Last week, I read an article about a teenage boy who took a girl to the prom. It was squashed between an announcement about the royal wedding and some pictures of a hairless cat. At first glance, it didn’t seem particularly noteworthy. To tell you the truth, I almost scrolled right past it. Then I […]
Dear Jack, As your mother, I worry a lot. There are things I worry about every day, and there are things I worry about every once in a while, and then there are things that keep me up late at night while Daddy snores next to me in bed, and the house is all quiet […]
Hey, Jack. You know how you have autism, right? I mean, we’ve never kept it a secret. It’s something we talk about a lot, actually. We talk about how, because of autism, your brain sometimes stays stuck on certain ideas, and you have a lot of fears about ordinary things, and your body jumps and twitches […]
I guess I’m wondering what you think of him. I know I shouldn’t care, but I can’t help it. I do. He doesn’t care, not one little bit. In fact, I don’t think he even notices when people stare at him or kids point to him. I don’t care for the reasons you might think. […]
I imagine that, as a teacher, you come across all kinds of learners. There are the eager beavers—the kids who just soak up everything around them and can’t wait to dive into their workbooks and always keep their pencils nice and sharp. Then there are the kids who are very smart but also very lazy; […]
Last week we had my 11-year old son Jack’s check-up, and my stomach sank when the doctor quietly pointed out his higher-than-average body mass index on his chart. You wouldn’t know this to look at him; he’s pretty tall for his age with the longest, skinniest legs in the world. But he’s solid, and like […]
Last winter my husband Joe and I took five red suitcases, four messy boys, and one pink girl on a Caribbean vacation. As soon as our second son, Jack, climbed into the shuttle to the airport, he made an announcement to the driver. “None of us. Smoke tobacco.” The driver looked back at me in the […]
I was just digging into my sushi last Saturday night when Carrie looked at me with a big smile and said “I have a great idea!” I knew I was in for it. “You should write a post as a follow-up to last week’s ‘This is Marriage’ blog.” I couldn’t believe it. That dreaded day had […]