When I was a kid, sometime after 4th grade, my sisters and I rode our bikes to the high school. It was the weekend, but a door was unlocked, so we went inside for a drink of water. The hallways were enticingly empty. I guess we surprised a security guard, because we came through a […]
Today I am feeling grateful. I live in Seattle, Washington, where on Feb. 29 one of the first U.S. Covid-19 cases was found, spreading within days to an assisted-living home a 5-minute walk from my house. That’s when my family started staying home, at the urging of my biotech-journalist husband. Our schools closed March 12. […]
In wanting to raise a confident girl, I realized the importance of not feeling confident.
It was the first day of school for my daughter, after a chill month kicking around the house together without summer camps. As the school bus pulled away, a small glee arose in my heart. I thought, “I can go running!” I took off into a forested ravine, hopping down wooden stairs and racing down […]
The audience puts on blindfolds. Through the sound system, a man’s voice fills the room. Quietly: I had a very hard time shedding that person who’s invulnerable, who can take on anything, who can just, you know, grin and bear it. Did your father hit you? the therapist asks. Yes. Yes, I was abused. And is […]
“It’s Sunday, May 13,” my husband said. “Happy Mother’s Day!” Actually, it was May 12 here in Seattle, but May 13 where he was: Base Camp on Mount Everest. So today, instead of smiling to morning whispers between him and our daughter about making me breakfast in bed, I was woken up at 6:54 a.m. by our daughter poking […]
Whenever the kids played video games, even a little bit, they’d wind up throwing chairs or hitting each other. Every week, psychiatrist Victoria Dunckley would get a similar report from the residential treatment center that employed her: the kids played video games, they got in a fight. “It was driving me crazy!” she said. She […]
My 5-year-old came over to my bedroom door with a paper heart she had colored in and cut out … and then cut in half. She taped the broken heart to my door. We had been wrestling over bedtime. I had tucked her in and she sang, “I’m going to follow yooou.” She hopped out of bed […]
Is your toddler or preschooler waking you up waaaay before they should? Like, clearly they’re still sleepy and need the extra time in bed? I feel you on the sleep struggles. Here’s a second strategy by pediatric psychologist Brett Kuhn, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which he presented at a SLEEP conference here in Seattle. (The first […]
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