I know it’s early days with my kids being only seven and (nearly) thirteen but so far my girls are confident and I’m proud of that. I like to think some of it is because of their home life. My eldest was young when she did a talent show at school, second grade, the youngest in the school to pass the audition process. She wanted to perform stand up and asked me to buy her a rubber chicken. I didn’t quite know where to scare one up but when we went to a thrift shop we happened

I made an off-hand comment to an educator and watched her eyes light up with understanding. In the hopes that it could help some other people it seemed like a worthwhile topic for blog discussion. I’ve always been an actor. Both my parents were performers. Everyone in the family has some bit of performer in their personality. Our gatherings can turn into impromptu concerts. In those moments of spontaneous beauty it’s a beautiful gift to be a performer. The rest of the time it

So I’m leaving dance class and an older woman of a certain plush size says to me: “I wanted to quit when I started but I saw how amazing you look dancing even though you’re keeping it low impact and it kept me going this whole year. Thank you for being brave enough to be at the front of the class.” And I said: “Us big girls have more to shake.” And I did a bit of a belly dance in the lobby of our gym which made her laugh and that made me happy. This was the second hula of the

[The almost-11 stops her drawing and comes over to me to ask a question.] Mom, can I ask you something? Sure I saw a thing on a a computer and there was a word that the boys told me it was bad when I said it out loud. They were all, whoooa. What was the word? Promise you won’t get mad. Don’t be silly. It’s words. It was N-G or N-I or something. Ohhhhh, I know what word that is. What? This requires some explanation if you want to understand it. Okay. Okay. So. You know how br

My eldest has some atypical brain things that make her hilarious and challenging. She’s probably going to be like a friend of mine who failed most classes in high school but then got a perfect score on the SATs. One of her less charming issues is sensory processing. Stuff that most kids can shrug off will make her freak out. Like, instead of removing the tag from the shirt that is bugging her she will become enraged and throw a tantrum about her discomfort. With time and trai

When a family movie features science and technology I look forward to taking the eldest to see it as much as she looks forward to going to the movies. We loved Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Unfortunately, there’s a core problem with these movies and the latest one I took her to see was no exception. These movies send the message that you have to be a genius to consider a job in certain fields, like physics or engineering. I’d like to see my girls grow up to be the first

Cars are good and useful tools that I enjoy. No one on Earth can parallel park a GMC Suburban in Beverly Hills like I can. And no one loves a road trip as much as I do either. I’ve traversed the USA in various vehicles, done the south island of New Zealand, zipped back and forth across southern France. I’m a road trip fiend. Here you see me thrilled to set off from Los Angeles for a grand, four-week long road trip. So I tell you from personal experience that Americans have a

Did you go back-to-school shopping? Is your child’s room overflowing with clothes and making you crazy? I know, right? I do have one solution for the organizing part of it. Often, the problem with a child’s room is that parents make the mistake of trying to create an adult’s room, only with smaller furniture. A child is never going to want to fuss around with folding clothes or putting things in drawers. Many parents expect their kids to hang clothing on hangers. You will fin

The grocery delivery guy kept staring at our living room in a weird way and finally said, “I just have to say, this is the neatest apartment I’ve ever seen with two children living in it.” The room as he saw it: It’s not a big apartment by North American standards at 1,100 square feet. I laughed and explained that it’s because of the big bedroom. Our apartment complex has 85 units. I’ve seen a few dozen of them, and without fail, every family has put the parents in the large

Wireless headphones can be your new best friend when you become a parent, particularly if you share a small apartment with your children, like we do. Not only can you watch your own programs or listen to radio while the children are sleeping, you can also have the kids wear them when they’re watching one of their insipid television programs for the umpteenth time. They are pricey. You can expect to spend around $150 USD for a cheaper pair. But, boy howdy, do they pay for them