She adores him. He’s like a magnet, a little baby black hole whose force is irresistible, no matter how many times Mommy tells her to leave him alone. At four years and almost eleven months, she has finally entrenched herself firmly in the imaginative play stage. She loves dolls, and she doesn’t always connect the…
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Is “Beauty” A Bad Word?
“Teaching girls that their appearance is the first thing you notice tells them that looks are more important than anything. It sets them up for dieting at age 5 and foundation at age 11 and boob jobs at 17 and Botox at 23. As our cultural imperative for girls to be hot 24/7 has become…
Read MoreSexuality For A New World
Almost universally, women—regardless of political, religious or philosophical persuasion—agree that the treatment and portrayal of women in advertising and media is infuriatingly unjust. But what people don’t seem to get is that when you hold up multiple partners and child-proof or premarital sex as a standard of behavior, you automatically reduce women to objects of lust.
Read MoreChores, Sex and Marriage
This is one of those days where I’m going to be very frank on a very personal topic. My reading list lately has been long on the heavy stuff—like Bad Mother, by Ayelet Waldman. This book came highly recommended by several people I respect. I’ll have more to say about it later, but today I…
Read More7 Quick Takes, vol. 129
___1___ What time zone do they use in Antarctica? I mean, think about it, every time zone in the world intersects there. Which one would you pick? ___2___ Can anyone explain to me the logic behind a two year old who sees a hat on the floor and thinks he must go out of his…
Read MoreTeaching Healthy Sexuality To Our Children, Part 2
Do you go through stages where you keep talking about the same topic again and again, wrestling with it until you finally resolve it? For me, lately, that topic has been how to teach sexuality to my children. There’s such a tightrope to walk between doing too little and too much. Talk about it too…
Read MoreTeaching a Healthy Sexuality to Our Children
From day one, one of the most intimidating things about parenthood for me has been how to teach my children sexual morality. I’m sure I’m not alone in this. As with every area of parenting, we think about the way we were raised—what worked, what didn’t—and we try to imitate and improve. Of course, what…
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Kathleen M. Basi 