My newest podcast obsession

Reviews

Aug 24

Malcolm Gladwell, New York Times bestselling author of Blink and The Tipping Point, has a new podcast and I am OBSESSED.

“Revisionist History will go back and reinterpret something from the past: an event, a person, an idea. Something overlooked. Something misunderstood.Because sometimes the past deserves a second chance.”

— Malcolm Gladwell

The entire season is great and covers topics as varied as the fall of Saigon to the best way to shoot a free throw. Every episode - no matter the topic - I find myself exclaiming, "REALLY!?!"

However, it's a three-part series on college that left me shocked and angry and basically cornering people at parties to inundate them with every detail. (Go ahead and listen now and save yourself the trouble.) He begins with how well we do as a country of capitalizing on talent - especially talent found in very poor areas. (Spoiler alert! Not well.) This episode also contains the most succinct definition of privilege I've ever heard.

The next episode addresses how well colleges use their budgets to reach out to low-income students and the last (and most infuriating) addresses college and their multi-billion dollar endowments.

Y'all, go hurry up and listen so we can talk about it!

Featured

Parenting

How to quit yelling at your kids

Parenting

Recently, I posted on Facebook that I was trying to stop yelling at my kids. There wasn't one rock bottom moment but there were enough bad days that I woke up one morning and thought, "I'm not going to yell at my kids today." Then, the next day I made the decision and the next and the next. Some days are harder than others but none was harder than that first day.

Parenting

Parenting, Self-Improvement

A Weight Lifted

Parenting, Self-Improvement

Today I realized for half of 2016 I've carried a pebble of dread in the pit of my stomach.

Parenting, Self-Improvement

Parenting

Boys and Dolls: A New Era of Play

Parenting

I could not be more excited to welcome my dear friend Kristen Johnson to the blog today to share about her new passion project that so closely aligns with my values when it comes to raising boys - it's dang near scary.

My boys love dolls. My almost-four-year-old carries a baby doll regularly with him to school. He loves to dress dolls, talk to them, give them milk, and dance with them. His dolls are in his toy set and just another part of his pretend play routine. No big deal to him.

Parenting

Education: Preschool, Public School, and More

Parenting

Over the past few months, several people have asked me to share my thoughts on school. When did I start sending my children to preschool? How do I feel about half day versus full day? Why did I choose to send my children to public school instead of private school?

In a way, it's hard to talk about education and the choices I've made for my children because I feel - probably incorrectly - that it locks me into the decisions I've made. I've chosen public school for my kids, and - if I share why - then I can never take another route.

So, let me begin with this disclaimer. If at any point this path doesn't work for one of my children or stops working for one of my children, I will not hesitate to return to the drawing board and look for a better solution.

Now, let's begin at the beginning.

Parenting

When something is wrong with your baby

Parenting

I began noticing it about six months ago.

Felix favored his left hand. A lot. He reached with it. Ate with it. Used it to do most everything. The right hand he kept balled up (as in the picture above) and close to his body.

Parenting

How I talk to my kids about hard things

Parenting

Birth, Parenting

Baby Products: Fantasy v. Reality

Birth, Parenting

I recently found some old imported Google Notebooks. When I was pregnant with Griffin, I used one of these notebooks to organize the baby products I wanted for my baby registry.

Wait, that’s a lie.

I used one of these notebooks to organize my desired baby products before I was pregnant with Griffin. That’s right. I had everything picked out for my registry before I was even pregnant. Yes, it is very, very sad. Yes, my obsession with baby products knows no end. Yes, I’m the person you go to if you are setting up your own registry.

However, did I actually use any of these products? Heck, no!

Birth, Parenting

Parenting

5 Children’s Music Albums That You Should Blast on the Stereo

Parenting

Several years ago, before Griffin was a twinkle in my eye, I stumbled across an interview with Stefan Shepherd on NPR. Shepherd writes Zooglobble, a blog dedicated to reviewing and sharing the newest children’s music. When asked by the host why kids couldn’t just listen to The Beatles or Rihanna or whatever their parents were listening to, Shepherd explained he thought it was important that his daughter listen to music that explored subjects and issues she understood. He didn’t want her only listening to songs about romantic love (the primary subject of most pop music) or other adult subjects any more than he wanted her only reading Jane Austen or Michael Chabon.

Parenting

Parenting, Politics

Why I'm raising my sons like daughters

Parenting, Politics

Gloria Steinem recently posted her Christmas wish list. The list is fantastic, but one item really spoke to me as the mom of three boys.

“I’m glad we’ve begun to raise our daughters more like our sons – but it will never work until we raise our sons more like our daughters.”

The societal expectations placed upon little girls are far from perfect. Women are expected to beautiful and nice and never, ever bossy. However, we’ve come a very, very long way from the 1950’s when getting married and raising a family were the only real life goals presented to women.

I was raised to believe I could be whatever I wanted. I was praised for having big dreams in the traditionally male-dominated worlds of law and politics.

The same is not true of little boys today.

Parenting, Politics