Parenting – Complaint Hub

Growing up and the best food ever

Growing up in Annapolis, we took a fair number of school field trips to DC museums, and particularly the Natural History Museum. The two things I really remember were the Hope Diamond and the cafeteria. The cafeteria at Natural History was one of my favorite places to eat.

I’ve wondered a bit about that as an adult – it can NOT have been all that great, objectively.

But it was the first time in my life (3rd grade) when I was given money for food but had no parental supervision. So it wasn’t that the food was objectively good – it was that I could choose anything I wanted.

I haven’t eaten at Natural History as an adult for various reasons, but the most important is that I don’t want to ruin the memory.

The Joy of Teaching Children to Speak

When my older daughter was little, I amused myself by telling her that squirrels were actually called tree rats. Other people, probably including her mother, told her the truth. But there was a brief but glorious time when she would always refer to them as “squirrats”, and I think this may be one of the best parts of being a parent.

Parenting perks – trolling your kids

Parenting is hard sometimes. Kids are THE WORST. They’re always there, wanting things, complaining, making messes.

But they’re also great. And one of the side benefits of them getting older is you can troll them to great effect. My younger one has a stack of Principal’s List awards on the dining room table. I’m not sure 1) why she has so many or 2) why they are in a pile on the table. But my wife was teasing her about it and about how they seem to keep multiplying. Of course, this is a GOOD thing, as being on the Principal’s List is a nice achievement and we are of course happy that she is doing well in school.

So I had to take it a step further. When she was at school one day, I scanned one of the papers, put some new dates on, and printed out copies. I taped one to her bedroom door and put one under her pillow. And I added two to the stack on the table. And, my favorite, I mailed one to her. It’ll probably arrive tomorrow after she’s mostly forgotten the first batch.