Screen Dilemma (Left To His Devices) If the boy were left to his own devices he would be playing a video game or streaming some show on the damn iPad all day long. The bad news is that sometimes he is left to his own devices and I agonize about my shitty parenting. Sometimes IContinue reading “#69: Screen Dilemma (Left To His Devices)”
Category Archives: Parenting
#68: On Watching an Episode of My Little Pony with My Son
On Watching an Episode of My Little Pony with My Son Yeah, I know about bronies. I was introduced to this term by a student, an 11th grade boy who wrote an essay about being a brony, part confessional, part defense of the show’s merits, partial explanation of the idiosyncrasies of this particular kid. AtContinue reading “#68: On Watching an Episode of My Little Pony with My Son”
#59: Out of the Mouths of Babes
Mom and Dad are not religious, and have not yet taught their boy much about the wide array of stuff people believe in their hearts and homes and churches, but the boy’s starting to catch on with or without their intervention and today it was clear, to Dad anyway, that some intervention will be necessaryContinue reading “#59: Out of the Mouths of Babes”
#48: Learning to Ride
Learning to Ride He’s seven, reluctant to ride independently, most of his classmates far ahead on two wheels, which has not been a problem for him, so he says. No, I’m scared, he has said. No, I like the scooter better, he has said. I will never ride a bike, he has said. Never, heContinue reading “#48: Learning to Ride”
#45: The Seven Year Old Understands Adult Psychology (Whispering Across the Table)
The Seven Year Old Understands Adult Psychology (Whispering Across the Table) So the boy and his mother are bickering, you know, the usual stuff, it’s time for dinner and someone won’t put away the iPad. There are repeated requests, some back talk, further struggling, the ubiquitous countdown, and then the final capitulation with an accompanimentContinue reading “#45: The Seven Year Old Understands Adult Psychology (Whispering Across the Table)”
#42: The Father’s Day Poem
The Father’s Day Poem My son hid little homemade Father’s Day cards around the house for me to find, hid them several times over so I could find them again. One of them said, “You are a star of men.” Flattering will get you nowhere, son, I said, but he and I both know that mostContinue reading “#42: The Father’s Day Poem”
Reading With My Boy On Easter Eve
It was a first, a first on this Easter Eve afternoon. Sure, we’ve read to our son at bedtime almost every night of the week since birth, but this was the first time ever, on this warmest and sunniest day of the year thus far, that my son and I were to sit down together,Continue reading “Reading With My Boy On Easter Eve”
Of Neighborhood Schools and the Threat of Losing One
No decision has been made yet, but a couple of weeks ago now a letter went out from the North Clackamas School District leadership that the closure and consolidation of my son’s elementary school, my elementary school 40 some years ago, is on the table for next fall. Half of the kids at his schoolContinue reading “Of Neighborhood Schools and the Threat of Losing One”
Of Fatherhood: The Most Difficult Job Ever Invented
Outside of motherhood, that is. The way I see it, the three most difficult jobs ever invented, in this order, are motherhood, fatherhood, and teaching in an underfunded public school. I’ve taken on two out of three. I find fatherhood exceedingly difficult and this perturbs me. Whose big idea was it in the first place,Continue reading “Of Fatherhood: The Most Difficult Job Ever Invented”
Of The End of Winter Break and a Bunch of Other Of
Sunday, January 6, the end of Winter Break in the school district for which I work. Always mixed feelings about the end of any lengthy break from teaching. There’s some dread about having to get up and work hard again, always. And there’s a sense of discombobulation and confusion about what it was we wereContinue reading “Of The End of Winter Break and a Bunch of Other Of”
michael jarmer 