Is There a Right Age for Makeup?

Girls rush to look older as parents attempt to stave off the inevitable.

It was 1984. I was 10 years old and about to attend my first roller rink party. But not before my best friend and I got dolled up. We disappeared into the bathroom, an arsenal of cosmetics shoved under my shirt. Blue eyeliner, sparkly blue eye shadow, blue mascara. We loved blue. A dusting of CoverGirl blush and a slick of Wet 'n Wild gloss across our rosebud lips and we were ready to roll. We emerged from the bathroom, eyes glued to the ground, and attempted to slink past my dad who was on to our mysterious behavior. His index finger gently lifted my chin. Even in that dimly lit hallway, our faces must have glowed. Our feeble attempt at beautification looked more like a circus sideshow. Dad softly but firmly suggested we go back into the …

•  5 Comments
• Photos (1)

Parenting Parley

Getting Through the Finicky Phase

How to cope with your picky child's eating habits.

It's the same story every morning. The boys wake up, stumble downstairs in their pajamas, each carrying their thoroughly worn-out blankets; and, with the corners of their mouths still crusty-white from last night's toothpaste, they sleepily hobble over and immediately condemn whatever it is I happen be making for breakfast. “I'm not hungry!” they inevitably insist. Or, “But I wanted cereal (or pancakes, or French toast or foie gras--anything, as long as it's not what you happen to have prepared)!” they cry. And thus the daily feeding battle begins. What the professionals consider a normal, toddler appetite slump has lasted, in our house, five years or so years beyond normal and counting. With so much media attention focused on childhood …

• Photos (1)

Intersections of Life and Faith

Just Because Kids Are Older Doesn't Make it Easier

As tweens become teens, faith-based parenting requires more time, energy and prayer.

“Never say never” has become one of my life mottos because I’ve learned that, quite often, the moment I say (with righteous indignation), “Well, I would never …” at some point down the road I’ll be eating my words. Take, for example, the incident 12 years ago on the kindergarten-only bus where the children in the back of the bus were discussing adult dating activities (to put it mildly and politely). My righteously indignant solution was to immediately pull my first-born off the bus and drive him to and from school for the rest of the year, even though the principal talked to the children involved and assured me it would never happen again. Riiiight. Those kindergarteners all had teenage siblings, I told my husband. I was pretty sure I …

• Photos (1)

Parenting Parley

Parenting Parley in the New Year

A local parenting colloquium for 2011.

I am not a supermom. I wasn't a babysitter, an aunt or a big sibling of any significance. Before our first son, I had never changed a diaper. I'm not an expert on kids. So why, then, do I write this column about parenting? I've learned a few hard lessons, that's why. And what I do know about raising kids is that it does, indeed, require a whole community. By their nature, kids force us to become part of the bigger picture. They remove isolation. No one family could take on the task of raising another emotionally and physically healthy human being by itself. No one family could expose a child to all of her options and benefits by itself. No one parent could even physically be in all of the places we sometimes must occupy at one time. We …

• Photos (1)