A roaring fireplace, Momma’s oven-baked sugar cookies and Daddy’s reading holiday poems aloud to my siblings and me as “A Motown Christmas” played: I cannot imagine the holidays without intertwining those memories. My fondness for tradition, however, doesn’t prevent me from adding a few new tweaks and twists for my own family. For example, I… Continue reading Updating An Archive: The Easy-Bake Oven Gender Drama
Category: Raising Families
Willow In Charge Or Freefall? The Importance of Boundaries For Kids
The wheels of fate were set into motion soon after we became engaged. When my then-fiance Calvin shared the news with his mother, he passed the receiver to me and my future mother-in-law’s first words were an enthusiastic request. “Congratulations Lorrie. You two ought to have a baby! Have a girl.” We didn’t forsee having… Continue reading Willow In Charge Or Freefall? The Importance of Boundaries For Kids
Cleavage Cool, Breast-Feeding Bad? The Breast Milk Baby Doll Backlash
I don’t know if there’s a catchphrase for today’s generation of kids, but if I could coin one for six-year-olds, it would be ‘The Age of Endless Questions,’ a description that Nia personifies to a T. No matter where we are—pushing a cart through the grocery store, on our way to dance class or leaving… Continue reading Cleavage Cool, Breast-Feeding Bad? The Breast Milk Baby Doll Backlash
Girls Will Be Women, But Should ALSO Become Ladies
She was tall, thin and matronly, with cat’s-eye glasses and a helmet of salt-and-pepper curls. Her name was Lola Garrison, and she was my sixth-grade teacher. A sweet, soft-spoken woman who rarely raised her voice, Mrs. Garrison once chastised a flip-at-the-lip female classmate of mine by uttering, in a sharp tone that she rarely… Continue reading Girls Will Be Women, But Should ALSO Become Ladies
You Loathe Him, But They Love Him, So Let Kids & Dad(s) Stay Close
There are few things more inspirational than a single mother who’s taking care of business. If you aren’t one, chances are that you know one: a lady who’s juggling jobs or alternating night shifts with night classes. And in the midst of it all, she’s also raising children. Being a single mother may not have… Continue reading You Loathe Him, But They Love Him, So Let Kids & Dad(s) Stay Close