family time | PulseonParenting

I’m Driving With Kids, Guess What’s In My Glovebox?

Apr 29 2015

This week: a post on the lighter side inspired by a recent family road trip to California. It was great fun and the kids did really well riding the 2,000-plus miles. Which, pardon the pun, is a true milestone. My kids are in grade school and at this wonderful age teachers send makeup work along and this helps pass the time. It does so in theory, anyway. Friends named Pixar, Mad Libs and Motel Swimming Pool were indispensable as my husband and I bribed the kids into getting homework done. So in a nutshell, UN-caliber negotiations and movies and…

Grocery Store “Gangstas”

Feb 11 2015

He was so proud. He loved bell peppers and tiny things in general (still does) and showed me the diminutive green pepper while we shopped the produce section of the grocery store. I turned away for just a few seconds (it’s always “just a few seconds,” right?) to select some lettuce and when I turned back to my son, his tongue was hanging out of his mouth and jalapeño seeds falling to the floor.

Coffee Shop Time Warp

Jan 06 2015

Over winter break we took our three kids to a favorite coffee spot for hot chocolate. As we settled in, I found myself more interested in “people-watching” and couldn’t help but notice the family sitting across the room: parents and their four twenty-something kids. There was Dad, bespectacled and reading. Sitting beside him was his slightly-grunge son wearing Buddy Holly-style glasses and playing on his phone. Mom was sitting at the other end of the table, talking with her stylishly-dressed daughters. Another son, with All-American features was in seated in the middle, partaking of his coffee and alternating between conversation…

Game On

Jul 16 2014

“Boo-Ya!” “That’s what I’m talkin’ about!!!” “In your FACE!!!!” Sound familiar? Just another friendly family game night. It’s amazing how much trash gets talked with a high-stakes game of UNO. Or when the Old Maid deck gets dealt. And in our home, when the dice are rolled and the marbles moved during Murder, our homemade version of Sorry, verbal carnage (G-rated!) abounds. Yup, friendly games can turn friendly families into fierce-tongued families. It wasn’t my competitive streak that caused the card game Beat the Parents to catch my eye at the store, but the clever word play on the movie title,…

All “Growed” Up

Jul 01 2014

Some would say it is turning age 18. Others would say it comes with earning a steady paycheck, moving away from Mom and Dad, and paying income tax. Yet others would agree it is becoming parents. But after passing those milestones of life, (some of them achieved a couple decades or so ago!), I don’t feel like a grown up. Not even close. And I’m pretty sure I don’t act like it. Here are some examples that serve as proof: ~ I have never read Dickens or Austen…nor do I feel the urge to. ~Occasionally I find myself giggling with…

Tag - family time