Parenting

All this week and next, we'll be revisiting our favorite family photos and memories of 2009. Here is our first entry. This photo of my daughter Ramona captures a wistful but joyous moment this past October at a local farm outside of Portland, Oregon. This snapshot memorializes her two front teeth, which she yanked out herself the following week. (As you can see, they're barely hanging on in the picture!) Read More »

Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree is one of the many books that our generation has rediscovered upon becoming parents. It's ubiquitous -- found in every library, bookstore, and preschool classroom. And yet, rereading it again for the first time in thirty (or so) years can come as a bit of a shock. Many parents we know have commented: "It's so depressing!" And on one level, that is perfectly true. A boy and a tree have an idyllic, playful, nurturing relationship that is forever transformed when the boy, inevitably, begins to grow up. Now he doesn't want to play; he wants apples for money. And then wood for a house. And then a tree trunk to make a boat. And then, finally, a stump to rest upon. The tree offers him everything he needs, and each time he accepts, the progressively shorn and mutilated tree is "happy." Read More »