My living room in Atlanta looked like a glitter bomb went off in a seafood restaurant on June 14, 2025. Mia, my daughter, had just turned five. I stood there, a solo dad with a lukewarm cup of coffee, staring at nine tiny humans who expected me to transform our duplex into an underwater palace….
My kitchen currently looks like a glitter bomb went off in a pink marshmallow factory. There is a rogue sequin stuck to my forehead, and I am pretty sure I accidentally drank a sip of Sophie’s “royal tea” which was actually just lukewarm tap water with a dissolved crayon in it. Last Tuesday, while the…
My kitchen table looked like a pack of Skittles exploded on it, and not in the curated aesthetic way I had promised my daughter Maya for her 6th birthday back on June 14, 2024. I am a single dad in Atlanta who once thought a party was just pizza and a TV, but after three…
The humidity in Austin on May 14, 2025, was actually disrespectful. I stood at Emma Long Metropolitan Park, clutching a cooler of Capri Suns and trying to keep my dog, Barnaby, from eating a pile of decorative moss. It was my nephew Liam’s 10th birthday. He wanted a “Big One” fishing theme, despite being ten…
My living room looked like a locker room exploded after a mud-wrestling match. It was November 12, 2025, and Sam was turning 11. The Portland rain was drumming against the siding, and I had twenty minutes before twelve pre-teens descended on our house for what Sam called his “Gridiron Greats” bash. I stood there staring…
@ava86: Hey GINYOU fam! Ava here from sunny Raleigh, NC. My grand-niece, who just turned the big one-oh, is obsessed with safaris right now, which honestly, I kinda love. Her name’s Maya, and she’s a force of nature, just like a little lioness, so it tracks! Anyway, her birthday is coming up in about six…
My kitchen island currently looks like a glittery crime scene, and I’m pretty sure there’s a stray plastic wing stuck to the bottom of my coffee mug from last night’s assembly marathon. Last Tuesday, while the Portland rain was doing its usual gray-on-gray thing outside, I was knee-deep in iridescent tissue paper and tiny plastic…
Standing in my Houston classroom last March, I realized twenty-two first graders can smell fear, especially when you are holding a cardboard canoe and a bag of blue frosting. The humidity was already sitting at 80% inside Room 4B, and my hair was doing things I cannot mention in a professional setting. I needed a…
My kitchen table looked like a galaxy threw up on it last March 12th. It’s mid-March in Chicago, which means the wind is howling off the lake and my living room is filled with two nine-year-olds, Leo and Maya, who have enough energy to power the Willis Tower. They wanted a “Galactic Voyager” theme. I…
Austin in mid-March is a chaotic blend of hour-long taco truck lines and cedar pollen that makes everyone look like they’ve been crying for a week. Last year, my living room became a high-stakes training ground for my son Leo’s 10th birthday bash. I am a dog mom first, human mom second, and a party…
