My boys are in a rock band. Nothing brings tears to a Jewish mother’s eyes faster than the six words: ”Meet my son, the lead guitarist”. In all seriousness, I am very proud of their dogged pursuit of the ultimate boy dream and ability to pull their s-t together to try out for the grade [...]
We all spend a great deal of time and effort teaching our children how to behave. But what happens when it’s your husband who needs a lesson? A close friend of mine recently relayed the following experience to me: Last month, a group of husbands and wives who were all friends arranged for respective boys and [...]
Since the time of Martin Luther King, our country has been in a serious leadership drought. In fact, in my lifetime, I can not think of one great American leader. Can you? I am not speaking about someone who got the job done well. I’m talking about someone who inspires us to be better Americans. [...]
Dave and I split up last night. It happens to the best of us. For Dave and me, it happens almost every day. It is a necessary evil for busy parents with busy kids. I took the Winter Music Concert; he took the Bar Mitzvah meeting. Both events were mandatory and began at the exact same time. [...]
BabyCenter.com’s list of most popular baby names of 2008 was recently released. My own name fell hard from the number one spot to #14 for girls, only to be replaced by a distant cousin, Emma. For this I am thankful. Not used to sharing my name with anyone (not many Emily’s in the 1970s, 80s or [...]
Thank you to all the MoB readers who sent get well wishes during my recent incapacitation. My illness was fast and furious and absent of any major “ick” to which others I know have been subjected. That is, I had a 24 hour fever – nothing else. It was the best kind of sick I [...]
I am not one for New Year’s promises but I do promise you all that I will do this for the next 30 days: I wrote a dozen checks yesterday and at least half of them have the 20089 feature. Luckily, turning an 8 into a 9 is not that thorny. 2007 was tough. I [...]
Dave and I had our standing unspoken agreement on New Year’s Eve. I would get nicely cocktailed… …and he would explain my behavior to party guests. This year I had partners in crime for silliness…most under the age of 12… but not all… No one drove home intoxicated. No one threw up confetti (true Dave [...]
Imagine the entire world has come to a standstill. The streets are deserted; the stores are closed; it is eerily quiet in the middle of the day. Nobody is around – except for your family, who wanders the earth aimlessly, looking for signs of life. Yes, we are talking about the latest M. Night Shyamalan [...]
The first night of Hanukah was last night. Our family tradition (which I followed strictly as a Jewish child growing up in the suburbs and dutifully passed onto my boys) is to light the candles after dinner and then run, screaming in anticipation to the family room sofa, where you sit very close together with [...]
