Tag: Kid

It didn’t even occur to me that Tim might be gay. In hindsight, the first sign was the relentless bullying. We were in 9th grade, attending a small-town mostly-white private school in the south. We chummed the shallows of a high school pecking order determined only by your attractiveness, c...

It didn’t even occur to me that Tim might be gay. In hindsight, the first sign was the relentless bullying. We were in 9th grade, attending a small-town mostly-white private school in the south. We chummed the shallows of a high school pecking order determined only by your attractiveness, c...

My wife and I were in the kitchen cooking and washing dishes. She was cooking, I was dishing. Dish washing is my favorite household chore. At my sink, I am good. I am very good. Everything I need is there: my soap, my yellow brush, my drying rack, my self-respect. Because every single t...

“Jonathan, get your sister out of the gutter right now!” I was fully engrossed playing a hopscotch game of one on the sidewalk. Slinging the longest chain I had ever used and hoping all of it landed in the designated square. Until I heard the clarion call issuing forth. The scorchi...

His laugh is unmistakable. I could hear it in a crowded theater, down the block, anywhere, and I would instantly know it and see his face in my mind. Big, deep dimples, eyes crinkled almost shut, wide smile, absolute impish delight beaming from him. That’s my boy. My middle son, who has ...

Maybe you think transitioning to another gender is sinful, stupid, or scary. I don’t want to hear your opinion. When you explained how your entire family’s life was now revolving around your ten-year-old’s travel football team despite his minor concussion last week, I kept my mouth...

His laugh is unmistakable. I could hear it in a crowded theater, down the block, anywhere, and I would instantly know it and see his face in my mind. Big, deep dimples, eyes crinkled almost shut, wide smile, absolute impish delight beaming from him. That’s my boy. My middle son, who has ...

I ran into an old friend this weekend. Hadn’t seen her in years. We did the obligatory “So, what are all your kids up to these days” kind of catch-up. “And what about your son?” she asked as I finished bullet-pointing children one and two’s accomplishments. ...

I was a PK, a Preacher’s Kid, and I had forgotten that was my primary identity until I visited my hometown. Someone asked, “Aren’t you Pastor Johnson’s daughter?” decades after I had left that role behind. The worst incident, which I cite when explaining the reasons ...

Today marks the 118th day since the NBA canceled the 2019–2020 season, and the day that we swiftly went into Stay Home orders. As a mom and a business owner, life for us and many other parents drastically changed. We went from a structured day of going to school and work respectiv...

Why should you be? This is something that you have never had to confront. This is alien to you. It is more likely that any experience you have with racism is that you were the perpetrator. Nothing as sordid as driving past a black family and screaming nigger at them. Something subtle. Mayb...

We rely on our children’s pediatricians in the early years when we have a question, their teachers for information when we can, and when all else fails, we turn to the internet. I, myself, have typed into a search bar looking for answers on many occasions. “How can I get my toddler to sl...

Hey Daddy, are you popular?” My eight-year-old daughter ambushed me one Sunday morning, her voice squeaking equally with cheekiness and curiosity. “Huh?” I said, deep in a different thought as I looked up from my phone, half-dazed in a scrolling coma. “Are you famous?&r...