Category: The Mom Scene
50 backyard activities for spring
It’s not that my kids weren’t playing outside over the winter — they were. Honest. It’s just that it was an especially icy, wet, windy winter, rather than a picturesque fairytale winter wonderland. The kids would go play outside and come back, wet and…
When your kids learn chess … and you can’t
When our six-year-old neighbour came over last week with a chessboard under his arm, I was gobsmacked. “You … you know how to play chess?!” I asked, incredulously. “Our kids know how to play checkers,” I thought. “He must be using the set to…
Teaching kids to fall asleep
Helping a baby fall asleep usually involves a pretty steady routine: a warm bath, a cosy sleeper, a soothing story, some milk and a few lullabies. Helping a toddler fall asleep means helping them brush their teeth, wrangling them into their PJs, answering numerous…
The high cost of kids’ activities
She just didn’t understand it. To her, it made perfect sense. If she took dance one afternoon, cheerleading another afternoon and gymnastics on a third afternoon, that still left an afternoon free for taekwondo. Plus, you know, a fifth weekday afternoon would be completely…
Riding in cars (with swears)
One of the nicest things about living in small-town Nova Scotia is that it takes us less than five minutes to drive just about anywhere we need to go. The only “traffic” is twice a day at a handful of especially-busy intersections where you…
When your child says ‘I hate math’
It came out of nowhere. The sadistic monster that haunted me from Grade 4 through Grade 12 was back, only this time it had a new victim: our seven-year-old son. We were sitting around the table eating dinner on a Sunday evening, and casually…
Taekwondo teaches kids respect, instills pride
I didn’t know much about taekwondo, but I kept hearing the same rave review from other parents: “It’s so good for teaching them respect.” Sold! I mean, who doesn’t want respectful kids? We signed up our son last year, when he started Grade 1,…
March Break? March Broken.
Happy March Break! This is a truly magical time of year when absolutely nothing lives up to anyone’s expectations for nine whole days. You think you know how you’d like to spend it, and somewhere around Wednesday — possibly as early as Tuesday —…
The family that bowls together
It’s rare for our family to have a day on the weekend when all four of us are totally free. My husband works most Saturdays and Sundays, so I often feel guilty that our weekends aren’t packed with the cozy family togetherness I see…
How Valentine’s Day has changed for us
I was 23 when we got engaged on Valentine’s Day of 2007. Nothing had ever been as shiny and beautiful as the ring he slid onto my finger. I spent days, weeks, months tilting my hand ever so slightly in the sunlight to watch…
Let’s talk about (postpartum) sex, baby!
Looking back, my biggest #pregnancyfail — other than the time I stupidly microwaved hardboiled eggs and they exploded all over the kitchen — was that I didn’t think enough about how my life was going to change. It’s not that I didn’t think about…
How we’re tackling our daugher’s (constantly) messy room
When I picked up a pair of tights with a gummy lollipop stick attached to one leg, I was annoyed at her messy room. Then I found the candy wrappers — she’s not allowed to eat in her bedroom! — and the chewed-up wad…
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