Bad Parent
Bad Parent: Page 2
Bad Parent
Against Rooming In
They say that after forty-eight hours without sleep the human brain begins to slow down. Think of a computer burdened by a hundred different open browsers. After seventy-two hours, psychosis can set in. I for one have first-hand knowledge of this process, not because I was subjected to some covert military experiment, but simply because a year and...
Bad Parent
Gimme Sugar
Last month, I took my fifteen-month-old son Leo to his friend Elliot’s first birthday party. It was a mostly adult gathering and as we sat around the table the mother of a seven-month old offered him a taste of ice cream from her spoon. "I’m only giving him a taste," she explained, cheeks flushed. "I almost never give him sugar." Across t...
Bad Parent
After a Fashion
This all started because I was doing things by the book. Doing what all the "experts" told me I should do. It was supposed to build my kids' confidence, their independence, and their decision-making skills. But lately, it's been making us look like a pack of lunatics. I let my children dress themselves. And it shows. At first it was cute. When...
Bad Parent
Playing Favourites
I have long suspected that my mother favoured my older sister. I'm not sure if this is something I actually witnessed, or something my sister surreptitiously manipulated me into feeling. Whatever the case, I embodied the much-maligned younger sibling to a T. Many years ago, before I had my own children, I was having coffee with my aunt wh...
Bad Parent
The Littlest Gamer
First, let's get this out of the way: my husband and I are gamers. Not the kind who prefer their virtual lives to their real ones, nor the kind that dress up to go to conventions — but, still, a good amount of our entertainment comes in interactive form. I work as a Game Designer (the videogame's equivalent of a scriptwriter), and, before we met,...
Bad Parent
Organic Schmorganic
I love bananas as much as the next mum. But when the grocery store is ready to charge me three times as much because those bananas are organic? You can keep them. I don't buy organic, at least not as a rule. There are occasions — when there are no "non-organic" bananas left that aren't browned and smushed and my daughter is begging for bananas...
Bad Parent
Tough Luck, Kid
We've just wrapped up a riveting game of Memory, in which all the cards feature toddler versions of superheroes like Spiderman, Captain America, and the one Noah, my four-year-old opponent, calls the Hunk when Noah stands and turns to his dad, busy reading the newspaper, and announces "Daddy, I won!" "Er, no you didn't," I protest from my spot o...
Bad Parent
Game On!
"It's too hot," Declan whined at the first practice. "It's too cold," he whined at the last. In between, my four-year-old son proffered every excuse in the book for why he couldn't play soccer that day, despite having begged me to sign him up for it. His socks were falling down. His jersey was too big. He didn't want to play. But I wouldn'...
Bad Parent
