Homeschool Freaks & Geeks

Rachel Winder from Scottsdale, Arizona writes: I liked your article and I have been thinking about home-schooling, but I keep wondering how your kids can ever learn to get along with people if they are always so sheltered. (My mother-in-law keeps asking me that, too.)...

A Retrospective of Motherhood

August 1981 I never should have looked around at the ladies in our child-birthing class and picked out the statistical three who looked to me like they would end up having their babies by C-section. When I got my just deserts, I explained to an elderly friend that I...

Grief in Children

Many years ago I lost a little niece to SIDS. I explained her death to my eight-year-old son as matter-of-factly as I could. “The baby just quit breathing while she was taking a nap and she died. They call it ‘Crib Death.'” “She wasn't...

The “X” Factor

Have you ever sat in a parenting class or lesson and felt like a complete failure? I have a friend who told me once, “If I had only had my oldest child, I would have thought I was the world's best parent. She got good grades and obeyed the rules. She went to...

The Envelope, Please

It was with fear and trepidation, along with joy and elation, that I married a widower with five children, aging from 15 to 24 four of them boys in December of 2000. I am not yet finished with my negotiations between my stepchildren and my own son for royalties in...