"Please change your clothes." "No! I don't want to!" "Time to go to the park." "No! I want to stay home!" "Eat your dinner." "No! I want to play!" "Go to sleep!" "NO! I DON'T WANT TO!" Yep. I have... Continue reading

by Patricia N. I am standing at the top of the staircase looking down with disapproval on my incredibly uncooperative children who are giggling and playing with papers and crayons in their pajamas. "If you don't put on your clothes... Continue reading

By Patricia N. I waved good bye to my husband and twin four year olds as they happily drove away to preschool leaving me a few hours of much needed solitude. For the first time in a long time I... Continue reading

By Patricia N. Following yet another weeklong out of town work assignment (now a regular occurrence for me), I returned home last night exhausted from a long drive in horrible rain, wind, and fog, fearing for my life as large... Continue reading

By Patricia My husband is currently on a Queen kick. He keeps a CD of Greatest Hits in the car. Unlike me, he does not cater to the children's requests for "The Hello" song or "John the Rabbit". So I... Continue reading

By Patricia N. As the year 2010 draws to a close, I become more seasonally reflective of my family's life in general and of my children's lives more specifically. It is an American tradition to make resolutions, goals, at the... Continue reading

By Patricia N. The holiday season is upon us. Actually, it began last month, after the shellshock of the back to school regime shook our family schedule to the core, when pumpkins and Halloween decorations started peering through store windows... Continue reading

I really don't like spoiled kids. Long before I had children, I would try to have a nice meal at a posh restaurant in North Beach or Cow Hollow or South of Market and there would inevitably be some family with a young child or two dressed up in their Sunday best, staying up way past their bedtime, and ruining my expensive meal. Yeah. I was one of THOSE diners. And now of course since karma is a bitch, I have two 3 1/2 year olds who, despite my best efforts, recently prompted a patron at a local diner to approach our table and ask us to "put a sock in it!" My initial response was an embarrassed apology while my husband simultaneously exclaimed, "Are you kidding me?! It's a DINER!" Continue reading