FamilyEducation Blogs

April 1, 2009

Worlds apart

There's a beautiful little park in our city--downtown, not too far from L.'s school. I used to take L. there at least once a week when he was very small, and I love the park no matter what time of the year we go. But by far my favorite time of the year to visit the park is in March, when the flowers are just beginning to bloom, and the rides have opened up for the season. For a mere $1.00 you can ride a train around the park, or take a pint-sized boat ride, or ride a pony on the historic Dentzel carousel. And T. [more]

December 19, 2008

Sweet and salty (or salty and sweet)

Even though I am, by nature, a positive-minded person (at least I like to think I am), I also go through my days keenly aware of both the sweet and salty sides of life--the joyful and the bitter, the two-sidedness of every experience--especially as a parent.
October 28, 2008

My mother

My mother is avoiding me. I saw her this afternoon. She waited for me in front of the Boston Medical Center’s entrance, wearing a black leather jacket, talking with two women who obviously abuse a substance. She appeared to ask the women to walk with her to my car, but the women shook their heads “no.” My mother avoided eye contact with me. She walked straight to the back window, to my son. Danny said, “Hi, little nana.” Her face said, “I’m tired, worn down, and beat up.” Her eyes were sleepless and her skin dead.
October 14, 2008

Magic tree house

For a long time, one of L.'s favorite books has been Robert Ingpen's The Afternoon Treehouse. It's not the story that he finds so compelling, but instead the detailed plans and drawings in the book. Ever since he first read it (some three or four years ago), he's wanted a tree house of his own. [more]

June 24, 2008

K-Man & his Papa

Yesterday was the public memorial service for my father-in-law. More than 300 people turned out to pay their respects and remember a wonderful, brilliant and complex man. G spoke about her dad, as did a number of other family members and friends. As she talked about her memories with Felix, K-Man and I hung out in the back of the synagogue and listened (well, I listened, K talked to G quietly: “Hi, Mommy!”). When she finished, I started thinking about the special relationship that K-Man had with his Papa, and how we now have to protect their bond and the memories. [more]

June 3, 2008

R.I.P.: Cigars, dirty jokes and marching to the beat of his own piano

G’s dad, K-Man’s grandfather and my father-in-law passed away tonight. He lived an amazing 86-year life that was marked by experiences that the very best writers in Hollywood probably wouldn’t dare put onto paper for fear they wouldn’t be taken seriously. [more]

April 7, 2008

Why grandparents get to nap

My dad came into town on Wednesday to help us out with what was to be an utterly unmanageable end-of-the-week. Usually we can juggle our crazy tag-team parenting lives with just some sporadic help from babysitters, but the end of this week we knew would be impossible: days of late meetings for both of us, and on Friday a campus event I had been organizing for a good two months. We rushed around all week from deadline to deadline and when Wednesday night arrived, we breathed a collective sigh of relief: Help had arrived.