Curing My Daughter’s Colic

A Pediatrician and First-Time Mom Confronts the Limits of Medicine and Learns the First of Many Parenting Lessons

I should have seen this coming. I was too lucky during pregnancy, contending only with a few weeks of morning sickness and a bout of sciatica. By week 37, I was still able to both see and touch my toes. Delivery was perhaps even easier (please don’t hate me), with my obstetrician imploring me not to tell my friends about my quick and easy labor. I may have been exhausted, overwhelmed, and wearing mesh underwear, but my first three weeks as a first-time mom were magical.

Then came colic. Night after …

PTAs Are the Opposite of Community

How the Former Champions for All Kids Devolved Into Self-Serving Fundraising Machines

Here’s a quick quiz for anyone who has ever had kids or grandkids or nieces and nephews in school: Can you name all of the fundraising items you’ve purchased from …

The Internet Will Not Turn Your Teen Into a Brain-Dead Zombie

A Child Psychologist Explains How Our Social Brain Adapts to New Technology

I come bearing good news: Our teens are not growing into brain-dead zombies or emotionally stunted sociopaths. After more than a decade of research by child psychologists like me, we …

The Luxury of Grandparenting

I Can Devote Myself to My Granddaughter and the Garden

I worked all of my life as a costumer. Feature films (from The Outsiders to Spiderman 2) and television series took me across the world—from Tulsa, Oklahoma and Austin, Texas …

How a Little Splashing Around Is Making My Neighborhood a Better Place

Swimming Lessons Are Teaching My Community There's Nothing to Fear in Life's Deep End

I work in North Richmond and the Iron Triangle as the Community Wellness Coordinator for YES Nature to Neighborhoods, a nonprofit that strengthens local families by taking them out into …

I’d Rather Do Almost Anything Than Go Trolling for Bras

But I Actually Enjoyed Taking My 12-Year-Old Daughter and Her Friends to the Mall

When my daughter was 12, she asked if I would take her and two friends shopping at the mall for “friendship bras.”

Was this a brand I hadn’t heard of? …