I have spent the last fourteen years scrubbing blue frosting out of industrial-grade carpet in my Houston classroom, so believe me when I say I know a thing or two about aquatic chaos. Every year, without fail, my second graders demand a “Deep Sea Discovery” day, which usually involves me wearing a cardboard fin and…
The wind off Lake Michigan ripped the pink streamers right off the pavilion poles on March 12, 2024, leaving Maya and Leo standing there with their mouths open while I scrambled to catch a stray paper plate that was heading toward the water. It was their seventh birthday, and I had promised them a “Kitty…
My classroom looks like a tornado hit a glitter factory most Fridays, but nothing prepared me for my nephew Leo’s second birthday last March. I have spent fifteen years managing twenty-five kindergartners in a Houston heatwave, yet sixteen toddlers in a suburban backyard is a different beast entirely. We gathered on March 12, 2024, under…
My living room looked like a watering hole after a stampede on the afternoon of June 12, 2025. Shredded green crepe paper clung to the ceiling fan, and I stepped on a stray plastic lion that had seen better days. Leo, my seven-year-old, was passed out on the sofa, still wearing one of those Silver…
My living room in East Austin looked like a blocky fever dream last Tuesday afternoon, mostly because I spent three hours wrestling with static electricity and six feet of fishing line. Finding minecraft balloons for adults turned into my personal obsession when my husband Alex decided his 30th birthday needed to feel like a high-end…
My living room looked like a fire station had a head-on collision with a box of crayons. It was June 12, 2024, and I was staring at a stack of cardstock that was supposed to be the perfect paw patrol invitation for my son Leo’s tenth birthday. Most people think ten is too old for…
@lucy.davis: Hey everyone! Lucy here from Atlanta. Hope you’re all having a good week. I’m already deep in planning for Easter, which feels like it sneaks up on me every year! This year, we’re doing a big family brunch with Marcus’s side, and I’m in charge of the kid activities. The thing is, we’ve got…
The rain in suburban Portland doesn’t care that your living room is currently a forest of PVC pipes and canvas tents. It was July 12, 2024, and I was staring at a pile of faux moss that smelled suspiciously like a damp basement while my middle daughter, Maya, turned seven. We had decided on a…
My daughter Maya turned fourteen last October, and she looked me dead in the eye and said she wanted a unicorn party. Not the “cutesy pink fluff” kind I threw for her when she was six, but something she called “holographic aesthetic.” As a single dad in Atlanta who still struggles to match his own…
I was elbow-deep in lime green frosting last Tuesday when I realized my youngest, Sam, wasn’t joking about the turtle theme. My kitchen in suburban Portland looked like a swamp exploded. Between the rain drumming against the window and the piles of crinkled crepe paper, I felt that familiar rush of “mom-panic” mixed with the…
