By Tanya Ward Goodman It’s Friday night and I’m in a dance studio in Atwater with a bunch of pre-teen girls. My friend, Wesley and I have been leading this group for just over a year and although we bill it as an “empowerment and learning group,” it’s more like a think tank with brains […]
By Tanya Ward Goodman Our local pop station does an hourly run down of the news. Each item is given no more than a few words and these words are delivered in the announcer’s “serious” voice, which slices through the tide of Meghan Trainor and Andy Grammer like Moses through the sea. This bad news […]
by Tanya Ward Goodman According to my daughter, most things are “creepy” or “awkward.” She decided our road trip to New Mexico had the potential to be both. It would be creepy because we would sleep in the mountains where I grew up and it would be awkward because… well, because everything is awkward. (I […]
By Tanya Ward Goodman My bank’s fraud detection department has joined the little village that helps me to be a better parent. It’s thanks to their vigilance that my son’s in-app purchases stayed below the $500 mark. “We’ve noticed some irregular activity,” a kind voice says. “Super Cell. True Axis.” “Can you spell that,” […]
by Tanya Ward Goodman I walked my daughter to school this morning. We left forty minutes early and took a circuitous mile long route from our house to her elementary school. We crossed several big streets including Sunset Boulevard and for a few moments found ourselves darting like small fish in a fast moving school […]
by Tanya Ward Goodman There is nothing I can do about the bombs falling in Gaza, nothing I can do about the spread of Ebola. I can save my bathwater and stop watering my lawn, but the California drought is largely out of my own two hands. I can (and do) pray for peace […]
by Tanya Ward Goodman It’s the end of the first week of school. For my daughter anyway. My son, as he’s only too happy to tell you, has got another two weeks of glorious summer freedom. He’s going into seventh grade, which means that a much procrastinated reading and writing project will be chewing holes […]
by Tanya Ward Goodman I ran in the Jog-a-Thon at my son’s school this morning for a bunch of reasons. I ran because this is the first year in a while that I’ve had two kids at two different schools and the boy’s school is getting the short end of the volunteer stick. I ran […]
by Tanya Ward Goodman I was in third grade and it was Halloween. A bunch of people had gathered at our house to eat and drink before heading out to trick-or-treat. My mother was dressed as a gypsy fortune-teller. She swirled around the house in satin skirts and a patchwork vest, dispensing red wine out […]
by Tanya Ward Goodman Since I last posted here at The Next Family, I’ve become a published author. My memoir, “Leaving Tinkertown” came out in August and was accompanied by a small flurry of interviews and readings. While I have considered myself a “writer,” for a long time, holding a book in my hands cemented […]
