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Essays & Editorials

Picking Your Battles: One thing I've learned about being a parent is that picking your battles is immeasurably important, otherwise you're going to be fighting a lot of them. In fact, I'm a firm believer that this is one of the most important aspects of parenting. (536 words)

Making Time For You: The early years of motherhood are tough. Trying to find time to brush your teeth, let alone get a shower, can be daunting. Even going to the bathroom in peace may be too much to ask for some days. (615 words)

I'm Too Young to Be "Mom" ... Aren't I?: My daughters have been reading for about five years now, long enough for me to have written them quite a few notes and emails. Even so, signing off on the aforementioned missives still feels about as strange to me as it would be to look in the mirror and see the face of an old woman rather than my relatively young one. I can’t shake the disconcerting emotions that flood me when I have to write “Mom.” (427 words)

Our Disposable Society: The disposable mentality seems to get more prominent with each generation. My grandmother, who was an adult during the Great Depression, saved everything. She seemed to be subconsciously worried that something of a similar nature could happen again and she was going to be prepared. The only reason she doesn’t save everything she owns anymore is because her apartment is too small. (472 words)

How Much Time Should We Spend Playing With Our Kids?: It seems like parents today get too consumed with spending as much time as possible playing with their kids. Don’t get me wrong — of course I think parents should spend time with their kids. But is it really our job to entertain them? Personally, I don’t think so. (401 words)

Wanted: Tooth Fairy: The tooth fairy at our house should be fired. To say that she’s incompetent is really too kind. (534 words)

Discovered: My Inner Gardner: I have always thought that I was born with a brown thumb and an innate inability to nurture anything green. Despite my good intentions, the few times I've owned a plant, I've managed to ensure its death by drowning or dehydration.

Savoring the Memories: Don’t you just love it when your kids do something sweet and innocently beautiful? Something that you’ll remember for the rest of your life because it was so darn cute and endearing? Except that you won't remember it. (598 words)

10 Ways to Get More Quality Out of the Quantity: None of us have a ton of time to spend with our kids, nor should we, but we want the time we do spend with them to be meaningful. Here are some quick and painless ways to nab a little extra bonding. (414 words)

Parenting Is Hard Work, But Who Needs To Tell You That?: I’m not going to lie and say that I love every moment of being a mom. Maybe that makes me a bad parent in some people’s eyes, but I think if she’s being honest with herself, almost every mom would agree with me, even if only secretly. (511 words) 

Kids: The Ultimate Murphy's Law Abiders:  1. On weekends or other free mornings, your kids inevitably wake up at an unearthly hour, making it difficult, if not impossible, depending on their age, for you to catch a few extra zzs. (296 words)

Toy Takeaway: Amazing, isn’t it, how your kids won’t look at many of their toys for months, but as soon as you try to organize them and get rid of a few, suddenly, they can’t bear to part with them? (469 words)

The Media's Impact on Kids: Ahhh . . . Remember the good old days? The days when families would gather around the TV and watch the evening sitcoms without fear of profanity, nudity or other sights inappropriate for children; when a movie that was rated PG-13 was actually okay for thirteen year olds? Forget about TV shows on public stations with nudity like “NYPD Blue;” they were unheard of. And the PG-13 movies we have today? They would have been rated R when I was a kid. Wait a minute, was this really so long ago? (702 words)

Wind Energy: It's clean, it's plentiful, it's renewable, and it doesn't take all that much to produce a whole lot of power. What is it? Wind energy, something South Dakota has in plenty. I recently read that South Dakota is ranked fourth in the country for its wind resources. Fourth? That's it? Are they kidding? I'm hardly an expert on such matters, but where I live, more often than not, the wind is blowing. Not just some nice, gentle breeze either; it's usually enormous gusts that have even been known to blow my daughter head over heels, right down the steps, slam our swing-set to the ground multiple times, and almost rip our screen doors right off the hinges. (664 words)