Clueless Parent
Clueless Parent: Trying to Teach a 3-Year-Old About Justice
As I write this, it is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and I’ve just finished reading Dr. King’s 6,800-word “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” published in 1963 and written after being arrested for participating in one of his many nonviolent actions to further the cause of...
Clueless Parent: My years-long struggle, and solution, to my son’s bed wetting
“He’ll eventually grow out of it, you have to give it some time,” my son’s pediatrician told his father and me at his physical when he was maybe about 5 years old. When my son transitioned from diapers to pull-ups at bedtime, it seemed that we would never transition...
Clueless Parent: I’m a bad singer, but my toddler doesn’t mind
I’ve thrown out my back. I’m constantly see-sawing between excessively caffeinated and impossibly tired. My old clothes don’t fit anymore. And I’m convinced that the tune to “Elmo’s Song” will forever crowd out more important thoughts from my brain. Some of the...
Clueless Parent: Feeling like a humbug on Halloween
There’s no getting around it. Halloween is a strange holiday, and it gets stranger the older you get. As a kid, it’s all about heaping an enormous haul of candy any way you can, and hopefully not getting stuck with a dorky costume. Getting slightly older, the prospect...
Clueless Parent: My son is ready for potty training. I may not be.
What I’ve learned about parenting in my short two-plus-year tenure, is that everything is a phase, and some last longer than others. When my son was still an infant, laying still was a nice phase — he stayed where we put him. But that was replaced by rolling, and we...
Clueless Parent: Making your kid feel helpful, even when they throw eggs
I hate every activity I have to do pre-coffee. I’m admittedly a bit of a grump before I’ve had my morning caffeine bump, so when an egg flew through the air and smashed on the kitchen floor on a recent morning, I wasn’t amused. My 21-month-old daughter — my beloved...
Clueless Parent: Kicked Out a Few Minutes In
It’s not easy getting out of the house and out to events with a toddler, but my wife and I have been doing our best to nurture a budding interest in music for our 2½-year-old. One of our greatest successes to date was a free youth orchestra concert we found listed in...
Clueless Parent: Traveling with a Toddler
When I was expecting my son, I started to watch YouTube channels about traveling with kids. I felt a little smug sometimes watching a young child run happily through a World Heritage Site during a polished montage set to an indie track. “Oh, please,” I scoffed. “This...
Clueless Parent: Goodbye Wonderland, there’s a new ALICE around
Since childhood, any time I had heard “Alice,” I’d immediately go to Wonderland. The thought of curious Alice in her babydoll dress, black Mary Jane shoes, and matching headband falling into a rabbit hole sent happiness vibes straight to my brain. The memory of...
Clueless Parent: Surviving ‘It’s a Phase’
After his evening bath, my 2-year-old son entered the living room with a delighted smile on his face. My husband trailed cheerfully behind him, having successfully accessed our son’s figurative reset button. A bath is one of the few things that can put our child in an...
Clueless Parent: The Ancient Art of Anger Management
I got an email from a PR firm this week with the subject line: “The Epidemic of Extreme Parenting: How to Self-Assess.” I would say it was an interesting coincidence that it appeared just before the launch of this column, but it isn’t really. When I became a dad early...E-Edition
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