Those who know me, know I am an anachronism: I do not use a smart phone. I don’t like them. I recognize their value, but I hate texting, I hate typing on a flat screen, I don’t like being that available, and most especially, I like being able to go places where I CAN’T be…
Read MoreAll articles filed in kids
#boymom, illustrated
Illustration 1: THE SHIRT. Meet “The Shirt.” AKA “The Apple Festival t-shirt,” AKA “the Captain Applesauce t-shirt,” AKA “my summer uniform.” (My son’s title for it.) For about 4-6 years in his early life, my oldest insisted on wearing the same Superman shirt almost every day. My middle boy never did that, but my youngest…
Read Morethe thick of it
One of my mantras over the past sixteen years of motherhood has been “This is the season of life I am in right now.” It’s a simple mantra—a recognition that what I’m experiencing is not permanent. (As an aside: sixteen years? How did that happen?) When things started to reopen this spring, I felt suffocated…
Read MoreAn Update On My Chromosomally-Gifted Girl
A few weeks ago I posted on Instagram about my chromosomally-gifted girl’s adventures in color guard costuming. The response was so sweet, it reminded me that for all my personal interests of music and fiction and photography, it’s my daughter you all like to read about the most. It’s been quite a while since I…
Read MoreA little fun for Epiphany week
Normally, my husband’s and my choir does a “Farewell to Christmas” concert on Epiphany Sunday. Of course, in COVID era, we haven’t had choir, so our family decided to do the concert ourselves via the church’s live stream so the tradition would remain unbroken. My parents watched the concert and when I talked to them…
Read MoreCarpool Karaoke, Elementary School Style
The scene: the after-school carpool, yesterday. The characters: A second grade girl and a third grade boy who are totally inseparable, except when they’re screaming at each other. Today they’re not screaming, so they’re inseparable. Oh yes, and me. All of us masked, because COVID. Girl: “Ooh, Mrs. Basi, you CAN play Story of My…
Read MoreHow a 12-year-old befuddles his mother
Who would ever have thought this pocket… …could hold all this? Have a great weekend!
Read MoreWhen Kindergarteners “Play” “Baseball”
Watching kindergarteners “play” “baseball” is a one-hour comedy routine. Among the gems: – a cute little boy who hits the ball, stares at it open-mouthed, and then, with all the parents shouting for him to run, runs…to third base. – Having been thrown out at third, everybody says, “First base, buddy! First base!” He proceeds…
Read MoreBattleground: Parenthood
The hardest thing about parenthood, to me, is not knowing. I know he’s mad at me when he gets out of the car at school and takes off without a word. I also know why he’s mad at me. What I don’t know is whether some part of him recognizes the truth of what I…
Read MoreThe trials and tribulations of Kate, mother
In the past week, a couple things have happened in my world. First, we learned that our 5 1/2-year-old needs a nap after school. Luckily, it only took us two days to realize what was going on. Unluckily, we haven’t figured out how to make it really work yet, so sometimes it happens, and sometimes…it…
Read More
Kathleen M. Basi 