Anatomy of a Day
Nothing like a UTI to change your plans. It was supposed to be a writing day, all to myself, the kind of day I’ve started thinking of as a delicious day. But when my 5 year old starting crying “owwie”...
View ArticleFuck Off, Mommy Guilt
Last November, my daughter’s teacher sent out photographs of the Kindergarten Thanksgiving party. Little kids with cornucopias eating treats. I couldn’t look at the photos. I couldn’t bear it. Mommy...
View ArticleLove and Puke
My 7-year-old was up all night puking. It made me think of my dad. When I puked as a kid, my dad would hold my hair out of my face and press a cold washcloth over my forehead. I remember feeling so...
View ArticleThe Dungeon of Spit
“Oh we don’t need stakes. It’s not going to rain.” Rookie mistake. The sound of rain pattering on the tent is a lovely sound; the sound of rain pattering inside the tent not so much. We went on our...
View ArticleThe Best Thing About Mommy
I found a treasure as I was sorting through my kids’ school work. Tucked among a pile of papers was a note from my daughter. In her careful handwriting, my 5-year-old had written, “The best thing about...
View ArticleCoffee Breath
I was kissing awake my 5-year-old daughter the other morning, my heart filled with love for that sweet, sleepy, warm body. From under the pillows, the most offended little voice said, “Your breath...
View ArticleLoaded Question
I read a blog post recently about asking whether there are weapons in the home before sending your child over on a playdate. (For those of you not in Seattle, two children were killed and one injured...
View ArticleMuffins
Once a week I’ve been getting up at 5 a.m. to bake muffins. I feel like a pioneer woman cooking breakfast before dawn for my family. I then get my 8-year-old son up and we head east for a day at an...
View ArticleMess Up Mommy
I’m coaching my 6-year-old daughter’s soccer team. This is despite having played only a year of JV soccer in middle school and losing every game. My parents came to a game and cheered the wrong girl....
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Wild Girl
On Cougar Mountain. A good place to be wild. “I’m tired of being good at camp,” my 7-year-old daughter said. That got my undivided attention. “What do you mean?” I asked her. We were driving to the...
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I’ll Show You
It’s a long way across that pool! The Colman Pool swim test loomed large all winter. If you’re a little kid, you can’t go down the slide or the diving board unless you pass the swim test. And it’s a...
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The Bikini Mistake
This is a story about a mistake. That wasn’t. But it took a while to figure that out. Pretty much what I had in mind 15 years ago. At business school some 15 years ago, I competed in a business case...
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Garbage Happiness
I’m going to be that crazy old lady picking up garbage off the street. Garbage walk with the kid Middle school these days requires five volunteer hours per year to graduate – which doesn’t sound...
View ArticleThe Potential Baby
Read all my Seattle Times columns “Are you using birth control?” I asked a beloved coaching client, a junior executive on the East Coast. There was a shocked silence on the other end of the phone line....
View ArticleNetworking in Middle School
Read all of my Seattle Times columns. “Try not to get shot at school today,” I tell my kids every morning as they get on the school bus. “We’ll try, Mom,” they say. They don’t roll their eyes. We’re...
View ArticleDecision Fatigue
Read all of my Seattle Times columns. “I need to work on work/life balance,” said a coaching client, stretched thin between a big job and family commitments. “I am so overwhelmed.” “How many decisions...
View ArticleThe Dirty Dishes
Read all of my Seattle Times columns. Sometimes a simple question can change your life. Or at least your dirty dishes. As a coach, I’m interested in how questions can reframe a problem. When I teach my...
View ArticleCareer Crossroads
Read all of my Seattle Times columns. How do you walk away from something you’ve spent your entire life preparing for? A beloved coaching client is a professional musician. He’s played since he was 3...
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