A couple of weeks ago, a young woman to whom I’d only just been introduced asked me if she should have a baby. Trick question, I thought. For one thing, I’d just mentioned I’ve been sleep deprived for 15 years 

The Blue Cheese Incident should have tipped me off about my middle child, but it didn’t. Possibly because Baby Deux had been rebellious from the start. My swag at having raised one gender-neutral, early-reading, easy-to-negotiate-with, sure-we-can-still-make-spontaneous-plans! child vanished overnight. Instantly 

I have to admit there are days when I wish I had more mother-daughter conflict at home, if only for the purpose of this column. I’d be well prepared for it: When I was 12 years old my aunt gave my 

“What does it mean to do something like a girl?” this commercial asks. I know the answer to that one. I’ve been told, “You’re not, like, super-girly like other girls,” and I’ve taken it as a compliment. But as a child, 

It was a bit awkward when I first broached the whole ‘swimsuit area’ sexual safety conversation with my then 4-year-old, on her way to playschool. I felt terrible about introducing her to distrust and potential danger. I suffered all the 

As I watch the children in our ’hood overtake us in height and heft, I often think of Milo of Croton. It amused my first baby and me to no end when I’d carry her over my head and pretend 

It doesn’t make sense. You meet parents, still-warm home-pregnancy tests in hand, bolting to the most sought-after daycares to secure a spot. The children, anointed with names full of portent and/or aspiration, are celebrated and cosseted. Across most of the 

A while ago I came across microchimerism, the phenomenon of a mother carrying her babies’ fetal cells over the course of life after a baby, the effects and evolution of which is still being researched. It brought back a memory, with 

“Which one is your favorite?” In the 15 years since we’d last met, the friend who had asked the question has had two little boys, and I have had my assortment of three. I answered flippantly. But it got me 

The trouble started because we were raised as People. The Barbie-loving sister whose role model was the Famous Five’s George; a little brother with a temper and a love for baking; the other brother whose pyro phase (R.I.P. Barbies) belied 

If you want to see nature, red in tooth and claw, you need only peer into the Big Yellow School Bus. I used to consider the school bus a microcosm of life. You could affect a lilting prose that celebrates 

Six months pregnant, I was surprised to notice a tumbleweed of teen boys momentarily stop, huddle and then carry on, whispering and looking back. I clocked the awkward body language, the quick straightening of the hair, a cough, a punch 

When it comes to family democracy, the threat of sedition is never greater than when it is time to decide what music everyone will listen to. Growing up, my family had a rule: The driver is the DJ. This will 

In Iggie’s House, a book by Judy Blume, Winnie’s Aunt Myrna shows up to take her swimming, driving her convertible with the top down, wearing red-framed sunglasses. The book, about race, coming of age, and being a tomboy misfit, made 

Our 14-year-old starts to study for her tenth, the big state exam next year, and suddenly, you can’t see the woods for the cloaks and daggers. The year began innocuously enough. The school has had, till now, no system of 

I’ve been trying to get my head around how technology impacts the question of consent. For most of us, by the time our kids are in their early teens, questions about socio-sexual education start evolving past the theory stage into 

If you, like many of us, spent your youth developing your personality – your Muchness, Alice – it may have been time wasted. All that effort creating a persona so grunge it would make Eddie Vedder look like Jimmy Fallon? 

My mother and I used to discuss a social experiment she had read about as a student. A family of three, parents and a son, decided to insure themselves against the inevitable grief that would come from one of their