Dear Fortnite, You must think you’re clever, holding my kids hostage like this. Bringing them together briefly, lulling everyone into a temporary holding pattern before burrowing your way into their entranced brains and robotic fingers. I admit, your video game has sky-rocketed to full-blown addiction status in my house. In fact, an all-encompassing game like…
This post started out as a frenzied rant against the punctuality slobs in our midst. You know the ones – the cretins who routinely drop their kids off late for school or are 15 minutes late for their doctor’s appointment which was scheduled right before mine. These untimely slip-ups have the potential of causing a…
Long before there was a husband and kids; before cooking and cleaning and driving everyone and their best friend around; before dog and laundry and paying bills; before packing school lunches and making orthodontic appointments – there was watching movies – at the theatre, at the drive-in, at friends’ houses, at my house. And even…
I talk to my kids all the time. At breakfast, I tell them to put their dishes in the sink and they tell me they need to grab their books upstairs. At school dismissal, they ask me if they can go to the store with their friends and I tell them what time to be…
The shift and change from elementary to high school is one that most students begin preparing for from the time they are old enough to read. As a Grade 9 student myself (who has just finished my first semester), I was one of those students not too long ago. In my mind, secondary school seemed…
Eyes may very well be the windows to the soul – but the same can be said about a child’s home-packed school lunch. These canvas totes, thermal boxes and even crumpled brown paper bags hold more than just a child’s middle meal – they carry a family’s secrets – revealed for all to see at…
A bird’s eye view of the school playground will reveal what has been occurring since time immemorial – some laughter and friendly banter as well as huddled cliques, confrontation and even bullies trolling the perimeters. Though this time I’m not talking about the kids at recess – it’s the moms at dismissal. Remember the good…
We are what I refer to in my mind as a God-lite family – balancing precariously somewhere on the spectrum between God-less and God-fearing. When it comes to organized religion and probably our thoughts on God (and I say probably because I don’t think we’ve ever formerly talked about it), this family is not of…
The debate rages on: to burka or not to burka. And funnily enough, most individuals vehemently opposed to the full-body veil identify as non-Muslim. I’m not going to pretend I understand the deep-seated meaning, nor the historical significance at the root of this Islamic covering. From what I’ve managed to glean after sifting through the…
Once bitten, twice shy – this idiom may be true of most things . . . but not when it comes to the siren song of social media and the allure it possesses for my middle child. Ten years ago, she was a toddler sitting on the lawn petting a neighbour’s dog contentedly. When she…
