From the category archives:

patience (and losing it)

The $300 Nap

June 24, 2010

Those of you who read my last post are no doubt wondering if I ever made it home to North Carolina or if I chose, instead, to raise Lily in California until she is old enough to watch DVD’s of The Backyardigans with her brother for six or seven hours at a stretch.  Or perhaps [...]

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Does That Macaque Have Frequent Flyer Miles?

June 18, 2010

The other day I read an article in the New York Times about a new study of male Barbary macaques. Seems these guys love to care for babies — grab ‘em from their mothers and haul them around to male pow wows. Doesn’t matter if it’s their own baby; any infant will do. [...]

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Who Said It’s Easier With One?

May 15, 2010

I frequently find myself conned by rose-colored memories of the days when Jake was my only child and things were just so easy.  Sure, I cried frequently, often felt shut-in and lonely, and was already pregnant and too late to go back the first time Jake played by himself without demanding parental involvement about a [...]

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Full Circle

April 19, 2010

I’ve been writing YogaMamaMe since Jake was younger than Lily is now.
This makes me think a lot of things:  How quickly time passes when you have kids.  How scary it is to watch time pass so quickly, especially when you have kids.  And how I seem to be repeating myself.
Take last night, for instance.  I [...]

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I’ve Been Coming Full Circle Lately

March 29, 2010

I am, frankly, not sure whether it makes me feel better or worse that a piece I wrote almost exactly two years ago more or less sums up my night last night.  It is called — in a feat of clarity — How Being Kicked in the Face By a Baby Reminded Me That [...]

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What If Practicing Compassion Toward Yourself Means Not Being Compassionate Toward Your Child?

March 15, 2010

I did it for the first time last night.
Never, in Jake’s three-plus years or Lily’s one have I even considered letting my baby cry him or herself to sleep.
Last night I did.  I let Lily cry herself hoarse and shaking for a good forty-five minutes.
And you know what?  It didn’t work.

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Is Patience an Achievable Parent Virtue?

March 9, 2010

When I was in seventh grade my health teacher, Mr. Phillips, told me I would make a good teacher because I was so patient.
I immediately declared that I would never be a teacher in the kind of bratty voice that comes with being nearly thirteen years old and not particularly fond of Mr. Phillips.
This brattyness, [...]

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