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Recent Posts
- Ride to Church in Hyderabad, India
- 60 Psaltery & Lyre: Jeremy Windham, “Goliath in Love”
- Flooding the Book of Mormon with the Book of Mormon
- Battle Hymn of My Mormon Mother
- A Celebration of Motherhood
- Motherhood Is Not the Essense of my Personhood
- 3 Little Gurus
- 59 Psaltery & Lyre: James A. Clark, “Elegy for a Stranger”
- [Mormon] Mother’s Prayer for Its Child
- A Celebration of Motherhood
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parenthood Archive
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Motherhood Is Not the Essense of my Personhood
Dear Kennedy, Marin, and Stuart, Mother’s Day is tomorrow. Mother’s Day is not my favorite–for a whole host of reasons I’m quite sure y’all know about because I tend to... -
“Motherhood” in six short words
A few months ago, I was lucky enough to spend three blissful days reading, writing, walking, jogging, eating, and mostly gabbing for hours with four amazing women. (Before this weekend,... -
Mormon Moms Meet Yale
For the past few years, I’ve been a part of a wildly ambitious ward project that my friend, Lia Collings, spearheaded. It started out as a modest collection of essays,... -
Parenthood Juggle: We Co-Get-It-Done
When I was a young mother, a series of events occurred that changed my life. In 1995, a woman the same age as me became a widow. She had three... -
Stages and Flexibility: My Communications Career Juggle
Before becoming a mom, I spent three years in magazine editing and high-tech public relations. The birth and adoption of our first son coincided with a move across the country... -
Parenthood Juggle: Wanting it All
I was intent on having career (not just job) options with my humanities degree, no matter what educational step I took next. -
Parenthood Juggle: Piano Lessons are Worth It
I didn’t yearn for a career. Sometimes it feels like—looking back—that I just fell into it. I was an excellent student in high school, but never felt like I knew... -
Parenthood Juggle: Full-time mom/part-time rocket scientist?
Only since September, when I participated in measuring the noise from a solid rocket motor, have I been able to claim the “rocket scientist” title, but it’s been almost 13... -
Parenthood Juggle: Musings on Gender Roles in Mormonism
So if you’re a stay at home dad, awesome. I salute you as a brother. If you’re a full time, cookie baking, stay at home Mom with a... -
Parenthood Juggle: Figuring It Out As You Go Along
How have we taken care of our little ones? The first year of my son’s life was a complicated, sleep-deprived blur, and I’ll spare you the details. -
Guest Post Invitation: The Parenthood Juggle
I want my daughters (and my son!) to be able to read about other women’s struggles. How did they go about deciding what to do and when? -
20 Psaltery & Lyre: Joshua Lyons, Two Poems
“I lay down in my bed, nobody / beside me tonight because / I have the boy.” -
Babies and Grad School
Today’s guest post is written by Caitlin. My first week of grad school ended in an emotional break-down, not unlike one of an adolescent who came to a new school... -
21 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Half a Foot (or Church)
The “nicer” men are about the patriarchal structure of the church, the more likely it is to be perpetuated. The best way for men to promote change in this context... -
20 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Half a Church
I have brought my daughter, dressed up and nervous with anticipation, gift in hand, to a birthday party where the boys will decide what games to play and what the... -
Mind the Gap
I recently re-read Carol Lynn Pearson’s amazing No More Goodbyes: Circling the Wagons around Our Gay Loved Ones for the second time because a woman in my very-Mormon book club... -
Roller Coaster
A year ago, I was living in a daze. I was spending most nights curled up against my 11 year old daughter’s back as she lay on her... -
Santa and I
The year I turned four or five, we drove to my grandparents in central Wisconsin for Christmas. Actually, we did this for most years of my early childhood- until I... -
Bearing One Another’s Burdens
Anyone who knows me even the least little bit knows that I’m quite open and honest about my failings as a parent. The list is long. Embarrassingly long. Nothing about... -
Finding Peace
Forgiveness. As babies and young children, we can’t help but forgive those that wrong us. We have no choice…. we are too dependent. But somehow along the path to adulthood... -
Slipping through God’s Fingers
In August, I underwent a 40-hour training to become a guardian ad litem or a “CASA” (court-appointed special advocate) for children in the foster care system. I was surprised to... -
Crash Test
The thought of any inexperienced driver in charge of a 4,000 pound machine makes me very nervous, but anticipating my own flesh-and-blood inexperienced driver sends me almost into a panic. -
We Are Pioneers
As I was telling my Kindergartner earlier this month that we’re all pioneers in some way. Whenever we stand up for what we believe in or do something because we... -
The Gluttonous Baby
For as long as humans have made objects, there have been baby dolls. It’s an almost universal phenomenon that young children play with dolls. Especially if they have younger siblings... -
Operation Stop Arm
My neighbor Sheri and I watched motorists pass our children’s school bus for years. We took video, called the police, reported tag numbers, complained to the public school department of... -
‘Men’ in the Dock
This is a post about men. This is a post about women. No wait, this is a post about ‘men’. This is a post about the relationships between women and... -
Papa, Watch me Fly!
