to take a picture posed under the sign for the women’s rest room.
Today wasn’t a great day, but this picture made me smile. Beth is a good sport, even when I’m making very little sense.

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Proving nothing

There are lots of studies that prove nothing, but how often do you see them reported in the news?
Actually, this is an important study in one respect… it’s proof that I was right (restoring the natural order), and it’s timely (given the start of school today – in these parts): it makes no difference wether [...]

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Another first day

I brought my daughter to school today, continuing a five year trend. Summer vacation ended, and fifth grade started today.
Every year I feel really bad that summer vacation is over. While I want them to go to school and soak up every last bit of wisdom, I want them to be happy too… and [...]

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