By: Shannon Ralph A couple of months ago, I published an article entitled 20 Reasons My Daughter Isn’t Speaking to Me. Since that time, in true tween fashion, my nine-year-old daughter has continued her embittered vow of silence. Okay, lets’ be honest. The silence part isn’t so bad. It’s a nice break from the eye-popping, […]
44 Things My Son Will Learn to Do Before He Leaves My House
By: Shannon Ralph I am the proud parent of a lovely—though occasionally smelly—young man. At 12 years old, my son is on the cusp of puberty. And we all know where puberty leads—yep, manhood. Ahhh…manhood. That oft-revered state of autonomy and self-reliance that all boys dream of achieving. The point in time when a boy […]
The 12 Commandments for Parenting a 12-Year-Old Boy
How to Get Your Tween to Do His Homework in 50 Easy Steps
By: Shannon Ralph Homework is the bane of my existence. It’s not that I am necessarily anti-homework. I get it. I see the value of the concept—the otherworldly, ethereal, high level, metaphysical abstraction of it. I understand the need for homework to reinforce the tiny shreds of algebraic knowledge my son’s harried teacher is able […]
A Gay Dad Sounds Off on Tweeny-vision and the Bully Playground
By: Rob Watson Jasmyn Smith committed suicide. According to her family and friends, she had endured “a year and a half of being heavily bullied, both at school and online”. She was…eleven. I cannot stand that this happened. I cannot stand that she was only a year older than my sons. I am sure that […]