Posts about raising children with less technology and more hands-on experience
It’s 5:30. There’s a two-year-old at my feet, a baby on my hip, an onion half-chopped, and the Paw Patrol theme song coming from the next room. My daughter is parked in front of it, three feet from the stove, and for the next thirty minutes I am going to get dinner made. I’ve written … Read more
There’s a creek at Oak Creek, at the Red Rock Crossing in Sedona, Arizona, shallow and slow, with a soft muddy bank where the water goes still. Last April I took my daughter there on a whim, the day too good to stay inside, and within about ninety seconds she had lowered herself straight down … Read more
A sound machine arrived with the diaper bag from a friend from the prenatal group. It was already set to what I can only describe as active tarmac. I left it on for a week before I started wondering what, exactly, I had plugged in six inches from her head. She’s two now, and we … Read more
The Sleep Sack That Finally Stopped the 3 AM Blanket Hunt In those early months, I was constantly adjusting blankets, worried about safety, and losing sleep over whether my baby was warm enough. A good sleep sack eliminates that entire category of nighttime problem—no loose fabric, no repositioning, just contained warmth that lasts through the … Read more
I went in to check on her and found her like this: face completely down, head buried so deep into the mattress I could not see a single feature, legs sticking entirely out from under the blanket, bare feet catching the faint light from the hallway. The cartoon animal blanket — the one with the … Read more
The Magnetic Tiles That Still Get Fought Over After Five Years Magnetic tiles seem simple, but they’re one of those rare objects that don’t need a screen to compete for attention—and they survive the years of actual ownership that separate real keepers from Pinterest aspirations. Kids return to them because the physics is honest; the … Read more
There is a carved bear in a mountain town we pass through, taller than I am, sitting forward on its haunches with its front paws curled like armrests. It’s carved from a single trunk, stained a deep amber-brown, flanked by a pair of carved birch trees so the whole thing reads as a forest scene, … Read more
The Set That Finally Stayed in the Connector Without Slipping Most training chopstick connectors are either too loose (your toddler fights the tool) or too stiff (you end up helping more than they learn). This set hits that middle ground where the guide ring actually holds the sticks steady without requiring constant parental adjustment. What … Read more
We were at Pho King Good, the Vietnamese restaurant where my daughter has eaten since she was four months old, strapped to me in a carrier. She’s two now — right in the middle of the most intense phase of toddler motor development she will ever experience. That night, she reached across the table for … Read more
