Motherlode

Blue-Haired Bingo in Footie Pajamas

There’s a common perception that with cancer in the house, the mood is all death and dying, gloom and doom. But there can be laughter and humor, too. Read More...

Published Thu, Dec 25 2014 2:27 AM by Motherlode

Filed under: parenting, Cancer, Christmas, Death and Dying, Highlights

Eleven, With Down Syndrome, and Still a Santa-Loving Little Girl. Maybe.

My daughter is still a little girl, with a stuffed Piglet and Velcro-fastened shoes. For years, she's dictated her letter to Santa to me. This year, things were different. Read More...

Published Wed, Dec 24 2014 5:32 AM by Motherlode

Filed under: parenting, Christmas, Santa Claus, Down syndrome, Highlights

Saving the Images of a Perfect Childhood and Deleting the Rest

For my daughter’s fifth birthday, I put together a book of photos that I thought captured her short life. And then I realized that every picture I had chosen made it all look perfect. Read More...

Published Tue, Dec 23 2014 9:22 AM by Motherlode

Filed under: parenting, Christmas, Photography, Cameras, Highlights

Dear Santa, Please Bring Daddy

This year, my husband will return from his predeployment work-ups to spend Christmas with us, and my daughter will get her wish. Next year, there will be nothing even Santa can do. Read More...

Published Tue, Dec 23 2014 6:59 AM by Motherlode

Filed under: parenting, Christmas, Highlights, United States Defense and Military Forces, Deployment Diary

Last-Minute Gifts: Monthly Box Subscriptions for Children and Teenagers

Maybe the perfect gift is one that arrives later, in the form of a monthly delivery of books, geek toys, craft supplies or more. Read More...

Published Mon, Dec 22 2014 11:06 AM by Motherlode

Filed under: parenting, gifts, Children and Childhood, Highlights

Read This Before You Buy Another Holiday Gift (or Goat)

We cannot use seasonal charitable giving to put a fig leaf over the ways our passion for cheap clothes and toys contributes to the problems we try to help solve with our donations. Read More...

Published Mon, Dec 22 2014 6:40 AM by Motherlode

Filed under: parenting, gifts, Philanthropy, Highlights, Heifer International, Leonard, Annie, Oxfam, GoodGuide, Greenpeace

This Holiday, Don’t Hide the Piercings From Grandma

Rather than a one-way transfer of my beliefs to them, my kids, now 19 and 16, are teaching me to see the world—and my in-laws—with new eyes. Read More...

Published Sun, Dec 21 2014 5:10 AM by Motherlode

Filed under: parenting, baby boomers, Women and Girls, Highlights, Body Piercing

Why We Don’t Do the Naughty List

I understand why the naughty list helps some parents. But for my anxious daughter, it's the opposite of Christmas magic. Bless the mall Santa who understood that. Read More...

Published Fri, Dec 19 2014 9:03 AM by Motherlode

Filed under: parenting, Christmas, Santa Claus, Highlights

Holiday Concerts and the Anatomy of Melancholy

Every year, I try to find a way to embrace the ephemeral, cherry-blossom nature of December, and the way it wallops you over the head with the passage of time. Read More...

Published Thu, Dec 18 2014 12:04 PM by Motherlode

Filed under: parenting, Christmas, Hanukkah, Emotions, Highlights

In an Orphanage, But Not Orphaned, in Sierra Leone

I thought overseas adoption would be my route to parenthood, but when I visited Sierra Leone, I found the situation there more complex than it seemed. Read More...

Published Thu, Dec 18 2014 10:03 AM by Motherlode

Filed under: parenting, Adoptions, Orphans and Orphanages, Highlights, Sierra Leone

When a Classmate Takes On Santa

When a student decides to declare Santa a fraud, there's little a teacher or parent can do. Read More...

Published Thu, Dec 18 2014 5:43 AM by Motherlode

Filed under: parenting, Christmas, Santa Claus, Parent-Teacher Conference

‘Are You Going to Give Him a White Name?’

When I was four months pregnant, a friend asked this question casually over lunch. I hadn't yet thought of it that way. Read More...

Published Wed, Dec 17 2014 11:34 AM by Motherlode

Filed under: parenting, discrimination, Race and Ethnicity, Names, Personal, Highlights

With Three Adults, Two Jobs and One Baby, a Family Is Barely Getting By

The house is paid for. The car is paid for. Everything else, we're barely covering. I can't find a job for the life of me—and if I do, who will look after the baby? Read More...

Published Wed, Dec 17 2014 8:10 AM by Motherlode

Filed under: parenting, Labor and Jobs, How I Do It, Minimum Wage, Highlights, New Orleans (La), Mississippi

Pausing for Hanukkah While Everything Else Keeps Going

Celebrating Hanukkah and Christmas has made me aware of how much easier the outside world makes it to protect one tradition over the other. Read More...

Published Tue, Dec 16 2014 2:05 PM by Motherlode

Filed under: parenting, Christmas, Hanukkah, Highlights

A Foreskin in the Right Place at the Right Time

Proposed CDC guidelines would have doctors promote the benefits of circumcision in newborns, teenagers and adults, but parents will still make their own decisions—sometimes for unexpected reasons. Read More...

Published Tue, Dec 16 2014 12:29 PM by Motherlode

Filed under: parenting, circumcision, Penis, Highlights

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