Warning: There will be descriptions of sports and people playing sports. I don’t know how to do either. When handed your newborn, there simply isn’t time to stereotype your baby. But don’t fear, you’ll get to it. Admittedly, the blank canvas of an hours-old human with that new-person smell fairly begs you to swaddle their future with fabulous expectations. As excited and exhausted new parents,…
What truly makes America great is not a red baseball hat made in China, but A: our cultural contributions to the world and, B: our diverse population, which has made world-changing contributions to arts and culture. Exhibit A & B: Grace came home from preschool obsessed with Mika, a new student from Europe. Grace thirsted HARD for Mika’s curly blond hair, blue eyes and French…
Happy Mother’s Day to one and all. After having been blessed with a very comprehensive mother, who truly tried to mother her children, step children, grandchildren, other people’s children, stepchildren and grandchildren, and every one else she ever met in the entire world, it’s fascinating to examine various and sundry ways people mother and find mothers. And when when we tragically lost our mom, an old…
Just this morning Grace passionately apologized to her Olaf crayon when she broke his tip off. (She tends to color hard.) GRACE: Olaf. I am sorry I broke you because I love you Olaf. (Whispers to her Olaf crayon) You are my favorite. More than that reindeer. ME: Why do you like Olaf so much? GRACE: Because he’s white. And because the one thing he…
Grace is the only one able to speak as the adults watch Florida sink from a pale hopeful pink into Shark Week red in it’s haste to elect the reality star of White Male Privilege. Grace: But Donald Trump doesn’t like brown people. While Canada (my husband, personal salvation and possible new address) tries to soothe Grace about her skin color being wrong for our…
I’m unpregnant, but my labor will last 72 hours. “All you can do is wait”, Nurse Trish advises. When waiting in a 6 by 8 foot Maternity Ward bonding room, with your husband, mother, sister, another woman’s newborn and a rotation of cheerfully Republican nurses, while BabyMama has three days to decide if she can give her newborn up, one might like to advise waiting…
Dear Reader: This is the origin story of This Old Mom, and happened in 2012. Since I’ve been blogging on Huffington Post, I’ve been going back to the beginning, before two kids took over my life. Clarification: Babymama is NOT my biological mother, but a birth mother we met two days before she gave birth to the infant we hoped to adopt. While chatting up…
This post was an email response to my last post- I Don’t Look Like This Place– by an acquaintance who asked to remain anonymous. Dear This Old Mom, It is a tough reality check when your child begins to learn that their brown skin may not be as good as the kid with the yellow hair. The memories came flooding back as you were describing…
Despite my well intentioned white ignorance, Grace’s hair is growing in beautifully. For a year we’ve been dutifully massaging Jamaican Black Castor Oil and Oyin Hair Dew into Grace’s hair every morning. Also, Grace has been taking castor oil vitamins without complaint, which is mighty brave of her. I am more proud of Grace’s five inches of curly resilient hair than my marriage. Even better,…
What we’ve taught our four year old (so far): We don’t clean rocks in our mouth (even pretty rocks). We don’t blow our noses in our shirts, unless Mom forgot Kleenex (which is often). We don’t NOT wipe our butts because we need to resume playing. How to snap (her fingers). What I’ve learned? Kids teach us much more. If we let them. Filled with…