Summer Parenting Is Often a Winding and Bumpy Road
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My family discovered a new outdoor activity that helped us ward off the mid-summer malaise but after just a few days, bruises, bumps, and a broken-down car ended our fun.
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I started writing down my life goals and it turned out to be a list of places where I want to nap, but haven’t yet
— Andrew Knott (@aknott21) February 12, 2018
Writing about parenting, fatherhood, life, and all things ambiguous
How My Poor Eyesight Entertains the Masses and Mortifies an Optical Store Clerk
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I left my eyeglasses at a La Quinta Inn in Fort Lauderdale.
Read MoreAre You a Leaf or a Dead Bat?
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My 10-year-old son and I were playing two-square in our driveway after I picked him up from school. It was one of those hot, muggy Florida afternoons where it seems like everything is melting at least a little. Even the bright yellow chalk we used to outline the court felt a little squishy.
Read MoreWhen Your Child Has a Chronic Illness, It Changes Everything
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When you’re a parent, you eventually find some sort of rhythm. It doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, it probably takes years for almost everyone. The addition of another child at any point along the road typically requires a reset.
Read MoreSometimes Tiny Yellow Wildflowers is Exactly What You Need
/I’ve been doing a lot of driving lately. After more than a year spent within a very tight radius of our home, we began to venture out more about the time school started.
Read MoreWhat This Messed Up Start to the School Year Needed Was a Little Hoppiness
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The past few weeks around these parts have been rough. Just a couple of months ago, there was hope that this school year would be better than last. Nope. It’s remarkably worse.
Read MoreWe’re Going to Have to Slow Down and Take This School Year One Day (or Hour) at a Time
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My oldest son who is nine years old and just starting fourth grade entered quarantine four days after school started back.
Read MoreHow My Son and I Are Growing Up Together This Summer
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The first full week of school summer vacation kicked off with all three of my children attending tennis camp for four hours each day. This might not sound like much, but it was monumentally significant for me because it marked the first time in more than nine years of parenting that all my children were away at the same time.
Read MoreHow a Tiny Dog Helped Me Find My Way
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Before there was a wife and three kids and everything else in this life that I type about on the blank white space of my laptop late at night and lay bare on the pages of the internet, there was a dog.
Read MoreHow Emptying Sand Out of My Son’s Shoes Signals a Return to “Normal”
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I picked up my first grader’s shoes one afternoon and sand spilled out of them all over the wood floors of our living room.
Read MoreA Short Car Ride with My Son Reminded Me How Difficult This Past Year Has Been for All of Us
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One recent Saturday morning, I escaped the house with my 6-year-old son to pick up coffee from a drive thru. It was a bit more mundane than some of our weekend outings pre-2020, but grading on the pandemic curve, it was probably one of the most exciting things we did all month.
Read MoreThere's No Joy in Pandemic Life, But There Is a Rainbow Owl
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One night recently during the stuffed animal puppet show my 6-year-old makes me do with him at bedtime several nights a week, I created a back story for one of his main stuffies — Rainbow Owl.
Read MoreA Pandemic Mother's Day
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Perhaps it’s our destiny that many Mother’s Days for my family will be highly fraught. Of course, I suppose Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and, really, pretty much all holidays bring with them tons of emotional baggage. For me and almost everyone else.
Read MoreEmpty Birdcages and Oddly Profound Homework Sessions
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“The birds from the empty cages probably died,” my five-year-old said to me without a hint of emotion.
Our homework sessions can be challenging at times, but they aren’t typically quite so morbid.
Read MoreDecluttering, Painting, and Preschool
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I’ve been having a weird year so far. There has been plenty of upheaval with the passing of my father at the very end of last year. In addition, not on the same level but still very disorienting, our youngest child is reaching the age where we have to prepare for preschool later this calendar year.
Read MoreIt’s Impossible to Freeze Moments in Time, Even If You’re Practically Living in the Frozen Movie
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My life has been very Frozen-centric lately. My three-year-old’s obsession with the movie started a couple months ago and is still going strong. Her passion seems to be carrying as much momentum as Kristoff’s sled trying to escape from the wolves. Incidentally, some might argue her love for Frozen is as frightening as a hungry pack of wolves.
Read MoreIt Can Be Very Rewarding When Your Child Doesn’t Follow in Your Footsteps
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Three weeks of winter vacation felt like a bit much. To break the monotony, I signed my oldest son up for something called Eco Camp.
Read MoreWhen Writing Starts to Feel Like Homework
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Homework has been the bane of my existence lately.
My oldest child is in second grade, which is still very young, but his homework load is starting to increase. As far as I’m concerned, the amount of homework he gets is very reasonable for his age. He only has one fairly short task to complete each day during the school week and the entire packet is turned in on Friday so there’s time to catch up if he wants to skip a day.
Read MoreHow to Master School Car Line Drop-Off and Establish Dominance Over Your Fellow Parents
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If you’re reading this now and you have a school-aged child, it’s too late. Way too late. Hopefully you have a newborn. If so, it’s time to get to work.
Read MoreWhy Dads Should Volunteer at Their Children’s School
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I won’t generalize based on ten or so days of volunteering; I’m sure there are tons of dads out there volunteering their hearts out. Probably a lot more than I am. But at the risk of being didactic, I have a message for my fellow dads who haven’t tried on their school volunteer badge yet: Sign up to volunteer at your children’s school!
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