I was in a meeting with a work colleague this morning who was up writing Christmas cards at 11:30 last night. Her husband walked into the room and said to her, “I can’t believe you’re sending Christmas cards out this year!” I didn’t even ask the logical follow-up question, which is why he thinks they should not be sending them out. I honestly didn’t care. Because, you see, sending out holiday cards is one of my non-negotiables. Every year I buy them from the incredibly charming stationery store owned by my friend Ann Marie; every year I custom order them;...
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I know there are some teenagers who wear winter coats, because I see pictures of them in catalogs and even see them occasionally walking down the street in my town. They seem to be nice, intelligent kids, and not giant dorks as my 13-year-old Eldest would have me believe. This still does not answer the question, however, as to why my own son will not wear a coat. First, a history of the battles he and I have fought over the years: BATTLES I HAVE WON --take your muddy shoes off at the door --no t.v. during the week --no...
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This past weekend Baby got his first haircut and I almost had to take an anti-depressant to get over it. His hair had gotten really long in the back--so long that it became rat's nesty if he sat in his carseat too long, so long that strangers mistook him for a girl, and so long that my father, who shaves every single day of the year and just has an irrational problem with long hair, was ready to take out some pruning shears and get to work on it himself. My sister was there and thank God for that because...
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For part one of our vacation, my little family went to a camp in New Hampshire with about a thousand van Ogtrops. (Actually, more like 43, which is still quite a few.) The camp is a place I have been many times and I was surrounded by many people I've known all of my life, so there were few surprises there. For the second part of my vacation my little family piled into the car and headed south to Colonial Williamsburg, Busch Gardens, and Water Country USA. We sandwiched Williamsburg in between Water Country USA and Busch Gardens, sort of...
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A few years ago I had the great misfortune of buying a house that came with an in-ground pool. This was immediately followed by the misfortune of discovering that I was married to a man and had two children who all thought that having a pool was really, really great — so you can imagine my suggestion that we fill it in went over like a lead balloon. I have three issues with the pool: first, my belief that somehow, someday, someone is going to drown in it. Second, that telling people we have a pool is a bit embarrassing,...
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To: Anyone who has been an adolescent or successfully raised one Re: Embarrassing parents It has come to my attention that I now embarrass my son about once a day. About half of what I do embarrasses him, whether it’s asking another adult about his well-being (“Did my son seem to like camp?”) or being concerned about his safety (insisting he wear a bike helmet) or revealing anything whatsoever about him to just about anybody who doesn’t live in our house. Maybe I’ve blocked it out, but I don’t recall ever finding my parents embarrassing, and since this is my...
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I know there are kids who go to camp for six or eight weeks in the summer; in fact, I know some of them, and I know their parents. They all seem like perfectly reasonable people, and some of them are even our close friends. And yet...I can’t imagine mustering up the whatever-it-takes (fortitude? organization? money?) to send my kids off to camp for six weeks. Forget sentimental issues — I can’t imagine all the packing. Just sending Middle and Eldest off to camp for two weeks, which we did yesterday, seemed like a Herculean parental feat. Things you learn...
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toned arms without a lot of trips to the gym many people assume you’re 35 you probably have older children to help, and they might even be old enough to babysit! you meet a whole new set of parents baby gets great presents because your friends have more money than they did 10 years ago you know all the awful stuff (teething, tantrums) is probably just a phase you know all the good stuff (fat fingers, fat thighs, toothless smiles) is also a phase, so you work harder to appreciate it even the childless women your age don’t have flat...
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My husband and I bought our house four years ago, in a semi-complicated private sale, from a couple who had lived there for 28 years. The wife was kooky and fabulous and full of interesting information. One of the first things she said to me about the house was, "We bought it for the dining room and the front porch," and after four years I know exactly what she means. The dining room is great because it's spacious enough for a big table (one that will hold lots of guests) but mostly because it's bright and has these wonderful old...
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Or just be annoyed that he doesn’t pick up after himself? One of the most mysterious and maddening things about my relationship with my husband — together for 22 years, married for 16, through four apartments, three houses, two pets and three kids — is the fact that by the end of every day with him there are baseball hats on the kitchen counter, shoes in the middle of the bedroom floor, and copies of The Economist next to the car keys that weren’t there when I woke up. In brief, he is the man I continue to love, but...
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