On Sunday nights, we gather all the piles of clean laundry into the living room and fold it while watching a movie. The kids were not amused by my choice... -
The Illusion of Equality
Today, a guest post from Helen. I read a review of Rebecca Asher’s book the week it came out in print, and decided to order it straight away. One of... -
Parental Involvement: The Gold Standard
We hold these truths to be self-evident—that all good parents are involved in their children’s education. They bring food (homemade . . . that goes without saying) to teacher appreciation... -
BUTT-erfly T-shirts for Mother’s Day
My first child was born on January 5. The months between her birth and Mother’s Day were, um, let’s just say they were difficult. She cried all day long and... -
The Joys of Parenthood
Why do we have such a hard time admitting to the realities of parenthood? This morning a dear friend of mine who has just given birth to her second baby... -
Fff… family
I just read this today and loved it: http://www.literarymama.com/columns/perfectlynormal/archives/2011/ffffamily.html A great reminder that not all families look alike (which clearly we should not need reminding) and that for some people,... -
Helping an Orphanage in Ethiopia
One of my dearest and oldest friends (one of two friends without whom I would not have survived high school) and her husband are adopting two babies from Ethiopia. She... -
The Grass is Always Greener
I just got back from a fancy schmantzy conference for educational researchers in New Orleans. I submit proposals every year and hope to get one in—even though I know I’m... -
Delousing the Kids
This beautiful poem was written by my dear friend, Dayna Patterson, after patiently listening to me whine about our 2010 lice-capade. It will be published later this year in a... -
An Unlikely Prayer of Thanksgiving
Last summer, Brent and Stuart went to get a haircut. While there, the stylist discovered that Stuart had lice (gasp!). We soon discovered that Marin also had it (double gasp!).... -
My Own (not-so-little-anymore) Dancing Boy
My son Stuart turned 8 in February and was baptized as a member of our church last Sunday. (Children typically get baptized when they turn 8 in the Mormon church,... -
“Do you want to end up living under a bridge?”
This is, reportedly, what my daughter’s second grade teacher asked her class during a fit of frustration over their less-than-enthusiastic preparation for the looming standardized testing. Several other parents and... -
Celebrating the Man As Well As His Cause
A guest post from a reader, Debra. Names matter. They do. My life experience has taught me this. Names are important as they are references – signs — that direct... -
Black Swan
Today’s post is from a guest that we’ll call ‘White Cygnet’. I didn’t expect Black Swan to strike at my Mormon roots. I found the film both disturbing and moving... -
Forbidden Fruit
So, I just finished reading an absolutely fascinating book called Forbidden Fruit: Sex and Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers by Mark Regnerus, a professor at University of Texas-Austin.... -
London Calling
[UPDATED] I took a call from London at four this morning – that’s 11 AM London time. It was my fifteen year-old daughter in tears at having discovered that she... -
Memories
A grateful resident presented me with a chocolate turkey, wrapped in beautiful multicolored foil. Then she looked around her room, reached over to her bedside table, and... -
Care to join me for guitar practice, anyone?
But when you have three kids who all have to be in three different places at the same time, the babysitter plus me still doesn’t cut it. I often... -
Fei Hua (Chinese for “wasted words”)
I got to my office one morning and this cartoon was taped to my door: I knew right away who had put it there. It was Co-worker A, a man... -
Keeping My Hand In
Four years on, I’m in a slump and I’m really just keeping my hand in. -
Urban Camping Part I
My husband and I have tried lots of different divisions of parental responsibilities over almost 14 years. When we started out, he was a student and I was a teacher,...
