“The Kiddy Pool” Articles

“What’s best for our kids is to develop their character while we let them be kids, and that sounds like a fruitful endeavor to me.”

“‘Parent’ is a verb, and it’s gender neutral, whether one is an Olympian or an ordinary mortal.”

“Most of the athletes competing in the Olympic games will come home to families and work and fade out of the spotlight that this season brings.”

“Christmas in July assures me that Emmanuel is a year-round gift that transcends liturgy and history and makes all time extra-ordinary.”

“It takes a village, they say, and that message rings true all the way from the Cretaceous time period.”

“So much of church liturgy is about waiting, and my toddler is practicing with more patience than I am able to muster.”

“It is still anathema is this culture — where ‘having it all’ gets defined by material success and social prestige — to simply be content.”

I don’t know what kind of redemption is possible for any of the players in these stories here and now, but I hold on to the hope that there is something more, something better, beyond the traumas of today.

“Convincing kids—and their parents—to sign up the whole family for Facebook isn’t just about making the world a more open network. It’s big business.”

“Why do we love to look at pregnant women but still expect new mothers to look like they haven’t spent the last nine months making a human?”

“Let’s shift the conversations on parenthood away from polemical and prescriptive and try to keep a sense of humor…”

“Both Badinter’s book and the child-free couples she describes represent opposition to the belief that motherhood is instinctual, natural, and universally-desired.”

“[C]hildren’s education always needs to be mediated by thoughtful and invested adults; in that ideal scenario, apps can serve as an enrichment tool (like so many kinds of media), but not as a substitute for other kinds of interactions.”

“I write about this here because I don’t know how to reconcile the joy of my daughter’s impending arrival with the deep ambivalence I feel about this pregnancy.”

“Lactation is not a disability; it’s a choice, yet it points to larger social discomforts about women generally and mothers specifically.”

“The dichotomy between mothers who work outside the home and those who don’t is false, unnecessarily divisive, and intentionally distracting.”