We're Really Not In This Pandemic Together

We're Really Not In This Pandemic Together

It’s been a common refrain since the pandemic started that we’re all in this together. This sentiment has become even stronger recently in my area where schools are slated to re-open this month for in-person or online learning at parents’ discretion.

But the unfortunate truth is we’re not in this together at all.

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A Pandemic Mother's Day

A Pandemic Mother's Day

Perhaps it’s our destiny that many Mother’s Days for my family will be highly fraught. Of course, I suppose Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and, really, pretty much all holidays bring with them tons of emotional baggage. For me and almost everyone else.

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Mourning the Little Things on My Son’s Sixth Birthday

Mourning the Little Things on My Son’s Sixth Birthday

Our house should be overflowing with activity and noise and celebration today. It’s my middle child’s sixth birthday and, although we aren’t the most social animals, we do throw big birthday parties for our kids at our house every year. It’s one of our main traditions.

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Parenting and Reading in the Time of Coronavirus

Parenting and Reading in the Time of Coronavirus

My two sons and I sit on the black rocking recliner in our living room. The chair is worn, cracked, and on the verge of spilling pieces of foam, but it’s still plenty strong enough to hold three bodies. An 8-year-old on one arm, a 5-year-old on the other, and a 38-year-old in the middle, reading very animatedly from a book called The Black Cauldron — the second book in the Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander.

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