Into every grownup’s life this moment must fall: the moment when you realize that whether you want to or not, you’re fully responsible for taking care of something. And there’s nobody else to do it but you. I’m not talking about big stuff – like parenthood, letting your mother move in with you, or taking more »
Archive for September, 2011
There’s Nobody Else To Do This (ahem) Stuff But Me
Posted in Housework, Parenting on September 29, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Survival and Second Marriages
Posted in Communication, Divorce on September 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Cliff and I have often written about how the divorce statistic you probably know (50%) probably doesn’t reflect your reality. (Read what we’ve said here and here.) Your actual odds of staying together are likely much, much better than 50%. But if you’re already on the other side of a bad first marriage – what more »
Gentle Disregard: How Someone Else Can Help You Get Past the Ugly
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Growth; differences; Self-esteem on September 22, 2011 | 2 Comments »
I caught one story in NPR’s ongoing series on obesity in America today. The focus was on the sex lives of the overweight, and the impact obesity can have on a marriage’s sexual intimacy. It’s worth listening to – find the story here. One man featured in the story particularly got my attention. After struggling more »
When Your Wrong, Your Wrong
Posted in Communication, Fighting on September 20, 2011 | 1 Comment »
The only thing standing between you and this shirt is $22.25. Buy it athttp://www.zazzle.com/thebloggess. My son has recently started a Pre-K program that is taught largely in Spanish. As a result he’s started trying to speak Spanish, which is a different thing all together from actually speaking Spanish. Let me illustrate: Sam: Do you know more »
Do You Smell Something?
Posted in Parenting on September 16, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Somewhere along the last 4 1/2 years family dinners at restaurants became much more complicated. I faintly recall going out for supper when our oldest son was a newborn: We sat his carrier under the table and barely noticed his presence as he slept peacefully through a three course meal. But then he started spending more »
How Biscuits Almost Ruined My Wedding
Posted in Communication, tagged Direct communication on September 15, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Warm, buttery symbolic representation of indirect communication. I’m known for hyperbole, so let me say up front that the headline is a bit of an exaggeration. A more accurate title might be, “How Indirect Communication about the Possibility of Having Biscuits at Our Wedding Reception Almost Ruined a Day Several Months in Advance of the more »
How Men Adapt to Parenting
Posted in Housework, Parenting, tagged Fatherhood on September 14, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Anyone else hear the study on NPR today? A study of 600 men in the Philippines discovered that single men with high levels of testosterone experienced significant decreases after becoming fathers. Here’s a link to the NPR transcript. Researchers acknowledge this may have something to do with sleep deprivation – a common side effect of more »
New Data on Approval of Black-White Marriages
Posted in Research, tagged Interracial marriage on September 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Normally the entries on this blog touch on all that touch-feely relationship stuff. Today we’re taking a divergence to highlight the findings of a recent Gallup poll on interracial marriage. The latest findings (which you can read about here, also the source for this graph) show that 86% of Americans now approve of black-white marriage. more »
Use Your Bugs & Wishes
Posted in Communication, Fighting on September 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Our son’s first day of Pre-K was earlier this week, and it started with a parent/teacher meeting. I asked his teacher about discipline plans (not that my perfect angel would ever be in need of discipline). She explained their policy of “quiet reflection time,” and then she said something brilliant: “We ask them to use more »
One Good Reason to Go to Bed Angry, One Good Reason to Eat Ice Cream
Posted in Research, tagged Go to bed angry on September 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Great graphic from the original NYT Mag article. The New York Times Magazine ran a great – if unnecessarily long – article over the weekend. Focused on “decision-fatigue,” the article took us through study after study that highlights how sugar intake, time of day, and your previous activities can sink you when it comes to more »