Perspectives in Parenting

It’s Mother’s Day, and I’m lying in bed. My husband told me to go rest while the girls were napping, so I figured I might as well allow myself some time alone. I am always tired, after all. I’m lying there with one eye open and one lamp still on because I can relax, but not completely. I’m a mom, after all. Every few minutes, I’m convinced I hear one of the girls waking early from her nap. I wonder if my husband knows the baby needs to nap or stay in her crib a solid 1.5 hours before we get her. I think about the dirty dishes and the laundry.  I look at my phone and scroll through Instagram, slightly...

Why is it I cringe when I have a video meeting and knowing I won't have the help to watch my daughter? Like many other moms, we have found ourselves working from home with babies, toddlers and teenagers at home as well. I am very grateful and blessed to have the opportunity to keep working but I was very stressed on March 13th when the governor announced that schools were closing. Even though my daughter is in daycare, and daycares were still open, I knew eventually they would close. I remember sitting at my desk in my cubical at work, crying big crocodile tears. I didn't know what was next. Being a control freak by nature, I could not control...

Dear Miss Wanda, I didn’t know about you in February and I didn’t know about Ahmaud or how he left to go for a jog and unjustifiably lost his life. I’ve only known who you are for two weeks. We live in separate states and I realize that, but I wonder if I would have known you or Ahmaud if you lived on my street. Yesterday, I shared his post about his hashtag #irunwithahmaud on my social media. Whenever I saw that it was going viral, I immediately felt called to put on my shoes and think of him the entire way. I thought about taking out my baby boy’s stroller and heading out with all three of my sons today...

We’ve seen it all: the Facebook posts, the funny Instagram memes, and the TikTok videos from parents who have been thrown into this seemingly impossible challenge of homeschooling their own kids. It’s a situation most parents never dreamed they would be in, and it is incredibly difficult for everyone.  As both a teacher and a mom, I understand. Students and parents are struggling, but guess what? So are teachers. For most teachers going to work every day is so much more than just a job. Teaching is a calling. It’s a passion that makes us complete. Each year, we meet a new group of students and have the awesome challenge and privilege of educating them.  However, a good teacher does...

I stroll with my two young sons almost everyday through our neighborhood. Since February, the cloudless sky can almost be too blue and too beautiful with the bright sun beaming down on us. I have to pull the round shades over them while they munch on Cheetos and guzzle Capri Suns. The tips of their legs are more tan than their thighs. The strolls are more for me than for them. It gives me a chance to have real peace. The two of them seem to give in to the gentle rumble of the double stroller and are still. Elsa belts ballads from my iPhone as I finally get a chance to answer emails or scroll through my Pinterest feed. At...