Editor’s note: I wrote this piece from my son Jack’s point of view, based on many conversations he and I have shared. One time my mother told me about this movie she watched. It was by a man named Alfred Hitchcock. In the movie, a woman is lying in a hospital bed. Her face is covered […]
I know, I know. Every kid is different. Some are blonde, and others have dark, glossy hair. Some can hit a ball straight into left field and some like to eat pancakes and some create large, complicated cities in Minecraft. There are kids who spend entire afternoons quietly reading, and kids who run and jump […]
Hi. My name is Carrie Cariello. I am forty-two years old. I am married to a man named Joe and we have five children. Twelve years ago, I gave birth to a baby boy with a neurological disorder called autism. It impacts the way he eats, sleeps, talks, and thinks. He is considered special needs, […]
Listen, I get it. He’s twelve. He’s almost as tall as I am and his sneakers are a whole size bigger than the ones I wear. He’s in the seventh grade. His older-by-one-year brother knows. His younger-by-three-years sister is beginning to connect the dots. Quietly, when no one else is in the room, she asks […]
Research tells us anxiety is an emotion, often characterized by inner turmoil, dread, and the expectation of a future event. It is not the same as fear, because fear is the response to a real, actual event. Science says there are six major types; generalized anxiety disorder, panic attack disorder obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobia, social anxiety […]
My birthday is this week. I will be forty-two years old. Anyone who knows me knows I love my birthday. I was born on September 21st—the first day of autumn—a time in New England when the weather is breathtakingly glorious and one by one the leaves on the trees turn a brilliant gold-red-orange. The sky […]
Do you ever wish you could see inside other people’s marriages? You know, like if they fight about changing the toilet paper roll or who spends more money at the grocery store or whether or not it’s time to throw away the smelly sponge sitting in the kitchen sink? I do. I wish I knew […]
It’s August now. The days are still long and hot and humid, but there is a tinge of autumn in the air, especially at night. Most of you are starting to think about school again. You are reading over your supply list for seventh grade and wondering if your new teacher is nice or strict. […]
“Carrie, you have to remember. He is a cat right now, not a dog.” I squeezed my eyes shut. I was sitting in my car in the Macy’s parking lot, talking to Jack’s developmental pediatrician on the phone. When I was a kid, we had a cat named Polly. One afternoon my mother walked out […]
