Dear Adequate:

HELP! My husband and I are expecting our first child, a son, in July.  Although the nursery is finished and college applications already at the admissions counselor for review, we remain unable to settle on a parenting philosophy from among the dozens of books and websites we’ve read since he was conceived.   We both agree [...]

Main Entry: de·serve

Pronunciation: \di-ˈzərv\

Function: verb

Inflected Form(s): de·served; de·serv·ing

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French deservir, from Latin deservire to devote oneself to, from de- + servire to serve

Date: 13th century

transitive verb : to be worthy of : merit <deserves another chance>intransitive verb : to be worthy, fit, or suitable for some reward [...]

This morning on the way into school, my daughter told me that she wants to be a kindergarten teacher someday.  Being a glass-half-full kind of gal, I concluded that it was an expression of love for her teachers, and not part of a revenge fantasy.

My joy in her love of learning lasted about two minutes, and [...]

Each morning I bring my daughter to school.  The walk there is lovely, even in foul weather.  Just the two of us, walking, talking, looking at flowers and birds and people.  I am a fine parent for those ten minutes, enriching my sweet child’s eager mind with my wealth of knowledge about our mildly, charmingly urban [...]

Dear Teacher, 

Thank you for your sincere and optimistic attempts to enrich my daughter through art.  Although all of her pictures are identical, I’m sure that internally, she is progressing by leaps and bounds.   Thank you also for not redirecting her to draw something other than the same dog, floating in zero gravity, throughout her time [...]

What do you want for Mother’s Day?

I asked for a birdbath.  My estimable husband picked out a beautiful one that is exactly to my taste—a fact that seemed to surprise him. Dave believes that fashion—or really any form of aesthetic standard—is an elaborate trick designed to mock him.  Dave’s not colorblind, but we have discussed and [...]

Are you down wit OPP? [1]

Do you let your baby cry himself to sleep?  Do you sleep with your babies or children in the same bed?  Put them in a crib far from you?  Is your son circumcised?  Uncircumcised?  Did you breastfeed your child?  Did you do so for longer than most people? Have a paying [...]

Hypocrisy

War is hell.

I am a sort of step-parent. I say ‘ sort of ‘ because Mr. Adequate in Poughkeepsie and I are not married, and because ‘step-parent’ has always sounded to me like it is missing the word ‘evil’ in front of it, and because my sort-of-step-kids’ actual mother lives about 3/4 of a mile [...]